An early example of cinematographer James Wong Howe’s brilliant technique, Padlocked tells the story of a family undone by the morality of the time. Daughter Edith is shipped off to a reformatory while her controlling father gets his comeuppance…
The only extant elements related to this film were inspected at the Czech National Film Archive (Národní Filmový Archiv) in 2016. Titles on the film were in Czech. New English titles were created based on an original draft script preserved at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the novel “Padlocked” by Rex Beach, information published in contemporaneous trade press, and the translation of three different foreign sources— the Czech titles, a 1928 report of the Dutch Centrale Commissie voor de Filmkeuring, and a Spanish promotional novella. Title graphics are based on original advertising materials and the typography replicates the style of other films released through Paramount in 1926.To the best of our knowledge, this film has not been screened in any capacity since the silent era. This restoration was made possible with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.