Les Misrables is one of many filmed versions of the Victor Hugo novel of the same name. It is a 1917 American silent film directed by Frank Lloyd, cowritten by Lloyd and Marc Robbins, and produced by William Fox, released on December 3, 1917. It starred William Farnum, Hardee Kirkland, and George Moss.
William Farnum was Foxs biggest male boxoffice attraction when the movie was made, and had previously appeared in Lloyds 1917 film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities.Jean Valjean is a French peasant who spends almost twenty years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family, and thenwhen his yellow passport given to him because of his status as a convicted criminal makes it almost impossible to build a new lifehe steals silverware from a kind Catholic Bishop who had given him a meal and a place to sleep. When the police find him with the silver they return him to the Bishop to confirm the theft, but the Bishop surprises Valjean by telling the police the silver had been a gift, and then adding his silver candlesticks, saying Valjean must have mistakenly left them behind because they were part of the gift. Valjean uses the money to start a new life under a new name, eventually becoming mayor of a small town, but police inspector Javert suspects Valjean, and works relentlessly to reveal his true identity and his past crimes. ........
Source: Wikipedia