Creaking Stairs (1919)

Dearie Lane loves Fred Millard, but she turns down his offer of marriage because she was once involved with the disreputable Mark Winfield. When she explains the situation, Fred forgives her, and they get married. For a while they live happily in a modest home. But the situation gets complex when Winfield, who owns the house, comes by to collect a delinquent payment and suddenly dies. Dearie, afraid that Fred will not understand what really happened, gets a boarder and her cook to help her hide the body. At midnight they carry it down the stairs to the countryside, but Fred hears their steps creaking on the stairs. All seems lost when the police find the body and the suspicious Fred finds Winfield's hat under a couch. He opens Dearie's private trunk and discovers the fancy clothes that Winfield gave her. Fred goes after Dearie, furiously chopping with an ax through the closet door behind which she is hiding. Dearie persuades him to listen and explains that she had kept the clothes only because she thought Fred would admire them, and that in fact Winfield died from a heart attack.