The Petal on the Current is a lost[1] 1919 American drama film directed by Tod Browning.

[2] Based upon a description in a film magazine,[3] Stella Schump (MacLaren) is a working girl who, on the advice of a friend Cora (Ridgeway), who is attempting to be a matchmaker, attends a party where she is supposed to meet a bashful man.

A detective comes upon her, and after she repeats bits of conversation she heard at the party, he arrests her for being drunk and for solicitation.

After she is let out of jail, she loses her job and, after her money runs out, goes to a park and sits on a bench.

He turns out to be a foreman at a factory, and as they talk they realize they were supposed to have met at the party.