|
The Will of Destiny
(1912) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] Gaston Méliès and/or Robert Goodman?
Cast: Richard Stanton [John], Mildred Bracken [Mary], Florence La Vinci (Jewel Carmen) [Alice], Ray Gallagher [Fullerton], Charles Edler [the doctor], [?] Francis Ford?
G. Méliès production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Produced by Gaston Méliès. / Released 1 August 1912. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Carmen’s film debut.
Drama.
Synopsis: [From Méliès promotional materials] Alice, after winning John’s love from her sister Mary, elopes with a millionaire, during his absence from the city. Mary, hearing of the accident by which John loses his eye-sight, rushes to the station on his arrival, and in order to keep him ignorant of the elopement, she impersonates her sister Alice. John, cured by a skillful operation, discovers the deception; but, having come to love his faithful attendant during his hours of blindness, he thanks Destiny for having shown him the right woman before it was too late. // [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Jealous sisters Alice and Mary try to outwit each other in attracting John. Seeing that Alice is John’s choice, Mary unselfishly lets her younger sister win and leaves the room trying to conceal her grief. Shortly afterwards John is called away from the city, and while he’s gone, Alice elopes with a millionaire. John loses his eyesight in an accident and when Mary learns of his mishap she meets him at the station on his return and poses as Alice so he won’t hear of his sweetheart’s elopement. John recovers his eyesight after a skillful operation, then discovers the deception: although brokenhearted over his former fiancée’s falseness, he is glad that he learned the true worth of her elder sister before it was too late. He asks Mary to forgive the past and make him worthy of her love.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 17 August 1912, page ?] A love story set for the most part in simple interiors; it also has an interesting machine shop set. The hero is a master machinist; the heroine is the elder daughter of a doctor. As the picture opens we find this older daughter in love with the hero, while he is engaged to her sister. He is temporarily blinded and does not know that his fiancée has eloped with another man. The older sister takes her place, deceiving him to save his life. It has an all’s well that ends well close. The early scenes are hurried, they are wholly without atmosphere, for the producer didn’t care for the early statement; when he reached his real situation, he got atmosphere. His only fault was that he bothered with those uninteresting early scenes at all. The acting is good and the photography is commendable.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 22 May 2024.
References: Thompson-Star p. 232 : ClasIm-226 p. 55 : Website-IMDb.
|
