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The Love Victorious
(1914) United States of America
B&W : Three reels
Directed by Wilfred Lucas
Cast: George Larkin [the Spirit of Good], Cleo Madison [the woman], Ray Hanford [Lust], Mary Elinot ‘Mother’ Benson (May Benson) [the mother heart], Jean Hathaway [Vanity], Charles Hickman (Charles H. Hickman) [Riches], William Dale [Vice], Edward Sloman [Evil], Marjorie Daw [Youth], Frank Lanning [Flattery], Roberta Hickman, [?] Frank Lloyd?
The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated [Universal Gold Seal]. / Scenario by Bess Meredyth. / Released 28 July 1914. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Daw’s film debut.
Drama: Romance.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Facile as a child, lovely as a flower, the woman takes up her journey along the road to life. She is happy in her innocence because she loves and is to marry Good, her life-long companion. One evening, on her way to a store where she is to purchase material for her trousseau, she is accosted by fawning Vice and smiling Lust. But she shrinks from them in terror. She has not yet made the acquaintance of Evil, but is soon to meet him. As Woman passes the stage door of a theater, Evil and his first lieutenants, slant-eyed Vanity, and a silver-tongued Flattery, are attracted by her freshness, innocence and youth. Through the cunning offices of Flattery, the Woman is enticed into Vanity’s dressing-room. There she is arrayed in costly silks and laces, and she sees in herself the fairy princess of her dreams come to life. After the play she is taken to a café. She is dazzled with the many lights and the brilliant colors. She is intoxicated with the glamour and the music, and the hot lips of Evil plant a kiss upon her hand. She forgets the existence of Good, her first and true love. Good seeks her out in the café and pleads with her to return home to her mother. But the poison in the wine has penetrated her heart and she turns from Good to Evil with a passing smile. A year elapses. The woman has lost her freshness. She comes to know the meaning of lassitude in the world of plenty. The false feathers have begun to fade. Evil tires of the worn-out Woman and bestows his caress upon Youth, the most recent acquisition to his court of tired gaiety. The Woman is outraged at being thrown aside, but through the cunning of Flattery she is cast out of the house. Woman hastens home and learns that her old mother died of a broken heart six months before. Good again appeals to her, but she is blind to his beauty, and again casts him aside. Now she naturally falls in with Lust and Vice. She knows them this time, and allows them to lead her to the underworld. She drinks the cup of depravity to its dregs. In a low dive of the underworld she again meets Youth, who, like herself, has been cast off by Evil. However, the beholdment of Youth in the talons of Lust causes an awakening in the Woman. In the fallen Youth she sees herself; she realizes what a terrible creature he is, and like the myriad of others before, she decides to take her own life. At the crucial moment, when she holds the vial of deadly poison to her lips, Good and Evil come upon the scene and battle for her. The advantage is with one and then with the other. She hesitates and leans over the table. Before her is the old family Bible. Her eyes shift from the death-dealing poison to the holy writ. Long forgotten memories of Good return to her. She sees herself not as an angel of the devil, but as a daughter of God. The scales fall from her eyes, and before her Good is kneeling, her old sweetheart. She shrinks from him as though she might contaminate him. But in all forgiveness and sweetness he takes her up in his arms and guides her to the Great Tomorrow.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 26 June 2023.
References: Slide-Aspects p. 57 : Website-IMDb.
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