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The Passing Storm
(1915) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by Walter V. Coyle and Alan Hale
Cast: Alan Hale [the village blacksmith], Claire McDowell [the blacksmith’s wife], Zoe Bech (Zoe Rae) [the blacksmith’s child], Charles Bennett [the theatrical manager], Vola Smith (Vola Vale) [the blacksmith’s new sweetheart]
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Released 4 November 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The village blacksmith’s young wife is discontented despite her good home, beautiful child, and loving husband. Chance brings her the opportunity to seek the career for which she has secretly yearned: a theatrical manager passing through the village stops at her home to telephone his office. Learning his profession, she implores him to give her a chance on the stage, and he tells her to call at his office. She goes, leaving no trace of her whereabouts. Heartbroken, her husband moves to another place and begins life anew. A young girl of the neighborhood takes a fancy to his child, and the intimacy thus begun ripens into love. Then, on a stormy night, a strange circumstance occurs. The theatrical troupe, on its way West, passes through the town on a train. The wife, taken ill, is put off the train in care of the local doctor. Deranged by fever, she escapes and wanders through the storm. Fate brings her, like a homing bird, to the threshold of her husband’s door. He rescues her from the elements and, having put her to bed, enlists the aid of his neighbor. In the morning, the wife, her brain cleared, seeing the girl’s intimacy in the house, believes her husband has married again, and attempts to steal away, for guiltily she feels that the least she can do is to leave him alone in his newfound happiness. But her flight is discovered, and she is followed. The trail leads to a precipice, at the foot of which the husband finds his wife’s mangled body. In his grief it is the girl who comforts him again, as in the past she has made him forget his sorrows.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 15 October 2023.
References: Spehr-American p. 3 : Website-IMDb.
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