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The Regeneration
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 980 feet
Directed by Frank Beal and Thomas Ricketts (Tom Ricketts)
Cast: (unknown)
American Film Manufacturing Company production; distributed by Motion Picture Distributing & Sales Company. / Scenario by Allan Dwan. / Released 28 November 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [The Moving Picture World, 10 December 1910, page ?] A young couple in a country town were piecing out an existence. The husband was upright and honorable. The wife was pretty and dissatisfied. Unable to bear the limitations of town life, the wife deserted with a rich lover. The young husband, distracted with the wife’s desertion, lost his grip and gradually sank through the stages of degeneracy until he was driven from the town, a thing despised. In desperation, and in a half-drunken frenzy, the degenerate decided upon suicide as apparently the easiest way out of his difficulties. He is seen on the edge of a desolate pier extending into the sea and swept by the gigantic waves of a storm that is rending heaven and earth, apparently as an expostulation against this unwonted sacrifice of human life. The wild and terrible appearance of his surroundings does not deter him from his desperate purpose, and with a wild shriek he launches himself into the grasping sea. On the far-off tower of a life-saving station, the ever watchful eye of one of our lifeguards notices with consternation the action of the young husband. He immediately raises an alarm and, with his comrades, launches the life-boat. They struggle manfully towards the place where the would-be suicide has disappeared and, eventually reaching his side, manage to rescue him from a watery grave. The unlucky and weak-minded young fellow then wanders away from the town where he has seen so much happiness. Grovelling along the country roads, begging his food from the farmers, he came upon the vineyard home of a girl and her mother. The women were in a despondent state, because of the dissolute condition of their vines. Poverty was haunting them, and they were powerless to avert it. The degenerate found a great solace in the presence of the girl and offered his services in the vineyard for his board. He was taken in, and the regeneration of the vines and the man began. A year passed, and the vineyard prospered under the hand of the man and the girl. The crop was heavy, and love and happiness were in the vineyard home. The man, forgetting his past in the joy of his present, declared his love for the girl, and she gave herself to him in the purest of love. At this point, fate accidentally brought the unfaithful wife and her lover upon the scene. The jealous wife attempted to abuse the vineyard girl, and the husband drove her and her lover from the scene. The awakening to his strained position and the idea of his unworthiness in the life of the girl crushed his spirit, and he bowed in anguish before the contemplation of another love lost. The soothing touch of the girl revived him, and in the depths of her eyes he found the consolation he needed. Her sweetness and purity through the agency of love had regenerated the vines and the man.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 6 August 2023.
References: Lyons-American p. 217 : Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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