|
The Wages of Sin
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 987 feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
Nestor Film Company production; distributed by [?] Motion Picture Distributing & Sales Company and/or A.G. Whyte? / Released 20 January 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Young, wealthy and greatly admired, with a worshiping husband and beautiful child, Adele Wyndham was pointed out as a woman favored by fate. Still she was not happy; her husband gave too much of his time to business, the governess took entire charge of the child, so with nothing to occupy her time, she grew morbid and discontented. She felt that she would willingly sacrifice her whole life for one thrill. If only something would happen, anything to put an end to her boredom. At a reception she met the artist, Lablanc, and his Latin temperament interests her. He must paint her portrait. Her husband, glad to humor her slightest wish, sent for the artist, who, quick to recognize his power over her, strengthened it every moment they spent together. At last, Lablanc succeeded in compromising her at a hilarious dinner in a well-known Bohemian restaurant. Adele had not meant to go so far, but the cunning Frenchman assured her that it was now too late to retreat and that flight was the only thing possible. Ashamed, afraid and quite bewildered at this sudden turn of things, she took her child, much against Lablanc’s commands, and fled with him. Three years passed, a short time when one is happy, but to Adele it was a century. Lablanc, unable to retain his former customers, grew more and more surly and abusive. Scarcely a day passed now that he did not abuse her with drunken fury if she dared keep the little she earned by sewing to get food for herself and the child. One day, after tearing the clothes from her back and leaving her on the floor more dead than alive, he rushed out, snatching a pocketbook from a passerby as he went; but the man gave chase, and soon had Lablanc behind the bars. Adele was unable to enjoy her liberty, however, for the machine agent called, and finding her unable to pay, promptly carried off her only means of livelihood. Next, the landlord appeared, and ignoring her plea for mercy, threw her out into the snow, where, after wandering for hours, she fell, weak and exhausted. Her little daughter, seeing a carriage approaching, ran forward to summon aid. So that the Frenchman might marry her, Wyndham had given Adele a divorce, and while he knew he could never love another woman as he had her, his loneliness induced him to ask Miss Grant, the governess, to remain and superintend his home. They had a quiet wedding at the little church, and were driving home when the child called to them to aid her mother. Wyndham lifted the dying woman into the carriage, but it was not until they had placed her on the couch and raised her heavy veil that he recognized his former wife. Adele implored his forgiveness, and upon receiving it, died content with the knowledge that at last their daughter was restored to her father’s home.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 26 June 2023.
References: Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
|
