Shadows of Life (1913)
The woman who was married for her money is sadly contemplating the life of her own choosing. Below a dinner party is in progress, presided over by the husband who married alone for wealth. He is surrounded by his friends. He notices that his wife is not present and, against her wishes, she is led into the company. At the height of the revelry, a wandering musician passes the house playing upon his violin. He is called in and marks the fine woman out of her sphere. From the depths of his soul he plays to the disappointed wife. He plays music which but she and himself can understand. The husband chafes under the yoke of his wife's dignity, and the restraint placed upon himself. He takes unto himself a paramour, a woman of his own type. The estrangement between husband and wife grows until the husband sees an opportunity to forever rid himself of her. He purchases an unmanageable horse, a man-killer, and telling his wife that it is quite gentle, he presents it to her. That his evil plans may not miscarry, he places a thorn under the saddle a moment before the wife mounts for her first ride. The horse runs wild in a lonesome spot in the woods; the wife is thrown to the ground and rendered unconscious. She is found by the wandering musician. He takes her in his arms and carries her home. She is not dead, but crippled so that she will never walk again. His plans thus defeated, the husband goes from bad to worse with his paramour. The crippled woman has now become the saint, the divinity of the wandering musician. Every evening he comes outside her window and plays the music which but they can understand. Finally he is even allowed to touch her hand with his lips. When the riderless horse returned to the stable, the groom found the thorn under the saddle, and this, together with a note stolen from the wife's apartment by the maid, the groom is enlightened as to the manner of the accident. The groom then turns vampire and uses this information to bleed the guilty husband. He ceases to be the groom. He becomes the evil genius of the husband. He follows the husband and the paramour from place to place, and finally succeeds in replacing the husband in the paramour's affections. One evening the musician comes to the accustomed spot outside the wife's window and plays his song of worship. He then takes a rose, his daily tribute, and places it in the hand resting upon the sill. The hand is cold, and the rose falls to the ground. The wife is dead. The minstrel enters a monastery where on his former pilgrimages he had taught the gentle monks to play the violin, and the doors of the solemn structure receive him. Again, years afterward, the groom and the husband meet. The groom has become the keeper of a low dive. The husband, now with crime and brutal excess written upon his face, staggers into this dive and dies, an instant before he is recognized by the groom. And then each year the musician, monk now, climbs to a lofty mountain peak and there surrounded by the clouds, plays to his lost divinity.
All Releases
Domestic
–
–
International
–
–
Worldwide
–
–
GenresDrama
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Phillips Smalley | Director |
| Lois Weber | Director |
| Lois Weber | Writer |
| Elliott J. Clawson | Writer |
| Lois Weber | Writer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| Lois Weber | |
| Phillips Smalley | |
| Frank Lloyd | |
| Rupert Julian |
