The Magic Skin (1914)
A young man, a great but unrecognized literary genius, is spurned in his love for a society lady and made an object of amusement. After this he loses his entire fortune over the gambling table, then goes out to commit suicide. While waiting for nightfall he wanders in to an old antique shop. The dealer reads the tragic intention in the young man's face and listens to his story. The dealer gives the young man a wild ass skin which is inscribed: "Possessing me, Thou Shalt possess all things, but Thy life is mine. Wish, and Thy wishes shall be fulfilled. But measure Thy desires to the life that is in Thee. This is Thy life. With each wish I must shrink even as Thine own days." The man takes the skin. He wishes for love, prosperity and wealth. These are given to him in a perfectly natural manner, but with the fulfillment of each wish he sees, with horror, that the skin has shrunk. Through the society lady, whom he has spurned, he is drawn into a duel. In killing the rival the skin shrinks to almost nothing. But it is after he responds to the caresses of the girl he loves that the skin fades away. With a cry of terror he sees it vanish into thin air and he pays the cost of fulfilled desires with death.
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GenresDrama
Short
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