The Witness (1915)
James Thorne, a defaulting bank cashier, alters the books of the head bookkeeper, Fred Carlisle, to cover his own crime, and Carlisle is arrested and bailed. Carlisle learns that Thorne is guilty and visits him. In the interview between the two men, Carlisle is shot dead, the tragedy is reported as a suicide, and a coroner's verdict is rendered to that effect. Previous to the entrance into the library of the two men on the fatal night, Thorne's son, Carl, a studious boy of seven, concealed himself behind the window draperies and is an unwilling witness. The boy tells his grandmother, who never from that moment for many years trusts him out of her sight lest he reveal the secret. To insure safety he is taken to Europe by his grandmother, educated in a monastery under her supervision and grows up to be a bitter misanthrope, with no companion but his horse. He has even forgotten Elise Carlisle, daughter of the dead man, and the sweetheart of their babyhood. After the tragedy Elsie's mother dies, leaving her with her grandparents. On her nineteenth birthday her grandfather gives her a riding horse and she gallops into the woodland. A passing train frightens her horse, and she is rescued by Carl Thorne. A few words between them discloses the identity of the young people; at first sight Carl becomes deeply infatuated with Elsie, and they agree to revive the love affair of their childhood. But that night Elsie is handed by her grandfather a letter left by her mother, to be presented to her on her nineteenth birthday, and enjoining her to devote the rest of her life to the clearing of guilt from the memory of her father. Believing that this injunction imposes a duty upon her from which there is no escape, she writes Carl to the effect that a message from the dead renders it impossible for them to meet again. Thereupon his moroseness and hardness of nature return to him, and added to these, he seeks relief in drink, which brings back to him visions of that night in the library that he must never reveal. Elise secures a position in Thorne's office as stenographer. One day she hears an interview between Thorne and the old night watchman, in which Thorne tells him to do his worst, as his belief in Carlisle's innocence is of no consequence now. Thorne learns from Elise what she has heard, and invites her to his house in order to confer upon a compromise. It is arranged between Thorne and his old mother that the girl must be abducted to secure their own safety, but this plot is frustrated by Carl, who tells what he knows. Thorne commits suicide, and Carl promises to atone for the wrong his father has done, by the bestowal upon its innocent victim of his everlasting love and protection.
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GenresDrama
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Barry O'Neil | Director |
| Clay M. Greene | Writer |
| Siegmund Lubin | Producer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| Joseph W. Smiley | |
| Lila Leslie | |
| Eleanor Barry | |
| Francis Joyner |
