The Last Scene of All (1914)
For John Arden, the future holds nothing but the promise of dreamless sleep and rest. He is very old and very tired. Because the present is sad and profitless, he seeks the past in his dreams. The link which connected him with his vanished youth is a scrapbook of brown paper. In it Arden had carefully pasted the programs of the plays in which he had won his laurels as an actor. As he sits and muses over the pages, the scene fades and Arden lives again the history of his life. It was in "Richelieu" that he made the first step toward greatness. He was only a minor actor in the company of the great Celia Torrence when suddenly one of the principals was taken ill and Arden was given the part. His success was startling and immediate. The next year Arden's name was mentioned under Celia's in the program heading, but it did not stop there. As the months went by, Arden's reputation grew mightily until it fairly equaled that of the great Celia. And then, one momentous day, the star came to the theater and discovered that Arden's name was featured on the billboard in larger type than her own. When the critics came to call on the actors, Arden was now the center of their attention. A marked coolness sprang up between the two. It was not Arden's fault. In the few years they had played together, he had grown very fond of the beautiful actress. The coolness progressed until at length came the inevitable break. Arden, broken-hearted, withdrew from the company where his presence was so constant a source of vexation to Celia. Shortly after Arden left, Celia married Granby Phelps, the actor who had taken Arden's place. This was the final blow. Arden threw all his thoughts of future greatness to the winds and allowed himself to drift through life with neither love nor hope. In the last scene of all, we see how in his final delirium, he fancies that he is once again playing in the fight scene of "Richard III," and how he is beaten to the ground by the man who had taken away the only delight of his heart.
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GenresDrama
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Ashley Miller | Director |
| Maurice Lewis | Writer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| John Sturgeon | |
| Sally Crute | |
| Bliss Milford | |
| Charles Sutton |
