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The Light That Failed
(1916) United States of America
B&W : Five reels
Directed by Edward José
Cast: Robert Edeson [Dick Hedlar], Lillian Tucker [Maizie], Claude Fleming [Torpenhow], Jose Collins [Bessie, the model]
Feature Film Corporation production; distributed by Pathé Exchange, Incorporated [Gold Rooster Play]. / Produced by Edward José. Scenario by George B. Seitz, from the novelette The Light That Failed by Rudyard Kipling. Cinematography by Benjamin Struckman. / Released 15 October 1916. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The novelette was subsequently filmed as The Light That Failed (1923).
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? After many years, Dick Hedlar, a staff artist, stationed in the Soudan, returns to England to find his pictures have made him famous. He has always cherished memories of his childhood sweetheart, Maizie, and at an exhibition of his pictures he meets her again and the old romance is revived. She, still struggling to make a name for herself in the world of Art, refuses his offer of marriage, fearing that her acceptance would mean a hindrance to their careers. Dick tries to comfort himself with his painting. Bessie, a model, comes into his life and makes love to him. In the meanwhile love overcomes Maizie’s decision and in a sudden resolve she goes to Dick’s studio to tell him that she will marry him. She finds Dick repulsing the advances of Bessie and mistakes the situation as being Dick’s overtures to the demi-monde. She leaves in disgust and refuses to hear his explanations the next day. An accident affects his eyesight, and gradually going blind, he completes his master picture. His bosom friend, Torpenhow, brings some of his friends to Dick’s studio to admire the picture, only to find that Bessie has ruined the masterpiece. They keep the fact from the now totally blind Dick, and he as a last gift to Maizie sends the picture to her unknowing what has happened to it. Torpenhow, horrified at what has happened, goes to see Maizie, and she learns of the injustice she has done Dick. She and Torpenhow make haste to Dick’s studio only to find him gone. Cursed with the blindness and with a deep ache in his heart, Dick has heard the call of the East. They follow the trail of the “mad Englishman,” as he is called, for many hundreds of miles and reach him just as a horde of Dervishes are about to make an attack, in the skirmish both Maizie and Dick are wounded and die in each other’s arms. In Dick’s clenched hand Torpenhow finds the verse of their childhood dreams, cherished through all the years.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 17 November 2022.
References: Quirk-Colman p. 205 : Website-IMDb.
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