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Sands of Fate
(1914) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by Donald Crisp
Cast: Dorothy Gish [Helen Robinson], Robert Harron [Arthur Lee], Raoul Walsh [James Holden], Cora Drew [Mrs. Robinson], Charles Eberts [the Mexican guide], Eagle Eye
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Released 11 October 1914. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Pictgure World]? Society man Arthur Lee is in love with society belle Helen Robinson, who is also admired by James Holden, a wealthy mine owner from the West. At her father’s country place, Lee is unhappy because of her popularity but is appeased when she finally accepts his proposal and ring. Holden interrupts and claims a moment’s talk. Telling Lee to wait for her in a favorite nook of the veranda, she goes with Holden while Lee strolls in the garden to await her. After proposing, Holden leaves her and hastens to the nook, seating himself with his back to the French windows. Lee is nearby in the garden finishing his smoke. He sees Holden in his chair, by the light of the latter’s cigarette, and then sees Helen come from the lighted ballroom, approach the chair and throw her arms about Holden, sit in his lap and kiss him. Lee turns away in despair and anger and leaves the grounds. Holden passes Lee and realizes why Lee looks at him with anger, but deliberately remains silent. Lee leaves the house without seeing Helen again. The latter looks in vain for him and after some days, finally believes that Lee has left her and later accepts the attentions of Holden, and finally marries him. Lee goes West, and a year or so later is prospecting in the desert country. Holden and Helen are not particularly happy either, Helen because she still loves Lee and Holden because he knows he has won her under false pretenses and cannot win her love. Some time later, Holden and his wife take a trip west to look over Holden’s mining properties, which are not far from the desert country wherein Lee has been prospecting. After a while Lee returns to the mining town where Holden has his headquarters, and meets Helen for the first time since he left her. His anger against Holden knows no bounds when he has told Helen why he left without a word, and Helen, too, recriminates her husband, who admits the charge and is only sorry that it had not been a success, as he has not yet won her affection. He urges that he only kept quiet because he loved her but she despises him, while Lee, in desperation, plans revenge. He learns that Holden plans a ride across the desert alone to look over some other properties, and hires a Mexican to guide him on the wrong trail that leads to a wide, waterless waste, wherein Holden will probably die of thirst. The Mexican is to desert him by night. The plan works but Helen, averse to being left alone, goes too, and Lee only finds it out when he calls to see her and finds she has accompanied her husband. He follows to rescue them, with water and food, and finds them still wandering, but safe. He, knowing the desert country, undertakes to guide them safely out, although it is a long way to go. With what water Holden has left and Lee’s supply, there is just barely enough to get them safely across the desert. Realizing this, and also that he stands in the way of Lee and Helen’s happiness, Holden pours some of his water into the sand, leaving just enough to take Lee and Helen out of the desert. Leaving a note, telling what he has done and a brief will in Helen’s favor, he leaves the camp in the night and wanders back over the trail into the desert again and by morning is far away. Lee and Helen find him gone in the morning and his note explaining his sacrifice. Their scarcity of water precludes their sacrificing themselves to find Holden, and it would be useless anyway, so Lee and Helen find their way back to civilization alone and Holden’s death is reported. A search party find Holden’s body, and Helen is free to marry Lee.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 10 October 2023.
References: Weaver-Twenty p. 144 : Website-IMDb.
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