|
Love’s Melody
(1915) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by Edward Morrissey
Cast: Jack Mulhall [the young actor], Marie Newton [the actor’s fiancée], Charles Bennett [the fiancée’s stepfather], Gus Pixley [the stagedoor keeper], Edward Cecil [the blind musician], Irma Dawkins [the singer]
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Released 29 June 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The young actor becomes engaged to a beautiful girl, whose stepfather is a wealthy man. One evening, after the performance, there is a bachelor supper on the stage, given him by his comrades in celebration of his approaching marriage. Toasts having been drunk and speeches made, someone suggests that they have a little music. The orchestra has long since gone, but an old blind musician has stopped to talk with his friend, the stage doorkeeper. The actor asks him to come in and play for them, and he gladly consents. His music enthralls them. No one in the party can recall ever having heard it, and the blind musician is asked whether, perchance, it is his own composition. He says, “Yes, it is inspired by something in my own life. It seemed to me most suitable to such an occasion as this. I call it ‘Love’s Melody.’”. And he tells them the story of his music. Years before he was recognized as one of the most brilliant young musicians and composers. At a concert he met and fell in love with a young singer. She had another suitor, a wealthy man, but she chose the musician. It was then that he wrote “Love’s Melody.” After a few years of happy married life, in the course of which they were blessed with a child, a dreadful misfortune overtook him. It alarmed him to find that his sight seemed suddenly to fail, but the sensation passed, and after reassuring his anxious wife, he set out for the theater. In the musicians’ room he again experienced the feeling, and suddenly he gave a great cry that startled his fellows: “I’m blind.” That meant hardship; gradually the family drifted to poorer and poorer quarters. In despair the wife appealed to her former suitor for aid; he offered to arrange a concert tour for her, but her husband demurred. She insisted on going, and, taking the little girl, left him. And he never heard from them again. His old friend, the stage doorkeeper, was all he had left. On the day after hearing this sad story, the actor calls on his fiancée and hears her playing “Love’s Melody.” She answers his eager questions: “My mother taught me that when I was a child.” The lost is found.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 14 December 2024.
References: Spehr-American p. 2 : Website-IMDb.
|
