The Right of Way (1915)

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Synopsis by Janiss Garza

Actor William Faversham makes his motion picture debut as Charles Steele in this adaptation of the novel by Sir Gilbert Parker. Steele is a brilliant criminal lawyer who gets Joe Portugaise (Edward Brennan) acquitted of a murder charge. But Steele's life goes downhill as he loses himself in drink. His brother-in-law, also a drunkard, helps ruin his reputation by stealing money that Steele has held in trust for a charity. Finally Steele gets involved in a bar room fight and is thrown into a river. He is fished out, unconscious, by Portugaise and when he comes to, he has lost his memory. A year later, when he is finally cured through an operation, he hears that his wife has married someone else. He decides to stay in a small northern Canadian town with Portugaise and meets Rosalie (Jane Grey). He falls in love with her, but the town views him suspiciously because he refuses to go to church. When thieves come to rob the church's fund, however, Steele puts them to route. The struggle leaves him mortally wounded, and as he dies he sees Rosalie as the Angel of Happiness. If this ending sounds a bit corny, keep in mind that the audiences of 1915 thought so too, at least according to trade paper Variety. Sir Gilbert Parker's story was filmed twice more, in 1920 and in 1931.