Volume II: Filmography

FOR SALE - A LIFE

March 26, 1912 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Director: George O. Nichols

Cameraman: A.H. Moses, Jr.

Cast: Joseph Graybill (ill husband), Marguerite Snow (his attractive wife), James Cruze (the wealthy young clubman), William Russell (card player)

Locations: New Rochelle; on an Atlantic coastwise steamer, the Apache, of the Clyde Line; Florida

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture News, March 16, 1912:

"A nervous, fault-finding invalid decides that his health requires that he shall live in the South, and managed to exchange his place up North for a shack in an orange grove in Florida. Accompanied by his devoted wife, he sails for his new home, she hoping that he will regain his health and strength there. On the boat trip the couple meet a wealthy young clubman, who is traveling for pleasure and to get away from the rigors of a New York winter. This man is impressed with the wife's grace and beauty, and for her sake puts up with the invalid, although he regards him as a selfish bore. The husband plays cards with the clubmen and a couple of his chums, also wealthy. He loses, but the others do not realize that the money, a trifling sum to them, is practically all that the couple have upon which to live. The invalid does not make any scene believing it to be 'more manly' to prove he is a real sport, and then throw the burden of getting more money upon his patient, loyal and already overworked and overworried wife.

"In Florida, the wife, who is an expert needlewoman, obtains fancy sewing to do, and while delivering some work to a hotel guest again meets the clubman. He renews his acquaintance with the family, and the husband soon sees that the couple are in love, but does not object. He watches the situation with cynical amusement, and when he believes the time is right he approaches the clubman with the proposition that for the sum of $10,000 he, the husband will get a divorce and go away. Then the way will be clear for the pair to wed. The clubman at first listened to the suggestion with horror. He realized, however, that the woman's life with such a man as the invalid must be one long torment, and he decided to save her. So he agreed to pay the money, believing that thereby he would add to her happiness. The wife came in while the deal was being discussed. She sees the shameful paper and tore it into bits and then ordered the clubman out of her house, refusing to listen to his offer of explanation. Hating her husband though she did, her woman's heart would not permit her to leave him, for she knew his days were numbered. When he died some time later, she was still ministering to him, and trying to make his last moments comfortable. He was cross-grained and selfish, but a ray of decent feeling animated his last moments, for he told his wife that the 'bargain' was a one-sided affair, that the clubman had never suggested it, the husband alone being to blame. He added that he believed the man truly loved her and simply tried to save her from a life of misery. Many days after the funeral, the widow and the clubman met. At first she refused to talk to him, but gradually, she thought of his many kindly ways, she relented, and they parted 'friends.' He would not press his advantage then but thought of the old adage, 'friendship is akin to love,' smiled, and was content."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, March 31, 1912:

"In the opening scenes the appearance of the husband leads the spectator to misunderstand his relation to the woman, she appearing so much younger that one mistakes her for his daughter. He is an invalid and on selling their little cottage in the North they start for Florida, where he has bought an orange grove. A party of rich clubmen go on the same steamer, and the girl and one of the men become friends, he ministering to the wants of the husband almost as much as the wife does. Then the father is lured into a poker game and he loses nearly all of his money, so that when they arrive the wife is obliged to take up sewing for a livelihood for both. She accidentally meets the young man of the voyage and he calls on her frequently. The husband observes their ripening friendship and plans to sell her to him, making an offer to the man to divorce his wife for a large sum of money, thus leaving the way open for them to marry. The wife overhears the plans and sends the clubman away in disgust. Then the husband sinks lower and lower and bids his wife think kindly of the other as the plan has been his alone. She meets the man after the husband's death and they are last seen together with a promise of a possible love between them. The steamship scenes, actual and not of studio make, the snow covered ground of the North and its contrasting tropical verdure of the South, all give a tone and quality to the backgrounds, while the playing of the parts is well up to the high standard attained by this company."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, April 6, 1912:

"A rich clubman meets on the steamer going south to the Florida an invalid and his wife. They are poor, and the husband is dying of consumption. The clubman seems to be sophisticated and the invalid a selfish weakling. The outcome of this situation is left obscure, yet the picture seems on the whole very clean and wholesome. The backgrounds are on the steamer and in Florida for the most part. They are interesting and the photographs are excellent. We can call it a good feature picture, although it is slight, because of its good characterization and its photography. Miss Snow and Mr. Cruze play the leads."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, April 3, 1912:

"Two different lives and conditions are dramatically and symbolically contrasted in this film, with a wealth of meaning and thought that is indeed its distinctive feature. In no point has the composition been allowed to drift into the commonplace or conventional, which is especially true of the significant and wholesome ending. The acting is on a high plane of thought, and the entire production is presented and told with graphic ease and well appointed backgrounds of Florida. A poor man exchanges his home for an orange grove in Florida, were he hopes to go to recover his health. On shipboard during his voyage there he meets with a wealthy group of tourists and gambles away his small bonus. The wife interests one of the number and she meets him again upon their arrival at Florida, when she is delivering some sewing which she had done for a certain woman of means. Frequent visits on the part of the man is the result, until the husband writes a compact for the man to sign, declaring that for the sum of $10,000 he will free his wife for him, feeling as he does his own wretched condition, and moved by the same inferior motive which had caused him to gamble away their little wealth. The wife, however, discovers the note and destroys it. Shortly after this the husband dies, asking forgiveness and begging her to marry the man who loves her. Later she meets the man who assumed so much when she was a wife and turns away from him."

MODERN SYNOPSIS

(from surviving print)

(Library of Congress)

AT THE RICH MAN'S CLUB

Men recline in upholstered chairs under a chandelier in a wood-paneled card room.

AT THE POOR MAN'S HOME

A man, the husband, receives a letter from the Empire Real Estate Co., 507 Broadway, New York City:

"Dear Mr. Wilson -

"Have succeeded in exchanging your house for a small orange grove and shack in Florida, and $800 in cash.

"Very Truly,

"A.W. Brown"

The husband and his wife share the news with delight.

THE DAY THE STEAMER SAILS

A shipboard scene shows the husband on deck on a bench, coughing violently and holding a handkerchief to his face. His wife lovingly comforts him. A handsome stranger comes from an adjoining stateroom and hands the sick man a magazine he had dropped.

DURING THE VOYAGE

The sick husband and the handsome stranger sit on the deck. The husband, warmed by a blanket, is comforted by his wife. Other men approach and beckon the sick husband and the handsome stranger to go with them. The scene shifts to a poker game, after which the sick husband returns to his waiting wife, with the news that he has lost all but just a few dollars. The wife bursts into tears.

THEY ARRIVE IN FLORIDA

The passengers depart from the ship, and the handsome stranger bids farewell to the wife, whom he has admired during the voyage, while the sick husband stands nearby. The handsome stranger and his wealthy companions go to a luxurious hotel or mansion, while the wife and sick husband go to their newly-acquired rundown wooden shack.

SEVERAL WEEKS LATER

The wife and the handsome stranger talk animatedly under a palm tree. Then they both go to her sick husband, who, wrapped in a blanket, is sitting on the porch of their shack. The handsome stranger shakes the wife's hand and departs. The wife hugs her sick husband.

THE FOLLOWING MONTH

The handsome stranger returns to the couple's shack and is met at the gate by the wife. He goes with the wife to her husband, and hands her sick husband a note:

"I, John Harman, promise to pay Tom Wilson the sum of $10,000 if he divorces his wife so I can marry her."

The wife orders the handsome stranger to leave immediately, and hugs her husband. The husband smiles at first, then he coughs violently.

HIS LAST WORDS ARE: "FORGIVE ME - HE LOVES YOU - MARRY HIM"

Then immediately to another subtitle:

THE DAWN OF A TO-MORROW

The handsome stranger and the wife, now a widow, meet on the beach. The handsome stranger greets her with unbounded enthusiasm, but the widow turns away from him.

Note: This subtitle may have been inspired by The Dawn of a To-morrow, a short novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

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