A Man's Awakening - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)
Big Bill finds that Carrie has left him. He discovers that she has gone with another man. At Red Gulch, he gets a reputation for recklessness and deviltry. Hurt in drunken fury he brutally refuses aid from Elsie, the sheriff's daughter. ...See moreBig Bill finds that Carrie has left him. He discovers that she has gone with another man. At Red Gulch, he gets a reputation for recklessness and deviltry. Hurt in drunken fury he brutally refuses aid from Elsie, the sheriff's daughter. Asked to join in a poker party he pleads private and particular business. He goes to the bills and watches beside a dying prospector, who tells Bill about his sweetheart, Going back, Bill finds a mesh handbag with a bit of black rag clinging to it. He pockets it with the chain hanging out. The poker party disbands as the stagecoach passengers flock in with stories of a holdup. The single female half hysterically points to Bill and shrieks, "That's him." Caught with the bag and mask, denial is worse than useless and Bill submits calmly to arrest. When Elsie brings his dinner she ignores him, but Bill, who has remembered his promise to the dead prospector, tells her his story and she promises to help. That night Bill's cell door opens, and he is bidden to hold out his hands. His handcuffs are taken off and he is given a gun. He goes out, finds a horse awaiting him, and gallops to the hills. His absence is discovered and a posse starts after him. Bill reaches the cabin, sees a light, investigates, and captures the stage robber with his booty. He forces the robber to dig a grave and after the prospector is laid to rest, takes him back to the settlement. Meeting the posse on the way, he gives him into custody. When he tries to thank Elsie his effort is a dismal failure. That evening, unable to bear the solitude of his shack, he gallops to the prospector's grave and there finds Elsie, carefully and tenderly covering the rough mound with foliage and wild flowers. He asks her "Why," and she tells him, "For the sake of the girl he loved, and who loved him." The words and their accompanying look melt the last vestige of ice from around Bill's heart, and beside the lonely grave a new life opens for him. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less