The Greater Love - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

The story itself is laid in the provincial district of France, and reveals that stern law which gives the French parent command and control over the life and will of his child. The heart of a little French peasant girl has gone out to a ...See moreThe story itself is laid in the provincial district of France, and reveals that stern law which gives the French parent command and control over the life and will of his child. The heart of a little French peasant girl has gone out to a young barrister, whom she worships and who worships her with all the holy loyalty of a noble love, but centuries of custom force their cruel way between them, and the girl is compelled to bow down to her father's will. Al the signing of the marriage contract we are shown her heart in all its sufferings. Time passes, and twenty years later we sec the result of a father's law. Annette, the daughter, has married her father's choice, a coarse, cruel brute; her life is crushed. The only gleam of joy that lights up her face is when her eyes rest upon her son, her boy. She worships him, but ere the day closes the awful truth is revealed to her that her boy is a thief! Mlle. Morin at this point reaches the supreme climax of the art of "Silent Drama." A moment after the discovery and the gendarmes arc in the room searching for the thief, and then the dumb terror seizes her. She sees her boy a prisoner. She sees him behind the iron bars, sees him suffering. Then the greater love comes forth and she takes the guilt upon herself. "I am the thief," she protests, but the law of a lie rarely finds a home in happiness and relief. It always reacts upon the offender, which is clearly shown in this picture when she is brought before the justice, who proves to be her former sweetheart. Here, before the man she loves, she condemns herself with a lie as a common thief, and he is forced to sentence her to one year at hard labor. We then catch a glimpse of her prison life and finally her release. We next see her wandering back to her native tillage, penniless, heartbroken and alone. Through the window of a village inn she beholds her boy, gambling and drinking, she sends word to him, but he turns from her. Can human being suffer more? At last she is found by the judge and taken to his home, and through his love and care we realize that her life in future will be sweeter and that her boy will learn to bow down before that greater love which has given so much for him. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less