Themes: Living With Disability, Women During Wartime
Main Cast: Ronald Colman, Vilma Banky, Helen Jerome Eddy, Frank Elliott, Charles Lane, Wyndham Standing, Florence Turner, George Bunny
Release Year: 1925
Run Time: 8rl minutes
Plot
This sentimental drama, based on the stage play by H.B. Trevelyan (actually a pseudonym for Guy Bolton), was the American film debut of Vilma Banky, and it made her a star overnight. The setting is World War I, and Captain Alan Trent (Ronald Coleman) and Kitty Vane (Banky) are making their wedding plans. But Trent is suddenly called back to the front, and the ceremony is put on hold. During a battle, Trent is blinded, and instead of burdening Kitty with his disability, he allows her to believe he has been killed. Kitty eventually agrees to marry Trent's best friend, Gerald Shannon (Wyndham Standing). Shannon, however, discovers that Trent is still alive and writing for a living. Being an honorable man, he tells Kitty the truth and she goes to Trent. Trent is determined to send Kitty away, so he memorizes the location of everything in his home and pretends to reject her. Kitty is fooled until the end, when she holds out her hand and he doesn't see it. Finally the truth comes out and she rushes into his arms. Producer Sam Goldwyn -- who had discovered Banky during a trip to Europe -- remade the film as a talkie in 1935, with Merle Oberon as Kitty and Frederic March and Herbert Marshall as Trent and Shannon, respectively. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
