1914PrincessOne reelDrama

Where Paths Diverge

Also released as When Paths Diverged, Where Paths Diverged

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“Billy married Muriel secretly. His mother—though she boards the pretty young schoolteacher to help make both ends meet—has a great opinion of social caste and her own family, and considers Muriel her son’s inferior. The young people, accordingly, have not the courage to face her opposition. Muriel secretly works on garments for the child she is expecting—and Mrs. Greg discovers the sewing, and the marriage certificate. She destroys the certificate and drives Muriel from the house. The young teacher loses her position, and finds employment with a doctor named Walters. He loves her and eventually proposes marriage. She can give him no satisfactory explanation of her refusal. Soon after, she asks a month’s vacation—ostensibly to visit her mother—but goes to a hospital, where her child is born dead. Returning to Walter’s office, he again begs her to marry him. The girl is heart-broken—when she receives a letter from Billy, and it is not long before they are reunited and happy.”

Summary from Reel Life · 31 January 1914

What the papers said

1 review

“Opening with prettily-acted love scenes and a hasty marriage which the stork makes impossible to conceal, this picture has a happily romantic though not very convincing ending. The pretty leading lady acts well in the romantic scenes, but shows lack of experience in tragedy. It has the appeal of overdrawn melodramas and is a fair offering.”

The Moving Picture World · 21 February 1914

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Cast and crew

Cast
Boyd Marshall as Walters, a doctor, Muriel’s new lover
Catherine Webb as Mrs. Greg, Billy’s mother
Eddie Ford as Billy, a college boy
Morgan Jones as Mr. Greg, Billy’s father
Muriel Ostriche as Muriel, a young teacher and expectant mother
Photographed by
Carl Louis Gregory

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More about this film

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1914 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “Where Paths Diverge”. thanhouser.org/films/where-paths-diverge/

Where a print is held

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No print known