Volume II: Filmography

THE LIE THAT FAILED

Production still with Florence LaBadie, David H. Thompson, and Walter Dillon. (F-573).

August 15, 1913 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel (1,000 feet)

Character: Drama

Cast: Florence LaBadie, David H. Thompson (Benson), Walter Dillon

Notes: 1. The title was obviously suggested by Kipling's novel, The Light that Failed. 2. The deus ex machina device of a meteor used to kill a wicked man was not criticized by reviewers, a departure from what might have been expected.

ADVERTISEMENT, The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 6, 1913:

"A man makes life unbearable for his wife, and, seized with a fatal malady, fears she will find happiness in marrying his enemy at his death. So the stricken man strives to have it appear that the wife caused his (impending) death, but the lie fails."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, August 16, 1913:

"The young heiress was engaged, and she and the man of her choice were very much in love. Her guardian, however, looked forward to her marriage with dread, for he had dissipated a large part of her fortune and expected punishment when the discovery was made. The girl's sweetheart went abroad. Another suitor, an unscrupulous businessman, who admired the girl for her beauty, learned of the guardian's dishonesty and threatened to expose him, but promised if he married the girl, that the defalcation would never be discovered. The letters from abroad were intercepted, and after long, weary months without hearing from her fiancé, the girl became convinced that he was faithless and consented to marry the businessman.

"A few years later, the young man returned from Europe to find that the girl was married. The marriage, however, had not been a happy one, for the husband soon tired of his wife and life became almost unbearable to her. But when she met her former sweetheart and he reproached her for her faithlessness, she learned of the deception which had been practiced against her. But the barrier of the little band of gold, her wedding ring, stood between them. The husband chanced to overhear them and was fed with a rage to find that his plot was revealed. His doctor had warned him that his heart was weak and that he could only live a few months. He knew that the two whom he had so cruelly wronged would wed after his death, so he planned to prevent it in a manner that was diabolical in its ingenuity. The husband wrote a note, stating that his wife had poisoned him, and prepared to drink the contents of a tiny vial. But before the plot could be carried into execution, the vengeance of heaven overtook him, for a giant meteor struck the earth and destroyed the wicked man. The widow could not mourn a man who had treated her so cruelly and soon married the man whom she had always loved."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, August 17, 1913:

"This picture has been given a very realistic development by the Thanhouser players. The piece has been especially well posed, and the scene in [words illegible] which crashes the wicked plotter to the ground, dissipating every vestige of his earthly existence, has been very cleverly worked. It is the story of a young heiress whose guardian played her false, intercepted letters from her lover who was abroad, and married her at last to an unscrupulous businessman, who, on the return of the lover, having overheard a conversation between his wife and her former love, plans to hasten the rapid approach of death of which his doctor has told him, by taking poison and leaving a note which would throw the blame on his wife. The interference of fate in the incident of the meteor changed the completion of the situation in a twinkling of an eye, upsetting for all time the plan of a villainous mind."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, August 23, 1913:

"A falling meteor forms an interesting, though highly improbable, feature of this story. It falls upon a husband who had just decided to commit suicide and accuse his wife of poisoning him. The story is not of the strongest, but it is quite novel and well pictured."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 27, 1913:

"The author of this photoplay has handled his story in a fairly capable manner, although he has failed to infuse into it anything but what is tiresomely conventional. The death of the evil husband by means of the meteor is a touch of daring realism that startles and leaves one aghast. For the success of this little climacteric incident we must look to the director. He has managed the falling meteor, which, striking the earth, crushes the scheming husband to death in an exceptionally clever way.

"The story proper concerns a girl and three men - her guardian, her lover, and the wealthy villain who would marry her at any cost. It seems that the guardian has spent most of the girl's fortune and, hearing of her intended marriage, fears detection. Suddenly the young fiancé of the girl is called away to Europe, and here the unscrupulous businessman enters, informs the guardian that he knows of his shortage, and offers to shield him if he will aid in his securing the girl. Letters are intercepted and the girl, believing that her fiancé is untrue to her, marries the businessman. Several years later her former sweetheart meets her at a watering place. She is unhappy and would return to him but for her marriage. Her husband, becoming aware that his secret has been discovered and knowing through the doctor that he only has a few months to live, plots to poison himself and shoulder the blame on his wife. When about to carry out his purpose a meteor falls from the heavens and kills him. The acting and staging of the piece is excellent."

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