By Glenn Erickson
The Right to Live
Brief Synopsis
A crippled war hero's death turns out to be murder.
Cast & Crew
Read More
William Keighley
Director
Josephine Hutchinson
Stella [Houghton] Trent
George Brent
Colin Trent
Colin Clive
Maurice [Trent]
Peggy Wood
Nurse Wayland
Henrietta Crosman
Mrs. Trent
Film Details
Also Known As
The Future Belongs to You
Genre
Drama
Adaptation
Release Date
Jan
26,
1935
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Productions Corp.
Distribution Company
The Vitaphone Corp.; Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play The Sacred Flame by W. Somerset Maugham (Garden City, NY, 19 Nov 1928).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 9m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8 reels
Synopsis
Shortly after a wealthy Englishman, Maurice Trent, marries an American named Stella Houghton, his legs are paralyzed in an airplane accident. Although he realizes that Maurice will never walk again, his physician, Dr. Harvester, tells the injured man that he will operate in five months, leading Maurice to believe that he will recover. On the suggestion of his neighbor, Major Liconda, Maurice sends for his brother Colin, who is a successful coffee grower in Brazil. Colin becomes Stella's evening escort, and eventually the two fall in love. They talk about leaving together for Brazil, but Stella later tells Colin that she cannot leave Maurice, who now realizes that Dr. Harvester has lied about his recovery. The next morning, Maurice's private nurse, Wayland, discovers her patient's dead body. Although Dr. Harvester believes Maurice's death was caused by an embolism, Wayland accuses Stella of murdering her husband so that she can leave with Colin. Mrs. Trent, aware of Stella and Colin's relationship, recalls that she was the last to see Maurice earlier that morning. At that time, she reveals, she watched him swallow a fatal dose of sleeping pills. Wayland apologizes to Stella, and when Stella decides to return with Colin to his plantation, Mrs. Trent embraces the couple, telling them that this is what Maurice had wished.
Director
William Keighley
Director
Cast
Josephine Hutchinson
Stella [Houghton] Trent
George Brent
Colin Trent
Colin Clive
Maurice [Trent]
Peggy Wood
Nurse Wayland
Henrietta Crosman
Mrs. Trent
C. Aubrey Smith
Major Liconda
Leo G. Carroll
Dr. Harvester
Phyllis Coghlan
Alice, the maid
Claude King
Mr. Pride
Nella Walker
Mrs. Pride
Halliwell Hobbes
Sir Stephen Barr
Gunnis Davis
Gardner
Jack H. Richardson
Chauffeur
Vesey O'davoren
Waiter
Forrester Harvey
English Bobbie
Crew
Wesley Anderson
2nd Camera
Ralph Block
Screenwriter
Paul Burnette
Gaffer
Elmer Ellsworth
Men's Wardrobe
Robert Fellows
Unit Manager
Leo F. Forbstein
Vitaphone Orch Conductor
Chuck Hansen
Assistant Director
Esdras Hartley
Art Director
Sid Hickox
Photography
Jack Killifer
Film Editor
William Kuehl
Props
Vernon Larson
Assistant Camera
Art Lueker
Second Assistant Director
L. P. "dudie" Mashmeyer
Grip
Orry-kelly
Gowns
Ruth Pursley
Hair
James Seymour
Supervisor
Bert Six
Still Photographer
Jeanette Story
Women's Wardrobe
Wanda Sybald
Screenplay clerk
Dolph Thomas
Sound
Film Details
Also Known As
The Future Belongs to You
Genre
Drama
Adaptation
Release Date
Jan
26,
1935
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Productions Corp.
Distribution Company
The Vitaphone Corp.; Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play The Sacred Flame by W. Somerset Maugham (Garden City, NY, 19 Nov 1928).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 9m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8 reels
Articles
The Right to Live -
W. Somerset Maugham's books and plays have often attracted producers and stars looking for deep drama: 'Rain', 'The Letter,' 'Of Human Bondage,' 'The Painted Veil,' 'The Razor's Edge.' For a 1929 early talkie, Warner Bros. adapted The Sacred Flame, Maugham's sober play about a love triangle that ends in a mercy killing. Conrad Nagel plays a man paralyzed on his wedding day, and whose bride falls in love with his brother, creating a cruel romantic situation. Re-titled The Right to Live, the property was re-made in 1935 as a showcase for stage actress Josephine Hutchinson. She plays Stella Trent, the wife tied down to a bedridden husband. All-purpose male escort George Brent plays Colin, the brother who rushes back from his coffee plantation in Brazil when he hears the news and soon falls in love with the unhappy Stella. The plum role of Maurice, the wealthy English war hero who loses the use of his legs, was wisely given to Colin Clive, the angular actor who always seemed vaguely tortured, even when relaxed. When Maurice is discovered dead one morning, the balance of the story plays out as a grim whodunit of family secrets. Did Stella and Colin give Maurice an overdose, so they could run away to Brazil, as accuses the nurse (Peggy Wood)? Adjustments to make the 1935 remake palatable to the Production Code Office demonstrate how the Code warped and distorted serious works of drama. In the 1929 film Maurice's mother commits the killing to spare him the trauma of seeing his wife leave him with his own brother. The Code- approved remake adds a moral complication: instead of telling Maurice the truth about his paralysis, the family doctor chooses to lie to him with the false claim that an operation may restore his legs. Maurice's death is changed to a mere suicide, removing the entire subject of mercy killing. But the basic story premise should have seemed false even back then: despite the title's assertion that all life is sacred, all three versions subscribe to the idea that a paralyzed man who cannot perform as a normal husband, is better off dead. While stating that the movie is too tragic to be popular, Variety noted the film's moral whitewash of a play that was at least a little ambiguous about its sensitive subject matter. After the Maugham original was bowdlerized to please the church-oriented censors, Catholic critics downgraded the film anyway, with the idea that movie entertainment is unsuited to address troublesome issues. But it is no wonder that The Right to Live doesn't satisfy, for the problem of mercy killing remains a moral quicksand today, even more prickly than the Right to Die issue.
By Glenn Erickson
By Glenn Erickson
The Right to Live -
W. Somerset Maugham's books and plays have often attracted producers and stars looking for deep drama: 'Rain', 'The Letter,' 'Of Human Bondage,' 'The Painted Veil,' 'The Razor's Edge.' For a 1929 early talkie, Warner Bros. adapted The Sacred Flame, Maugham's sober play about a love triangle that ends in a mercy killing. Conrad Nagel plays a man paralyzed on his wedding day, and whose bride falls in love with his brother, creating a cruel romantic situation. Re-titled The Right to Live, the property was re-made in 1935 as a showcase for stage actress Josephine Hutchinson. She plays Stella Trent, the wife tied down to a bedridden husband. All-purpose male escort George Brent plays Colin, the brother who rushes back from his coffee plantation in Brazil when he hears the news and soon falls in love with the unhappy Stella. The plum role of Maurice, the wealthy English war hero who loses the use of his legs, was wisely given to Colin Clive, the angular actor who always seemed vaguely tortured, even when relaxed. When Maurice is discovered dead one morning, the balance of the story plays out as a grim whodunit of family secrets. Did Stella and Colin give Maurice an overdose, so they could run away to Brazil, as accuses the nurse (Peggy Wood)? Adjustments to make the 1935 remake palatable to the Production Code Office demonstrate how the Code warped and distorted serious works of drama. In the 1929 film Maurice's mother commits the killing to spare him the trauma of seeing his wife leave him with his own brother. The Code- approved remake adds a moral complication: instead of telling Maurice the truth about his paralysis, the family doctor chooses to lie to him with the false claim that an operation may restore his legs. Maurice's death is changed to a mere suicide, removing the entire subject of mercy killing. But the basic story premise should have seemed false even back then: despite the title's assertion that all life is sacred, all three versions subscribe to the idea that a paralyzed man who cannot perform as a normal husband, is better off dead. While stating that the movie is too tragic to be popular, Variety noted the film's moral whitewash of a play that was at least a little ambiguous about its sensitive subject matter. After the Maugham original was bowdlerized to please the church-oriented censors, Catholic critics downgraded the film anyway, with the idea that movie entertainment is unsuited to address troublesome issues. But it is no wonder that The Right to Live doesn't satisfy, for the problem of mercy killing remains a moral quicksand today, even more prickly than the Right to Die issue.
By Glenn Erickson
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was The Future Belongs to You. It was known as The Sacred Flame in Great Britain. Writer Abner Nelson sued Warner Bros. over the use of the title, claiming to have exclusive rights to it because he having copyrighted it as the title to original play and registered it with the Writer's Guild. The outcome of the lawsuit undetermined. Warner Bros. records indicate that Genevieve Tobin was originally cast as Stella. The script was also sent to Barbara Stanwyck. The ending of the film differs from the ending of the play. In the play, Mrs. Trent kills her son; in the film, he commits suicide. W. Somerset Maugham's play was first filmed in 1929 by Warner Bros. as The Sacred Flame and was directed by Archie L. Mayo and starred Pauline Frederick and Conrad Nagel (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.4751).
