The Cup of Life
Cast & Crew
Raymond B. West
Bessie Barriscale
Enid Markey
Charles Ray
Frank Borzage
Arthur Maude
Film Details
Synopsis
Sisters Helen and Ruth Fiske work in a department store and live in an East Side tenement. While Ruth is satisfied with her "regular fellow," a mechanic, Helen yearns for fine clothes, wealth, and attention. Ruth marries the mechanic and they struggle for a modest existence. Helen leaves her squalor to be the mistress of wealthy John Ward, despite Ruth's pleas. As the years pass, Helen goes from one man to the next, looking for more luxuries. When James Kellerman, who really loves her, proposes, she laughs at him. Finally, Helen returns from Europe embittered that she no longer commands the attention of men. She tries to win Kellerman back, but her phony coyness contrasts with the natural innocence of the woman he is about to marry. When Helen sees Ruth in her pretty cottage, with two children and still in love, she despairs for her own future. Her subsequent suffering is eased only by alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, which hasten her death.
Cast
Bessie Barriscale
Enid Markey
Charles Ray
Frank Borzage
Arthur Maude
J. Barney Sherry
Louise Glaum
Harry Keenan
Howard Hickman
Jerome Storm
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
New York Dramatic Mirror credits Thomas H. Ince alone with the direction, Motion Picture News January 23, 1915 credits both West and Ince with the direction, while Motion Picture News February 20, 1915 says the film was directed by Ince, who was assisted by West. Modern sources give Raymond B. West sole credit for direction, and lists William H. Clifford as the scenarist. Ince produced a film with the same title in 1921 which had nothing to do with this film.
