The Prodigal Wife


1918

Film Details

Release Date
Dec 1918
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Screencraft Pictures
Distribution Company
Pioneer Film Corp.; State Rights
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "The Flaming Ramparts" by Edith Barnard Delano in Harper's Magazine (Oct 1914).

Synopsis

Marion Farnham, the wife of a struggling young physician, tires of her husband's neglect and elopes with Thomas Byrne. Thomas promises to retrieve Marion's little daughter Marna from Frederick, but, finding the house empty, he reports that the child has died. Frederick, however, has merely taken Marna to the country to begin a new life. Determined to shield the little girl from the truth, Frederick tells her stories of a sweet and loving mother who died, but actually Marion's life becomes ever more degraded as the years pass. Learning that Frederick has become wealthy, Marion, desperate for money, decides to blackmail him, but when she arrives at the estate, she meets Marna instead. Ashamed, Marion maintains her silence, and after Marna marries and has a daughter of her own, Marion is engaged as the baby's nurse. Realizing that Marna plans to elope with another man, Marion, still under her assumed identity, discloses the sordid details of her own life, and the young wife remains with her family. Having finally atoned for her wrongs, Marion leaves.

Film Details

Release Date
Dec 1918
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Screencraft Pictures
Distribution Company
Pioneer Film Corp.; State Rights
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "The Flaming Ramparts" by Edith Barnard Delano in Harper's Magazine (Oct 1914).

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

This was the first film of Screencraft Pictures. Shot at the Thanhouser studios in New Rochelle, NY it was later acquired by C. B. Price and re-released on the state rights market as a five-reeler in late 1919 or early 1920.