Such Is Life


1931

Film Details

Release Date
Jan 1931
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Hellenic Cinema Corp.
Country
United States

Synopsis

In an Athens University, students await the famous Professor Andreas Holmes, who will present his latest scientific discovery, the ability to revive a dead human heart. When Andreas enters the amphitheatre and removes the sheet from the waiting corpse, however, he loses his composure and cries out, as he has recognized the lifeless corpse as his former lover, Yolanda. As Andreas watches in disbelief, Yolanda's corpse begins to speak and then transform into a skeleton. Shocked at Andreas' strange behavior, the students watch in disbelief as the doctor recalls the happy days of his courtship of Yolanda: Yolanda and Andreas recline on the grass before a ruined convent, and Yolanda is shocked at the passion in Andreas' kiss. Pindarus, a befuddled trustee of the university who befriends the students, calls the couple away to the tavern where their friends await them. At the tavern, Yolanda sings a song about men's fickle natures and then confesses to Andreas that she is afraid of her love for him. At home, Yolanda's hard-working mother and low-class uncle Evangelis argue about the money Yolanda will need to finish her studies. Evangelis believes that Yolanda is wasting her time at the university and should come work at his café, but Yolanda's mother believes that such a job will taint her daughter's reputation and prevent her from becoming a respectable wife or a doctor. Yolanda arrives home and, seeing her distraught mother, insists that they do not need Evangelis' money. Yolanda then goes to a music publisher to try to sell some songs that she has written and thus raise the five-hundred dollars needed for her registration fees. The music publisher tells her that the market is "jazz mad" and offers the dejected Yolanda a pittance for her songs. On registration day at the university, Pindarus convinces Andreas, who is without money, to give up his own scientific experiments and take a job at a local clinic. Upon discovering Andreas' plan, Yolanda insists that she will pay his registration fees with money that an uncle sent from America. Yolanda goes to her uncle's cabaret, a dump called "The House of Paradise," and she asks for a job, finally accepting an advance of five-hundred dollars instead of the one-thousand she had originally requested. Sacrificing her own education, Yolanda uses the money to register Andreas at the university. On Halloween Eve, Andreas, unaware of Yolanda's new job, tries to study but a group of friends burst into his room and carry him out to Evangelis' cabaret. Finally in the festive spirit, Andreas leads the revelry, and as he offers drinks to the musicians, he sees Yolanda at the piano. He screams that she is a liar, as she has been claiming to have had headaches every night. Evangelis insists that Yolanda keep playing after Andreas runs away. After closing, when he forces himself on her, she gives him a mortal blow to the head with a hammer. At a Greek prison, Pindarus and Andreas visit Yolanda, and Andreas, who now understands all, pledges his love. Back at the lab, Andreas, driven, continues his work on pig corpses and neglects to visit Yolanda, who is ill and suffering from a broken heart. Eventually becoming renowned for his experiments on regenerating human life, Andreas gives a lecture with the President of the Republic of Greece in attendance and then meets a rich philanthropist, Mr. Tsaldes, who offers him money to conduct his experiments and a trip to America with the Tsaldes family. At the prison, Pindarus tells Yolanda that Andreas is no longer one of them and that her love for him will entail sacrificing herself for his happiness. Sometime later, after an acquittal and a move to another city, Yolanda goes back to the apartment building where both she and Andreas once lived, and she overhears Pindarus tell the landlady that Andreas has married Doris Tsaldes, daughter of the rich philanthropist. Ten years later, after learning that Andreas has returned to Greece, Pindarus reads in the newspaper about an unidentified dying woman who is donating her body to science. Believing the woman to be Yolanda, he goes to her and realizes that only Andreas' expertise can save her. Andreas does not arrive in time and Yolanda dies crying out for one last look at her lost lover. Back in the university in the present, Andreas nearly faints and is carried out into the lobby. When he comes to his senses, he cries out that he will save Yolanda. But Pindarus, stoic and ennobled by the sight of death's inexorability, looks at Yolanda's corpse and states with sagacity, "Such is life."

Film Details

Release Date
Jan 1931
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Hellenic Cinema Corp.
Country
United States

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

The plot summary and cast credits were taken from a pre-shooting script, written in Greek with side-by-side English translations, deposited with the NYSA. A news item in the January 31, 1931 Motion Picture Herald states that Anthony Danas was president of Hellenic Cinema Corporation. The article also states that the film was the first talking feature ever made "with the exclusive use of Greek."