The Absentee
Cast & Crew
William Christy Cabanne
Arthur Paget
Charles Lee
Otto Lincoln
Robert Edeson
A. D. Sears
Film Details
Synopsis
In a prologue, Success leaves Might in charge of his affairs and goes off with Pleasure. Might, influenced by Extravagance and Vanity, forces the Toilers, including Ambition, to suffer. Justice tells Success, who returns and ends the misery. In the main story, Nathaniel Crosby (Success), who owns the National Hat Works, leaves Sampson Rhodes (Might), his general manager, in charge, while he goes on a vacation to recover his health. Rhodes, urged by his wife (Extravagance) and daughter (Vanity), cuts the employees' wages and uses the increased earnings to further his family's social ambitions. When the workers strike, Tom Burke (Ambition), a young inventor, is unable to give financial help to his mother, who has tuberculosis, or to marry Happiness, the daughter of foreman David Lee (Contentment). After Happiness becomes Tom's mistress, and Lee's younger daughter Innocence elopes with bounder Edmund Rolfe, Lee leads the strikers to riot. When Rhodes summons the militia, Crosby's stenographer Ruth Farwell (Justice) tells Crosby, who sends them away, but is then attacked by the strikers. Although Ruth, trying to protect Crosby, is shot by Lee, she recovers and marries Crosby, who sends Tom and Happiness money to wed.
Director
William Christy Cabanne
Cast
Arthur Paget
Charles Lee
Otto Lincoln
Robert Edeson
A. D. Sears
George A. Beranger
Augustus Carney
Loretta Blake
Mildred Harris
Wahnetta Hanson
Olga Gray
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The actor Otto Lincoln was probably Otto Elmo Linkenhelt, better known as Elmo Lincoln. According to some sources, the allegorical character played by Robert Edeson was "Power," and the name of the character played by Olga Gray was "Portia Farwell."
