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  • The Master Smiles (1916)
  • Short | Short
The Master Smiles (1916)
Short | Short
It is a play in which is seen Satan, smiling a smile of triumph, as the helpless human beings work out their destiny in the glare of the white lights. The home of wealthy Mr. Clements is in shadows; the wife, a society leader, spends her ...See moreIt is a play in which is seen Satan, smiling a smile of triumph, as the helpless human beings work out their destiny in the glare of the white lights. The home of wealthy Mr. Clements is in shadows; the wife, a society leader, spends her time at the bridge table among friends, while the husband slowly lured by the smile of the governess, is won. The wife discovers the husband's attentions to the governess, threatens both, and declares she will divorce her husband. Clements stops the payment on checks given the wife for gambling debts, tells her to divorce him if she will, but pay her many debts. The desperate financial conditions of the wife, soften her, and things move on as before. Fifteen years later we see Lucy, the baby of the Clements' home, now a charming girl, thirsting for the cup which had made her mother's life so bitter. Jack Goodwin, an ambitious miner from the west visits New York with his millions in wealth. Clement is anxious for Lucy to marry him, but Lucy, enticed by Francis Decker, a designing gambler, is lured to the cabaret, then to the office of a justice where they are married, Lucy hardly realizing the step she is taking. Lucy brings her husband home, is cast out, and her downward path is steep. After a year of wretched existence, her baby dies, while she is unconscious in the emergency hospital. The governess, having received her downward push in the Clement mansion, is in the depths. To her Lucy's miserable husband turns. Later in a rough den, Lucy discovers her husband dead, circumstances hold her, and the courtroom scene shows many possibilities in the turn of the drama. Features portray guilt, innocence, revenge and despair. The guilty is left for the onlooker to select, while the scene fades, leaving Satan still with his grin of gratification, "So my play goes on. Who wins? Never mind. Just watch the many more lured into the losing game by my master smile." Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less
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Producers
E.D. Horkheimer | H.M. Horkheimer
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Status
Edit Released
Updated Mar 3, 1916
Release date
Mar 3, 1916 (United States)

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2 cast members
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