Love Never Dies - 1921 - 6/10
Boy meets girl, boys bests rival, boy marries girl, the end.
Nope, that’s the first fifteen minutes, and from there on the story takes strange turns.
Such as, the new husband’s mother turns out to be a woman of ill repute.
So the son has made something of himself. So what? The stain, the moral outrage.
The setting is the South, the time is pre-automobile. Honor matters.
Creaky King Vidor melodrama grew on me, and it is enhanced by a train sequence and rafting finale.
That said, around the 45” point, there is a leap in continuity. A reel is missing.
Not to worry, one can quickly deduce the missing narrative, and the story will make sense by the abrupt end.
