The boy flees interminably to a barn too far away. There is a siege by a
posse, led by the detective. It is veritable border warfare. The Italian
leads an unsuccessful rescue party. The unfortunate youth finally hangs
himself. The beautiful Annabel bursts through the siege a moment too
late; then, heart broken, kills herself. These things are carried out by
good technicians. But it would have been better to have had the suicide
with but a tiny part of the battle, and the story five reels long instead
of six. This physical turmoil is carried into the spiritual world only
by the psychic momentum acquired through the previous confession scene.
The one thing with intrinsic pictorial heart-power is the death of
Annabel by jumping off the sea cliff.
Then comes the awakening. To every one who sees the film for the first
time it is like the forgiveness of sins. The boy finds his uncle still
alive. In revulsion from himself, he takes the old man into his arms. The
uncle has already begun to be ashamed of his terrible words, and has
prayed for a contrite heart. The radiant Annabel is shown in the early
dawn rising and hurrying to her lover in spite of her pride. She will
bravely take back her last night's final word. She cannot live without
him. The uncle makes amends to the girl. The three are in the
inconsistent but very human mood of sweet forgiveness for love's sake,
that sometimes overtakes the bitterest of us after some crisis in our
days.
The happy pair are shown, walking through the hills. Thrown upon the
clouds for them are the moods of the poet-lover's heart. They look into
the woods and see his fancies of Spring, the things that he will some day
write. These pageants might be longer. They furnish the great climax.
They make a consistent parallel and contrast with the ghoul-visions that
end with the confession to the detective. They wipe that terror from the
mind. They do not represent Poe. The rabbits, the leopard, the fairies,
Cupid and Psyche in the clouds, and the little loves from the hollow
trees are contributions to the original poetry of the eye.
Finally, the central part of this production of the Avenging Conscience
is no dilution of Poe, but an adequate interpretation, a story he might
have written. Those who have the European respect for Poe's work will be
most apt to be satisfied with this section, including the photographic
texture which may be said to be an authentic equivalent of his prose. How
often Poe has been primly patronized for his majestic quality, the wizard
power which looms above all his method and subject-matter and furnishes
the only reason for its existence!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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