The Forged Testament (1915)

movie

Country: USA
Genres: Drama, Short
Release: 1915-03-21
Director: George Nichols
Writers: N/A
Language: None | English
Stars: Charles Clary , Cora Drew , Seena Owen , Olga Grey , George Nichols
Runtime: min
Awards: N/A
AKA: The Forged Testament , The Forged Testament (United States of America) , The Forged Testament (Germany)
Plot: Mawby, an unscrupulous adventurer, beguiles a rich widow into marrying him. Very soon she discovers his real character. He constantly badgers her for money, which he loses at cards, and one night he wrests her purse from her, falling in a semi-drunken stupor on the couch. Mrs. Halloway, feeling a heart attack coming on; she has an incurable heart trouble, and fearing that Mawby will get possession of her estate, sits down at once and writes a will, leaving everything she owns to her daughter, Madeline, who is away at school. Suspicious, however, lest Mawby be feigning drunk to put her off her guard, she hides the will in the front of her dress. Then she writes a letter to her lawyer, asking him to come the next day for the will. Feeling faint, and gasping for breath, she staggers to the porch and falls on a divan. From there she sees Mawby pocket the letter to the lawyer, and taking the will out of her dress puts it in a secret compartment of a locket she is wearing. Her death occurs that night. After the funeral, Mawby helps himself to Mrs. Halloway's jewels. The locket, however, appearing to be of small value, he tosses it over to Madeline. Pressed for money and fearing that if the missing will is found he will be penniless, Mawby tries to inveigle Madeline into marrying him. Failing in this, he contrives to have her lured to a lonely roadhouse, coming along just in time to save her reputation, if she will promise to marry him. Realizing that he is at the bottom of her predicament, the girl indignantly refuses, and is marched to jail by the police, who have raided the inn. Mawby seeks to clinch matters by wiring The Evening Statesman the details of her arrest. The city editor assigns Muriel Manning to the story. Muriel and Madeline discover in one another old friends, and Madeline confides everything to the young reporter. While they are talking in the prison cell, the locket drops from Madeline's neck, and the will is disclosed. A few days later, when Mawby tries to put over a forged will, Muriel produces the authentic document. A water-mark on the false paper provides conclusive evidence. Mawby is jailed, and Madeline becomes her mother's sole heir.
IMDB:tt0451353