The Ne’er to Return Road (1913)

movie

Country: USA
Genres: Drama, Short
Release: 1913-07-19
Director: Colin Campbell
Writers: Maud Durbin
Language: None | English
Stars: Frank Clark , Lillian Hayward , Barney Furey , Wheeler Oakman , Eugenie Besserer , Bessie Eyton , Al W. Filson , Gerda Holmes
Runtime: min
Awards: N/A
AKA: The Ne'er to Return Road (United States of America) , The Ne'er to Return Road
Plot: Becoming dissatisfied with his quiet old country home, Henry Clark, who has achieved the degree of mining engineer, goes to a mining town, where he soon becomes infatuated with Mrs. Chris Hanson. Their clandestine meetings begin to pall the woman and they later advertise themselves by being together in a dance hall. Hanson, who has returned home unexpectedly, discovers that his wife has gone and traces her to the delectable place of the dance. Explanations are unsatisfactory and Hanson kills the young engineer. Probably through the "unwritten law," Hanson was not executed, but he was sent to the penitentiary for life and the unfaithful wife drifts out with the tide of oblivion. The news of her son's death prostrates Mrs. Clark and she lives with a desire to be avenged. Several years later Chris Hanson and others manage to escape from jail, and after shifting around from place to place for several days with hardly anything to eat or drink, Hanson, who had been able to evade his pursuers, falls exhausted at the feet of the gray-haired mother of the murdered boy. Observing from his dress that he is a fugitive, she covers him with the gun left her by her husband before he joined the posse in search of the escaped jailbirds. The wretched condition of the convict excites her pity and, bringing down her rifle, she goes into the house for food. This brings the man to a sense of gratitude and as he is eating he sobs out his story. It then dawns upon Mrs. Clark that the murderer of her son lies at her feet and she again raises her rifle, but again she lowers it. In answer to Mrs. Clark's question as to why she is unable to kill him, the fugitive replies, "Because I told you of my mother in far away Sweden, or perhaps you have a son of your own." The motherly instinct dominates and she aids the man to escape to his native land, Sweden, before her husband and posse return.
IMDB:tt0842797