Strength of Family Ties (1914)

movie

Country: USA
Genres: Drama, Short
Release: 1914-04-16
Director: Lloyd B. Carleton
Writers: Shannon Fife
Language: None | English
Stars: Richard Morris , Mary Cecil , Ormi Hawley , Edward Peil Sr. , Eleanor Barry , Arthur Matthews , Ruth Bryan , James Humphrey
Runtime: min
Awards: N/A
AKA: Strength of Family Ties (United States of America) , Strength of Family Ties
Plot: John Brent, a broker, becomes estranged from his wife through his riotous living. The wife leaves him, taking their child with her. She dies later in a hospital, and the infant daughter, Nedra, is adopted by a Mrs. Ford, who has a son the same age as Nedra, his name being William. Meanwhile Brent, having lost all traces of his wife, has reformed and has adopted an infant son, Chris. In later years Nedra, grown to womanhood, is devotedly loved by William Ford. He asks her hand in marriage, but his mother (Nedra's foster mother) refuses to allow the marriage, believing Nedra to be an illegitimate child. When Nedra hears this supposed secret of her past, she conceives such hatred for Brent (whom she believes to be the man who wronged her mother) that she leaves William and his mother, determining to make Brent pay for what he has done. Later she has become, through continued disappointments, a social parasite, given to reckless, though not immoral living. William, still firm in his love, seeks her in vain. Nedra meets Chris in a café, and knowing him to be the adopted son of Brent, she determines to make Brent pay by making an example of his boy. Chris, by nature a wild, reckless youth, readily succumbs to Nedra's charms. Although she leads Chris to believe she is enamored of him, she holds herself aloof from him except in a manner to encourage his reckless riotous living, the traits of his father. Chris, who is in Brent's employ, soon begins stealing from his father to pay the bills caused by his association with Nedra. Brent, when he learns who is responsible for his boy's downfall, goes to Nedra to forbid her to come near Chris. He believes her to be an adventuress and does not realize she is his own daughter. Nedra laughs at him. Chris, continuing his extravagance, gives a banquet in his own home in Nedra's honor. On the same night Brent, at the office, learns from detectives that Chris is responsible for the shortages in the cash drawer. He leaves for house, broken-hearted, to find Chris and Nedra in the midst of the orgy. William, who has at last succeeded in tracing Nedra, is also there, as well as Marjorie Rand, a young woman to whom Chris had formerly been engaged. Marjorie and William, shocked at what they see, remain in concealment until the arrival of Brent. Brent, in a towering rage, has Nedra brought before him and dismisses her from the house. She retaliates by accusing him of having brought ruin, disgrace and dishonor upon her mother. Brent is shocked almost into insensibility by the discovery of Nedra's identity, which proves that she is his own daughter. Then Chris is told that the woman he wished to marry, and who was trying to ruin him, is his foster-sister. Father and son thus arrive at the tacit understanding which had never existed between them before. Both see the immensity of the folly of their past lives, and both are anxious to revere the memory of the dead mother, and make amends. Brent receives Nedra with open arms, and William stands ready to make her his bride, Chris seeks once more the hand of Marjorie, and Brent for the first time since he caused his wife to leave, is happy at life's future prospect.
IMDB:tt1232146