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The Broken Butterfly
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Wikipedia article
'The Broken Butterfly' is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur and starring Lew Cody, Mary Alden, and Pauline Starke.Waldman p.89[http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=17326 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: 'The Broken Butterfly']
Plot
While strolling through the forests of Canada, Marcne Elliot (Starke), a naive young woman meets Daniel Thorn (Cody), a composer looking for inspiration for a symphony. They are fascinated by each other and she abandons herself into her lovers arms. Daniel then writes a symphony and calls it Marcne after her. He then asks her to accompany him to "the old continent" for the first time, but she refuses, fearing the anger of her Aunt Julie Elliot (Alden).
Marcne gives birth to a little girl and then her aunt rejects her. Her own fears push her to attempt suicide. Upon returning, Daniel learns from Aunt Julie that Marcne gave birth to his child and that she drowned herself and her daughter. He then travels to forget his pain and meets Marcne's sister in England where she is playing his symphony. They get to know each other, finally fall in love and get married. Upon returning to Canada, they discover that Marcne and her daughter are still alive, but that Marcne lays dying in her bed. In agreement with his wife, they hide their marriage from Marcne. She dies happy and the couple adopts the little girl.
Cast
* Lew Cody as Daniel Thorn
* Mary Alden as Julie Elliot
* Pauline Starke as Marcne Elliot
* Peaches Johnson (this is probably Peaches Jackson)
* Nina Byron
Preservation status
A print of 'The Broken Butterfly' is listed in the catalog of the French archive Centre national du cinma et de l'image anime in Fort de Bois-d'Arcy.[https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.24/default.html The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: 'The Broken Butterfly']
References
Bibliography
* Waldman, Harry. 'Maurice Tourneur: The Life and Films'. McFarland, 2001.
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