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Back to Life
(1913) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by Allan Dwan
Cast: Pauline Bush [the wife], Jack Warren Kerrigan (J. Warren Kerrigan) [Jim, Destiny’s victim], William Worthington [the gambler], Jessalyn Van Trump [the charmer], Lon Chaney [the rival]
Victor Film Company production; distributed by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated. / Scenario by M. de la Parella. / Released 24 November 1913. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Universal production number 0223.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The gambler takes his sick wife to the mountains. The doctor has informed him that she will need special care, and he, with rich, red blood in his veins, is disgusted with life and her in particular. At the local saloon he finds comfort in the smile of one of the female regulars. Jim is jostled and insulted by the cowboys until, maddened, he draws his gun and fires. The posse pursue him, but he escapes to the mountains. Meanwhile, the wife has discovered her husband’s infidelity; leaving a note she goes into the hills with the avowed purpose of dying. At the stream she finds Jim, weak from the loss of blood. She nurses him and he, in turn, takes her to an old couple in the hills, where she rapidly regains her health. Jim commences to realize the meaning of manhood. Time goes on; the wife feels now that she can regain her husband’s love and starts for the mining camp. On the road her husband staggers to her feet and dies, having been shot after a saloon brawl. She goes on, meets Jim, and together they face the future. // Additional synopsis available in Blake-Films p. 7.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 29 November 1913, page ?] Warren Kerrigan, as a redeemed bad man in this admirable picture, presents a likable character. He appears shooting up a saloon in the West, riding away with a posse at his heels and escaping to meet up with the dying wife of a gambler, who has deserted her for another woman. It seems that she is afflicted with tuberculosis, but the sun and the air in the mountains cure her and she lives to fall in love with the man she has rescued. The gambler, killed after a card scrape, leaves her free in the end. The story is well dramatized, the action is spirited and the whole gets over in good shape.
Survival status: The film is presumed lost.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Gamblers - Infidelity - Medical: Illness
Listing updated: 6 January 2023.
References: Blake-Films p. 7; Spehr-American p. 100; Tarbox-Lost p. 141 : Website-Chaney; Website-IMDb.
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