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Two Little Imps Synopsis
Jane and Katherine are the sweetest youngsters in the world--in their mother's eyes. The family is summering at a seaside resort when Mama is called to town for a week. Not wishing to interrupt her darlings' good time, she summons her young bachelor brother to the hotel to look after the girls until she returns. "Billy" Parke undertakes the job. On the way to the resort he meets Betty Murray. The two are bound for the same hotel and it's love at first sight. Billy would have enjoyed the bus ride from the station to the hotel with Betty if his nieces hadn't entered, recognized him, and made themselves at home on his lap after being drenched when they drove an electric wheelchair into the surf. He must neglect Betty on reaching the hotel to get the youngsters dry clothing and clean them up. Soon after her arrival at the hotel Betty and her father enter the dining room at the same time Billy and Katherine appear. Katherine had previously met Mr. Murray and introduces Uncle Billy to Mr. Murray and Betty. They are talking when Jane, who had been left in her room asleep, appears in an exceedingly brief costume on the trail of something to eat. Billy grabs her and bundles her back upstairs. Jane and Katherine keep the hotel in a turmoil. Every time Billy tries to advance his suit for Betty is an opportunity for a new escapade by the youngsters. On one of her trips about the resort Katherine comes upon Bob Murray, the son of Mr. Murray, whose father cast him out for forging a check. Bob is in a bad way when Katherine finds him, and her motherly attentions awaken his deadened manliness and he promises her he'll go straight and earn his father's forgiveness. Meanwhile, Mr. Murray confides in Katherine his great sorrow and she asks him why he doesn't ask his prodigal son to return, to which the elderly man replies that he would if he could find him. Katherine promises to help him. A few nights later two crooks with whom Bob was connected plan to rob the Murray apartment in the hotel. Bob, though not knowing his pals were planning to rob his father, tries to quit the job, but is finally prevailed upon to undertake it. The first thing the boy's flashlight hits on entering the apartment is a picture of his dead mother. He refuses to go farther and telephones to the hotel desk asking for help just as one of the crooks fells him. The thieves flee from the room just as Mr. Murray enters and finds his son. They take refuge in Jane's room. Recognizing the men as crooks she slips from bed and hides in a bureau drawer. Uncle Billy enters, grapples with the men and is being overcome when Jane hits one of the robbers on the head with an iron. Billy soon quiets the other. The racket attracts Mr. Murray and hotel attendants, who arrest the crooks. After the excitement subsides Mr. Murray embraces his son and restores him to his estate. Billy and Betty withdraw and decide there is no blessedness in being single, and Jane and Katherine watch with mingled pleasure and surprise the outcome of the events in which they were small but important factors.
The Marble Heart Synopsis
Therese Roger is the daughter of a West Indian planter. When she is a baby her parents are murdered and she is adopted by her aunt, Madame Roger, keeper of a haberdashery shop in one of the smaller villages in southern France. She grows up with Madame Roger's son Camille, a sickly, sexless creature she ultimately marries in deference to her aunt's wishes. The monotony of Therese's married life tells on her. The uninteresting Camille each day drones out his existence in an office. At night he returns ever at the same hour, ever in the same enfeebled health and depressed spirits. Two neighbors, Dr. Gribet and Michaud, the prefect of police, drop into the Roger household for their weekly game of dominoes with Madame Roger. Suzanna, daughter of Dr. Grivet and Oliver, son of Michaud, who are in love, call frequently on the aged Madame Roger to pay their respects. Therese, full of youth and life, tires of her environment and its unchanging cycle of events. Camille collapses one day at the office and is brought home by his friend Laurant, Camille's opposite. When Laurant meets Therese, they are attracted to each other, and when he becomes a frequent visitor, a liaison develops between them. Seeing Camille as the only obstacle to their happiness, the two evil lovers decide to kill him. When the opportunity arises, they drown him. They manage to escape suspicion from the murdered man's mother and in course of time marry with the old woman's consent. But they have not attained the happiness which they thought would be theirs with Camille out of the way, for their crime haunts them. It shows in their faces. It stalks through their home. It leads them into quarreling with each other. During one of their stormy scenes they are overheard by Madame Roger, who becomes stricken with paralysis and the total loss of speech upon learning how her son died. The helpless old mother gloats over the torture which Therese and Laurant suffer from their consciences. In time, when guests are present, she tries to write her accusation of them upon the tablecloth with the edge of a domino, but her fingers cannot complete the sentence. She sees distrust continue to grow between the unhappy pair. Therese and Laurant plan to kill each other, but both are too-great cowards to add a new crime to their records, and they drink poison together, paying at last with their own lives for their earlier crime.
"Two Little Imps" holds a slight edge in general audience appreciation, but "The Marble Heart" offers its own unique cult appeal.
Suggested Watch:
Two Little Imps