Body and Soul
Summary
Amnesia shears Claire Martin from her silk-lined Great Neck existence; stripped of pedigree she drifts through cedar dusk until a thatched hunting cabin offers refuge. For seven amber-sunset days she is another woman entirely—laughing at trout leaping from the stream, trading barbs with Houghton, a Manhattan sportsman who treats her like a half-tamed fox. Then a lone rider dismounts for water, his spurs clinking like distant coins; Claire’s gaze flickers, curiosity blooms, and a kiss detonates the fragile idyll. Houghton storms in, carves a moon-shaped cicatrix into her collarbone—a brand of possession—and vanishes back to asphalt and ticker-tape. Months later, Fifth Avenue’s plate-glass throws back a studio portrait: same eyes, same mouth. Obsession re-ignited, he stalks the Taylor estate, confronts the now-restored heiress, drags her to a houseboat and demands the return of the woman she no longer remembers. When his embrace turns predatory she buries a pearl-handled blade in his chest. Kent, her steadfast fiancé, stumbles upon the scene, spirits the fainting Claire home, and with a country doctor constructs a fragile suicide narrative to shield her from the coroner’s gaze. Circumstantial whispers circle; Kent absorbs suspicion, exorcises it with calm logic, and finally folds the traumatized Claire into a future where memory remains optional but mercy is compulsory.
Synopsis
Claire Martin, niece of the wealthy Mrs. Taylor, suffers from loss of memory. Under the effect of this, Claire acts as an entirely different person. She wanders through the woods seeking shelter and food, and finally reaches a cabin temporarily occupied by a New York sportsman, who is fishing and hunting in the woods. For a week, Claire accepts the shelter from this sportsman whose love grows with each day's stay. Finally a strange rider passing the cabin asks for a drink, and Claire in her innocence shows her admiration for the new man, making him finally accept the temptation of her eyes to kiss her. At this moment Houghton, the sportsman, returns and bursts into the cabin. He drives out the stranger and then takes a knife and marks the woman so that she will always remember that her love must be for him alone. Houghton returns to New York. While walking down Fifth Avenue he sees in a photographer's showcase a picture which closely resembles the girl he thinks he lived with in the woods. He finds out who she is and decides to visit Great Neck and see if it is the same girl. Returning to his boat, Houghton looks at some pictures which he had taken of the girl and decides it must be she. He returns to the grounds of Mrs. Taylor's home and meeting Claire declares she is the woman who was with him at the cabin. Pushing back the dress from her shoulders, he points to the scar. She begs him to tell her what he knows about the scar, and he thinking she is bluffing, tells her to come to the houseboat and he will tell her. There Houghton proves that she must have been with him at the cabin and when he demands that she love him now as she did then and attempts to take her, she picks up a knife from the table and kills him. Kent, who has been over to the Yacht Club to a committee meeting, sees this when returning to his launch. He rushes to the boat and carries the fainting body of Claire home, gets her to her room and calls the doctor to see if he can help her. The doctor declares that the girl is guiltless of the crime, having gone back to her old personality, and they decide to make the case appear as one of suicide. When Kent is returning to the boat the following morning he finds there some pictures of her and her scarf, but when he himself is charged with the murder by the man who heard the quarrel, he is made to believe that Claire is innocent by Kent and the doctor, who point out to him the terrible weakness of circumstantial evidence. After Charlie goes, the doctor tells Kent that Claire needs care and attention and must be protected, and Kent in his great love takes her to his heart.
