Summary
Two sons of a landed Devon squire, bred on the same mist-drenched lawn, orbit the bright satellite of Edith Danvers—patrician beauty, secret bigamist, unwitting architect of three ruined hearts. The elder, schooled for empire and sent to curry favour on Indian frontiers, returns to find the family name bequeathed to him, his brother vanished in colonial disgrace, and the girl he once adored now an unbendable refusal. In wounded haste he weds a nameless orphan of the tide-pools, a girl who believes love is a dog that can outrun a carriage; their brief Eden founders when the spectral Edith re-enters, trailing whispers of a clandestine marriage to the prodigal younger son whose sins bankrupted him. Misread glances, midnight trysts and a poisoned glass propel the unlettered bride toward black water; she survives, sheds her past like a snake-skin, and becomes a lay-sister in grey serge. Years later, providence strands her on the platform of the junction town where her rival now smiles over prams; a headstone bearing her own name waits in the churchyard, and the husband who never ceased grieving lies prostrate upon it. Recognition, absolution, a sister’s blessing—two gloved hands re-knit what water, war and pride had frayed.
Synopsis
Henry Dennys, a wealthy Englishman, has two sons who are frequently brought into the company of Edith Danvers, whose father, a retired general, lives on the adjoining property. As the youths approach manhood each one unknown to the other is secretly in love with the girl. The elder son is sent to Sandhurst, from there enters the army as an officer and sees several years' service in India. Upon the death of his father he returns home to take charge of the estate and finds that his brother has fled to Australia. The younger man, it appears, has led a wild life and his evil deeds and extravagance force him to depart under an assumed name. Very soon after his return, the heir resumes his courtship of Edith, but she refuses him, telling him that although she has always liked him she cannot marry him. Heartbroken, he departs from his home. In a little fishing village, he meets a beautiful uneducated girl and is flattered by the respect she pays him. He finally determines to marry her and she consents. The wedding is held in the village church and as they drive away he is surprised when his bride bursts into tears. She sobbingly explains that no one has ever loved her, her grandmother, her only living relative, was glad to get rid of her, and that her husband simply married her out of pity. She then adds, "The only friend I had was little Jim, my dog, and I have left him behind." Hoping to comfort her the husband leans out of the window of the carriage to give orders to the driver to return, and is touched when he sees the little dog painfully trotting along beside the carriage hoping to keep up with them. The animal is restored to his mistress. After a happy honeymoon the couple return to their beautiful home, and slowly sorrow comes into the wife's life. It is all due to Edith, and the worst of it is that the husband does not notice it. Edith is so hopeful, so ready to assist the heir's poor wife, that his heart is filled with gratitude to her. The wife is convinced that her husband's love is slipping from her. Edith and the husband have some secret they are keeping from the wife and the wife frequently surprises them in mysterious conferences. She does not know that the husband is protecting Edith from the consequences of her own folly. Edith has been secretly married to the younger brother and knew she would be disinherited if her father ever learned the truth. Edith's husband unexpectedly returns from Australia and refuses to depart without seeing his wife. He first calls secretly upon his brother and when he slips out of the house to meet Edith, the heir's bride witnesses the meeting and believes it is her own husband, who is showering kisses upon the woman she regards as her rival. The wife at first determines to take her husband's life, but her courage fails her at the last moment, and she dashes from his hand a glass containing poisoned wine. Her husband does not realize the cause of her action and fears she is going insane. This belief is strengthened the following day when it is found she has disappeared. On the banks of a body of water near her home some personal possessions of hers are found, also her little dog Jim, and the belief is that she has committed suicide by leaping into the water. The husband mourns her as dead, and erects a headstone to her memory in the village graveyard. The woman still lives, however. She did not drown, but wandered from her home. She finally is given refuge in an asylum conducted by a religious order. While convalescing she was reading an old newspaper and came upon an account of the wedding of her fair rival and the son of Henry Dennys, the former owner of Colworth. She believed the item referred to her husband and fell in a faint before completing the article which identified the bridegroom as the younger son of whose existence she never knew. Convinced that life held no further joy for her the wife determined to join the religious order and become a lay sister, the fact that she had been married preventing her from taking the final vows. A number of years later the lay sister and an elderly sister are on their way to New Zealand. They change trains at the junction town in which the Colworth estate is located. There the wife again meets her rival, now apparently a happy, contented woman with her two children. Overcome by emotion the lay sister staggers out of the station and finally enters the village graveyard. There her attention is attracted to a man lying on a grave. Believing him to be injured she hurries to him. It is her husband and the grave over which he is weeping is surmounted by a headstone bearing the wife's name. The wife finds that her suspicions have all been groundless. The elder sister returns while they are conversing and rejoices. She tells the wife there is no reason why she should not return to her husband. She joins their hands and the sorrows of the wife are ended as her husband puts his arm about her.
Review Excerpt
"
A church bell tolls over Devon cliffs; the camera trembles as if the very tripod were sobbing. Thus begins His Wife, a film that treats the Victorian marriage plot like a hand-grenade with the pin half-pulled.
Seldom has a title card so cannily lied. “His Wife” is never merely his; she is a migratory soul, passing from dog-loving urchin to reluctant assassin to penitent nun, finally to resurrected lover. The picture’s five-act arc—courtship, exile, jealousy, death-in-life, resurrection—uns..."
