Summary
A verdant autumn hunt fractures friendship when Bob Bell’s stray pellet burrows into Tom Ward’s flesh, igniting a slow-burning saga of guilt, grace, and masked penance. While Tom convalesces in the Bell manor’s sun-drenched parlors, he absorbs the amber light of Grace’s piano chords and the lavender scent of her correspondence ink; love germinates in the interstices of bandaged ribs and borrowed novels. Yet collegiate corridors—Gothic arches echoing with ragtime—become a moral labyrinth where Tom’s roulette compulsions corrode honor, while Bob’s laurels in track and theology gleam like burnished brass. A clandestine boxing poster, cryptically signed “Masked Wonder,” materializes on the bulletin board like a scarlet leaf; Tom, desperate for coin, answers as “Masked Unknown.” Gloved fists become the blunt instruments of fate: one errant hook sends Bob crimsoning to the canvas, cranium rebounding with a sound remembered later in nightmares. Simultaneously, the Dean lies bleeding in his study, pockets emptied, and Tom—already stained with fratricidal guilt—becomes the inevitable suspect. Flight ensues: steam locomotive pistons pound like panicked metronomes, then a coughing hydroplane skims pre-dawn mist until fuel exhaustion strands him amid salt-stung reeds. A fisher-girl with kelp-scented hair and eyes the color of stormglass salvages the fugitive, stitching anonymity into his torn coat. Months ossify into seasons; meanwhile, Grace, picnicking near an abandoned mine, is punctured by a copperhead’s theatrical strike—enter again the fisher-girl, now savior twice-over. Bob, resurrected from death’s antechamber, combs estuaries for Tom, discovering instead love in the mermaid silhouette of Nellie. All trajectories converge when the ancestral Bell home is haunted not by larceny but by a shy nocturnal silhouette—Tom, returning like a moth to lamplight, distributing anonymous gifts under cover of darkness. A staged blackout, a scuffle, and the final unmasking flood the foyer with forgiveness: the Shadow steps into incandescence, absolved by the same friends he once believed he had mortally fractured.
Synopsis
Tom Ward visits his college chum, Bob Bell, and while hunting, is wounded by his friend by mistake. During his convalescence he falls in love with Bob's sister, Grace. The two young men leave tor college. Bob is a model student and the leader in the college athletics, while Tom neglects his studies, spending most of his time in idleness and over the gambling table. The college authorities object to his wild ways, and he is summoned to the Dean's office, where he is severely reprimanded. An altercation follows, and the Dean orders the hotheaded student from the office. In the meanwhile, Bob, knowing of Tom's financial difficulties, posts a challenge on the board in the name of the Masked Wonder, to meet all comers, "winner take all." The notice attracts Tom's attention, and he accepts in the name of the Masked Unknown. An unfortunate blow knocks out Bob, and Tom is horror-stricken when he finds that his masked opponent is his dearest friend, and learns that the blow will probably prove fatal. To make matters worse, while the boxing match is in progress, the Dean has been attacked and robbed, and Tom is accused of this by the Dean's housekeeper. Tom's first impulse is to stand and face the music, but the students prevail upon him to hide and then flee. Tom is pursued by the police, but makes his escape, first by rail and then by hydroplane motorboat, closely followed by his pursuers. He finally shakes them off. In an exhausted condition, Tom is fed and cared for by the fisher girl whom he chances to meet. Mr. Bell, investigating an abandoned mine, takes his daughter Grace with him. While admiring the beauties of the scenery, Grace is approached by a snake, and it viciously buries its fangs in her foot. Grace's outcry brings Nellie, the fisher girl, to her aid. Grace assures her deliverer of her profound gratitude. Bob recovers from the blow received in the fight, and starts out to find Tom, of whom all traces have been lost. He is unsuccessful in this, but during his search happens upon Nellie, the fisher girl, who tells him that Tom, fearing pursuit, has wandered on. Bob falls in love with Nellie and takes her home to introduce her to his father and sister, and makes new plans to find Tom. On reaching his home, Bob finds the entire household much excited over the nocturnal visits of a mysterious "Shadow." Nellie is taken into the conference, and Grace immediately recognizes her as the girl who saved her life. Bob suspects that her "Shadow" evidently is not bent on theft, and lays a trap to ascertain why the "Shadow" prowls around the house, and distributing the members of the family in advantageous positions, turns out the lights and awaits the coming of the mysterious visitor. In due time the "Shadow" arrives. Bob springs upon him, the lights are turned on, and all present are overjoyed to find that the "Shadow" is none other than the long-sought Tom. Tom is happy to find that Bob is alive, and when Bob tells him that he is no longer under the suspicion of the assault of the Dean, Tom turns to Grace, and Bob turns to Nellie. You know the rest.
Review Excerpt
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A bullet of friendship, a serpent of chance, a mask of penance—In the Shadow stitches these disparate wounds into one shimmering tapestry of 1915 American cinema.
John B. Hymer’s screenplay arrives like a daguerreotype soaked in mercury and moonlight: every frame trembles between melodrama’s grandiloquence and a surprisingly modern inspection of masculine shame. Director Harry Handworth—also essaying Bob Bell—understands that silence can be orchestral; he lets the rustle of oak leaves or the h..."
