Summary
In a remote Canadian outpost, the impending nuptials of Sergeant O'Farrell of the Royal Mounted Police and the innkeeper's daughter, Rosine Delorme, are abruptly fractured by the unexpected arrival of two enigmatic strangers. The celebration, poised on the precipice of marital bliss, plunges into disarray when news arrives of Rosine's errant brother Louis's prison break, orchestrated alongside the notorious, free-spirited outlaw Rossingnol. Duty-bound, O'Farrell defers the wedding vows to pursue the fugitives into the unforgiving wilderness. Meanwhile, one of the mysterious newcomers, a figure of compelling charisma, isolates Rosine. He masterfully manipulates her into guiding him to a secluded cabin at the Passage Du Mort, claiming it to be Louis's rendezvous point. Upon discovering the cabin deserted, the stranger reveals his true identity: he is Rossingnol. A desperate struggle ensues, culminating in Rosine's collapse. Rossingnol, with an unnerving blend of force and tenderness, carries her to a bed and begins a hypnotic induction, only to be interrupted by the sudden, wounded appearance of Louis, who warns of the encroaching mounted police. Rossingnol, in a moment of unexpected altruism, instructs Louis to conceal Rosine in the surrounding thicket until a signal shot allows them safe passage to the border. The narrative reaches its tragic crescendo as Rossingnol is felled by a police bullet, dying in the arms of his devoted sweetheart who had trailed him to the cabin. The denouement sees O'Farrell, disillusioned by the harsh realities of his oath, relinquish his commission, joining Rosine and Louis in a new life across the American border, leaving behind the stark, unyielding landscape that had claimed one man and reshaped the destinies of others.
Synopsis
Two mysterious strangers arrive uninvited at the wedding of Sergeant O'Farrell of the Royal Mounted Police and Rosine Delorme, the daughter of an innkeeper. After O'Farrell receives a message that Rosine's wayward brother Louis has escaped from prison with the notorious devil-may-care outlaw Rossingnol, O'Farrell postpones the wedding to find the convicts. One of the strangers confronts Rosine alone and convinces her to guide him to a cabin at the end of the Passage Du Mort where, he says, Louis awaits. When they find the cabin empty, the stranger reveals himself to be Rossingnol. They struggle and Rosine faints. Rossingnol carries her to a bed and hypnotizes her, but just then Louis arrives wounded to warn that the mounted police are coming. Rossingnol tells Louis to take Rosine and hide in the bushes until they hear a shot to signal them to head for the border. After Rossingnol is shot and dies in the arms of his sweetheart who followed him to the cabin, O'Farrell resigns and joins Rosine and Louis in the United States.
Review Excerpt
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A Luminous Shadow: Unpacking the Poetic Tragedy of The Man in the Moonlight (1917)
There's a certain ethereal magic to silent cinema, a language spoken not through dialogue, but through the profound eloquence of gesture, expression, and the stark interplay of light and shadow. The Man in the Moonlight, a 1917 offering penned by Elliott J. Clawson, is a prime example of this artistry, a narrative steeped in the romantic fatalism and moral ambiguities that defined much of the era's story..."
