The Mummy and the Humming Bird

Summary

A marble manor on the Hudson dozes beneath a late-summer haze; inside, Constance Frobisher—once the toast of Newport—rots like forgotten camellias, her husband’s briefcase bulging with coal-lease contracts while her bed gathers dust. Into this vacuum swoops Count Roberto Montecrespi, a Florentine literary cad whose smile promises every ballroom the moon yet delivers strychnine in the icing. He circles the restless matron with operatic flattery, translating her sighs into novels he will sell abroad, each chapter a scalpel slicing closer to her ruin. While Constance dallies among moonlit magnolias, her spouse’s dormant jealousy sparks to volcanic life, fanned by Montecrespi’s earlier conquest—a vengeful violinist whose scars still sting. The film’s pulse quickens as alliances pivot: a loyal chauffeur turned avenging angel, a stenographer clutching love letters like grenades, and a child’s porcelain doll that witnesses everything yet never blinks. When the final reel unspools, reputations lie shredded like ticker-tape along Fifth Avenue, yet innocence—battered, limping—still crosses the finish line, hummingbird wings beating against the bandages of a resurrected marriage.

Synopsis

"The Mummy and the Humming-Bird" recounts the tragedy of a neglected wife who seeks amusement in the company of an unscrupulous Italian novelist whose only object in making love to her is the hope of eventually accomplishing her downfall. The reawakening of the unsuspecting husband, the revenge of which a former victim of the wily schemer wreaks, and the saving of the innocent woman are fraught with thrills and dramatic suspense in abundance. It is the sort of production which can not but impress those who view it. (Hearst's Sunday American, ((Atlanta, Ga.)) 7 November 1915)