The Soul Master

Summary

A haunting exploration of emotional petrification and the eventual thaw of the human psyche, The Soul Master dissects the life of Robert Travers, a man whose domestic tranquility is obliterated by his wife Arline’s sudden elopement. This betrayal transforms the once-tender father into a steel-hearted industrialist known colloquially as the 'man without a soul.' Decades later, the narrative pivots to the cavernous, impersonal aisles of his department store empire, where Ruth Carroll, a humble ribbon clerk, unknowingly becomes the catalyst for his redemption. Travers finds himself inexplicably drawn to the girl, a pull of the blood that he mistakes for mere paternalistic altruism. The plot thickens through the machinations of Laura Wilson, a social climber whose jealousy precipitates a dangerous gambit involving the lecherous Monty Fitzburgh. The film reaches its crescendo in a moment of anagnorisis, where a single photograph collapses years of resentment, revealing the clerk as his long-lost daughter and restoring the protagonist’s fractured humanity.

Synopsis

After his wife Arline takes their baby daughter Ruth and elopes with her old sweetheart, Robert Travers loses all faith in women. Years later, Travers, now known as the man without a soul, is the owner of a chain of department stores in which young Ruth Carroll is employed as a ribbon clerk. Finding himself strangely attracted to the girl, he takes a fatherly interest in her and offers Ruth a position in his office. This causes Laura Wilson, who has designs on Travers, to become jealous. When Travers, alarmed that he cares so much for Ruth, sends her back to the ribbon counter, Laura takes advantage of the situation and offers the girl a job as her companion. The girl leaves Travers a note of thanks and Travers, suspicious, follows her to Laura's, arriving in time to save her from the advances of the lecherous Monty Fitzburgh. Travers then notices a framed picture of Ruth and Arline and realizes that the ribbon clerk is his own daughter.