The Terror

Summary

A visceral odyssey through the labyrinth of moral culpability, 'The Terror' (1917) charts the precipitous descent and agonizing transfiguration of Chuck Connelly. The narrative ignites with a flash of protective violence: Chuck slays a gunman to shield his sister’s honor, an act of primal justice that inadvertently shackles him to the very underworld he sought to repel. Blackmailed by opportunistic detectives into the service of a shadowy criminal syndicate, Chuck is transmuted from a desperate protector into a cog within a machine of graft and assassination. His trajectory toward total nihilism is arrested only by the twin forces of divine grace—embodied by the beatific Annie Mangan and the Salvation Army—and the startling, guileless innocence of a child. Tasked with the execution of a crusading District Attorney, Chuck finds his resolve shattered by the trust of a three-year-old girl, sparking a spiritual crisis that pits his survival against his burgeoning conscience. The film culminates in a harrowing library siege where Chuck, seeking a final 'squaring with God,' trades his life for the safety of those he was ordered to destroy, achieving a bloody, sublime atonement that transcends the sordid streets of his origin.

Synopsis

Chuck Connelly discovers his sister in a compromising situation with a gunman and kills the man. Two private detectives connect him with the crime. Later, the members of the protected organization to which the man belonged, attempt to kill Chuck, but he kills three of them and the detectives help him make a getaway. They then force Chuck with threats of the electric chair to kill a reformer who has been upsetting the organization. Chuck then becomes a regular member of the gang. Chuck falls in love with Annie Mangan, who is persuaded to go to the Salvation Army home. Chuck comes to the dancehall looking for her and is told that she has joined the Salvation Army. The new District Attorney is pounding the graft organizations. Word is passed to the gunmen to get him. Chuck goes to the District Attorney's house to threaten him, and is taken aback when the District Attorney's three-year-old daughter leans trustfully on his knee and looks up into his face with a smile. He goes to the Salvation Army for another sight of Annie. Chuck's sister has become the mistress of Jim Canford, the man higher up. The District Attorney pays no attention to the warning. Chuck is ordered to kill him and breaks into the house. He sees the District Attorney's little daughter, who forgot one of her dolls and is on her way to the library to get it. He steps out of sight, the child passes him, and he attempts to go up the stairs but cannot do it. Canford arranges to put some other man on the job and accuse Chuck. His sister overhears and warns Chuck, who has gone to the Salvation Army. He tells Annie he has thrown the gang down and asks her to teach him "this religion thing." She explains, but he cannot understand how a few words of acknowledgment can square all he has done. His sister arrives and, seeing a chance "to square himself with God," goes to save the District Attorney. The gunmen have surrounded the District Attorney's house before Chuck arrives. He reaches the door and sees the gunmen. There is no time to wait, so he breaks through the library window, grabs the District Attorney and his daughter, hurries them up stairs and faces the gunmen. The District Attorney's life is saved, but Chuck is mortally wounded. Word is sent to Annie and his sister and they come to the house. Chuck dies, feeling that this was the only way in which he could atone.