Summary
Across the dust-scabbed frontier towns where oil-lamps flicker like dying suns, Paul Temple—once the bright comet of serious theatre—travels with a rag-tag troupe, his talent eroded by whiskey and the slow rot of self-loathing. Beside him, Jane Dinsmore—his wife in name, martyr in fact—bears the bruises of his decline while Alice Robinson, her childhood confidante, receives a letter that lures her toward Manhattan’s electric marquees. Temple’s off-hand benediction sends Alice eastward; his marriage, meanwhile, curdles into nightly cruelty until Jane’s final telegram to her father becomes a death-rattle dispatch from a battlefield hearth. When the bereaved patriarch arrives, the landlady’s testimony ignites a vendetta as ancient as blood itself. Months later, Alice—now a chorine in a threadbare stock company—finds herself opposite a reborn Temple, alias ‘Mr. Delaney’, his charm re-forged, his demons merely rebranded. Under the proscenium’s false heaven he tutors her, sculpts her raw luminosity until she gleams, then traps her in a sham marriage brokered by a hired fraud in clerical collar. Broadway producers crown Delaney the sovereign of their new spectacle ‘The Lesson’; Alice, as ingénue, must fire a prop pistol at him nightly. But Jane’s father stalks the wings, swapping blanks for leaden truth, while Alice—learning her nuptials were hollow—whispers a prayer for real bullets. Curtain falls on crimson applause; a star is born in gun-smoke. Arrest, confession, suicide, absolution: the final triad plays out in a city that devours its sinners and mints its survivors into currency of affection.
Synopsis
The West is the stamping ground for Paul Temple and his thespian associates. He is talking with his sweetheart Jane Dinsmore as Jane's dear friend Alice Robinson enters with a letter from an erstwhile associate, advising her to go to New York and accept a place in the chorus. A word from Temple, and Alice has made up her mind: She leaves for New York. Temple and Jane have been married some time and are living unhappily, apart from the old folks. Temple's reputation as a serious actor is wide, but drink has degraded him, and Jane dies after years of abuse from him. Shortly before her death she had sent her father a telegram describing the wretched conditions under which she was living, and the information prompts Dinsmore to go to her. when he arrives at the Temples' address, the landlady reports his daughter's persecution and death, and he swears to avenge his daughter. Alice is contented with her place as a member of a cheap stock company. The dissipated Temple has come to New York and is engaged as the lead man of Alice's company. Alice is surprised to see him but he mourns the loss of his "poor wife" and explains that he has changed his name to Delaney for professional reasons, and Alice accepts his explanation. Attracted by her beauty and recognizing in her much latent talent, Temple promises to make her a great actress and she fails under his hypnotic influence. James Montrose, a producer, and Frank Wentworth, his lawyer, see the play in which Temple, now known as Delaney, is starring and choose him for their new Broadway vehicle "The Lesson." Delaney is engaged, and through his influence, Alice is retained to play the ingenue lead. He goes through a sham form of marriage with Alice, hiring a man named Ford to act as a parson Night after night, Delaney coaches Alice until she plays the part almost perfectly. Her big scene is in the last act, when she fires at Delaney as the curtain falls. All this time Dinsmore has been scouring the West for a trace of Temple, not knowing that he has changed his name. The play is a signal success. The first night brands Alice as a star. By chance Dinsmore, who has come to New York, sees a photograph of Delaney with Alice, and after investigation, learns that he is starring in "The Lesson." He thereupon writes a number of notes to the star threatening him. The receipt of these letters has begun to undermine Delaney's nervous system. Then Alice comes upon Ford demanding from Delaney the rest of the money for performing the mock wedding. Discovering that she is not actually married to him, she expresses the wish that real bullets be in the stage revolver at the performance at the theater that evening. After several notes have been sent, Dinsmore conceives a plan to avenge his daughter's death and forges a pass which admits him backstage in the theater where Delaney is playing. He replaces the blank cartridges in the revolver with real bullets, and Alice shoots Delaney to death. She is arrested and held on the strength of a statement from the maid, who heard her express the wish about real bullets in the revolver. Dinsmore, reading of Alice's arrest in the paper, telephones Wentworth, now handling Alice's case, and without disclosing his identity, he confesses he was responsible and Alice is released. Dinsmore, realizing that there is now nothing more to live for, commits suicide. Wentworth, having long since shown affection for Alice, is now accepted by her.
