When a Woman Sins (1918)

Lillian Marchand- Poppea, is on the threshold of life, where all of us are some time or other. She is a nurse, and attending old West. He wanted a young and pretty nurse-as most, men really do, but haven't the candor to say-hence Theda is on the scene. He shakes her hand effusively. She is sweet as pie-even the -rationed apple. His son, Michael, is a cleric. His father calls him a whiner-he likes not hymns, but hers, to place it colloquially. The doctor tells Michael of his father's little failings. There is a threat just-here of sending her thoughts into a dramatic field. Michael, by the way, has also a soft in his heart for her well-blacked eyes. inspiration-his mother. He tells her whence he gets his Old West goes on lingering in a world that he does not adorn, while Lillian continues to nurse exceeding well. Visitors arrive with his nephew Reggie and his mother; they are chips of the old block. Michael finds Lillian in the poppy garden, and almost pops the question -we see it in his eyes. She reveals that her father was a gypsy violinist. He rushes away to escape temptation. But he had aroused her hot Zingari temperament. She brushes her hair tempestuously, she dances she poses-dances from her room to the balcony-and is seen by Old West, who rises from his bed. Michael is much disturbed, and tells her she is a schemer. He clears her out of the house. She goes, heart-broken. Old West dies. She determines to win success. She marks men down for her prey. Mephistopheles is at her elbow; in reality he is an impresario. She becomes Poppea, the famous actress. Michael gets to work, tries to put his pleasant memories to sleep-it isn't so easy. Our impresario gets jealous while Poppea makes merry with a younger man who drinks to a short and merry life. The young man is Reggie. Contrast picture. Michael like a good shepherd in poor homes. Her chaperon tells Poppea that all his money is gone. Michael watches his cousin, Reggie, drink, and tells him that Poppea is draining him. Reggie thinks that Michael is trying to bluff him. Now to the actress' dressing-room. Michael arrives. She eyes his card with mingled feelings. He has come to ask a favor-that she should give Reggie up. Reggie surprises them, and draws the wrong conclusions. Reggie, as a matter of fact, is the better man of the two, and Poppea wreathes him with her arms. Exeunt Michael. Tomorrow her engagement is to be announced. Comes the day of her "triumph," Michael is cut-up. Enter Mrs. West to beg her to give back her son. Poppea, however, can't be bought-Mrs. West can't pay enough. She promises to exchange Reggie for Michael-if the latter will come to her that night. She waits like an excited gambler, counts the hours. He comes; and Reggie sees him. She falls on the couch. She tells him that she loves him, and, continuing, tells him in other words that he is a prig. In fact it does him a little good being told the truth for once, living in the slightly attenuated air of the church as he does. Her soul is dead. He looks upon her, and clasps her hands. At the moment of the kiss, Reggie bursts in. She turns him down. In the next room the boy commits suicide; you realize the clergyman's dilemma, and wonder if he is going to be big enough man to say where he was at the time. He preaches in church; she attends. The church scenes strike a welcome note against all the suggested passion. The female Pharisees see him speaking to the Scarlet Woman. She gives her pearls, her diamonds, to the poor. The Pharisees attack him-he has to choose. He does, symbolically, by way of a lily. But she rushes away, and proposes a celebration orgy for that night. She proposes to save Michael by not wrecking his career. He attends that supper, takes her in. She drinks to a life of pleasure, and puts herself up to the highest bidder. She has a vision-in the highest sense poetical. They bid for her-higher, higher. A lily reaches her, together with the Written Word, Revulsion, and so to a great climax, where she becomes a nurse again.