The Spreading Dawn (1917)

The Spreading Dawn

1917

Drama Romance

Synopsis

Georgina asks permission from her old aunt, Patricia Mercer Vanderpyl, to marry Capt. Nugent before his departure for France. Patricia refuses and, in reply to Georgina's questioning, gives her a diary from her own girlhood to read. The diary unfolds the story of Patricia's marriage to soldier Anthony Vanderpyl. Returning on furlough after the outbreak of the Civil War, Anthony suddenly leaves Patricia to visit Mrs. Le Roy, an old flame, and is killed by her jealous husband. Positive that Anthony had been unfaithful to her, Patricia refuses to open the letter that her husband sent her on the day of his death. Georgina now opens it and discovers that Anthony had gone to Mrs. Le Roy to end the affair that his brother Bentley was having with her. With this revelation, Patricia sanctions her niece's marriage, then dies, joining Anthony in "the spreading dawn".

Credits

Director

Laurence Trimble

Cast

Alice Chapin as Mrs. Mercer

Cecil Owen as Colonel Lee

Edmund Lowe as Captain Lewis Nugent

Florence Billings as Mrs. Cornelia Le Roy

Harry Spingler as Bentley Vanderpyl

Helena Blair as Young Lizzie

Henry Stephenson as Mr. LeRoy

Jane Cowl as Patricia Mercer Vanderpyl