Originally posted on February 2, 2021. Since publishing this post, the library of congress has since uploaded the shooting script. I plan to revisit this recreation in the future to alter my synopsis where it is needed.
On September 18, 1916, Fox released Valeska Suratt’s third film, tilted “The Straight Way.” Her last movie was with Paramount, but starting with “The Straight Way”, Valeska would stay with Fox for the rest of her short silent film career.
This film was written and directed by Will S. Davis. He will go on to direct and write Valeska’s next two films. Looking at his IMDB profile, he was cranking out films left and right! Unfortunately he died at a young age (38) in 1920. I do want to mention that he also directed another vamp, that being the queen herself, Theda Bara, in 1915’s “Destruction.”
Valeska Suratt……………………. Mary Madison
Herbert Heyes……………………. John Madison
Glen White…………………………. Dan Walters
Claire Whitney…………………… Nell Madison
Elsie Balfour………………………. Marion Madison
Richard Turner………………….. Sullivan
Richard Rendell…………………. Carey
Fred Jones…………………………. Burton
T. Tamamoto……………………. Valet
The first five entries I was able to verify via newspaper entries, the last four from IMDB.
Story:
Valeska Suratt plays Mary Madison. She is married to John Madison (Herbert Heyes) and they have an infant daughter, Marion. At the beginning of the film, Mary’s relations with another man are unjustly suspected by her husband. What exactly this situation is, I could not find any mention (information on this film was kind of light in my findings). Whatever it was, it causes John to cast Mary off from their home. Heartbroken, she leaves her child with her sister and heads out of town via a train.
Later on, John hears of a railroad accident and believes that his wife has perished in the incident. With this in mind, he takes his infant back home with him. Mary survived the accident however, she has amnesia and cannot remember her husband or child.
The story jumps ahead roughly 20 years (I found a magazine article that mentions 14 years but a newspaper article that mentions 20, I’m going with the latter).
Mary has regained her memory and has a deep hatred for her husband for ruining her life. Her husband has since been elected Governor of his state.
She plans to get revenge on him through his “prized” daughter (Elsie Balfour), whom she believes is from his second marriage (Claire Whitney portraying Nell Madison). I could not find any information on why she would believe that rather than the daughter being hers. Perhaps she did not recall that part of her memory?
What is this plan of revenge? It’s to have an ex-convict, Dan Walters (Glen White) to marry the daughter! Dan and Marion meet up and eventually in storyline get married. Once they do, Mary goes to John to gloat about her plan but the jokes on her as John reveals that Marion is her daughter. Whoops! Fortunately for Mary, in subsequent events in the film, it is found out that Dan is not really a convict but rather was sent to prison in place of a friend of his. I could not find any information to explain further this plot point, so I will have to leave it at that. The movie ends on a happy note as Mary is reunited with her daughter.
Unlike the other two films, I could not find much information on the story of this movie. What articles I did find, they were almost identical to each other (at least they were consistent). Some articles mentioned that Valeska had numerous outfit changes. Of course she would!!! That is a trademark of hers. I did see some mentions that the movie was not that great and lagged at times. I sensed reviewers felt the movie was just an average melodrama that Fox typically put out during that time period. Just a quick note, I am not for certain which actors are who, so I am not able to correctly mention who they are in the photos I posted on the page.
Below is a youtube photo slide show of all the pictures I found of the film.
While not as extensive as I would have liked, I hope you enjoyed the synopsis! -bP
Recreation by Bill Piper. Please do not reuse with permission (just link to the website).
Sources:
Brisbane Telegraph – May 22, 1917
Cincinnati Commercial Tribune – Oct 1, 1916
Newark Advocate – Oct 26, 1916
New Britain Herald – Oct 3, 1916
Ogden Daily Standard – Oct 21, 1916
SLC Telegram – Oct 11, 1916
Motion Picture News (forgot the issue #, but it was fall 1916)
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