The Candle - Production & Contact Info

The Candle (1916)
Short | Short, Drama

The Candle (1916)

Short | Short, Drama

James Carr, a young author, is working by candlelight on his latest book in a shack on the mountain side. He puts in a supply of new candles, and goes out for a walk. While he is gone, a youth steals into the cabin, lights one of the ...See moreJames Carr, a young author, is working by candlelight on his latest book in a shack on the mountain side. He puts in a supply of new candles, and goes out for a walk. While he is gone, a youth steals into the cabin, lights one of the candles, and puts poison in a decanter on the table. Hearing Carr outside, the youth hastily extinguishes the candle, and hides in the next room. When Carr finds that the candle has been lit already, he knows someone was there in his absence. He sees the youth behind some boxes, and nonchalantly goes to the table, where he pours himself a glass of wine, meanwhile procuring his revolver. Just as he is about to raise the glass to his lips, the youth shoots it from his hand. He has discovered that Carr is not the man. Carr rises excitedly. The youth stands in the doorway, limply holding a revolver. He says, "You're not Bancroft." Carr answers that Bancroft's shack is half a mile down the mountain. The youth rushes to the door, but Carr seizes him. There is a struggle in which the lights are extinguished. When Carr lights them again, he sees the flowing tresses of a girl before him, for the youth is Sue, a young woman in man's clothing. Carr asks her to tell her story. She shows him a letter reading, "Bring five thousand dollars to my shack on the mountain to-night, or I will tell your husband everything." The note came from Bancroft, known as Shiro, the Hypnotist. Three years before he met her, and acquired hypnotic influence over her, she traveled over the country with him, not knowing that he was also the leader of a gang of pickpockets. They were playing in a small town hall one night, and between the acts Bancroft gave her a brooch, which she recognized as one belonging to a woman in the audience. She accused Bancroft of stealing it, and threatened to expose him. Then the woman discovered her loss, but Bancroft concealed the loot on Sue, and compelled her by his strange influence, to admit that she was guilty. She was sent to prison, while Bancroft went free. After serving her term, she had a hard struggle for existence until she met Jim, a young mechanic. When she read one day that Bancroft was dead, she listened to Jim's words of love, and married him, thinking her past was buried. But only that morning she received the threatening letter from Bancroft, and not having the money, she went out to kill him. The candle on the table has burned down as Sue related her story. She concludes by saying that like the candle, her life is finished. She is about to drain the poison when Carr tells her to look at the candle carefully. It is of the kind used for the dead. And then he tells her how he bought some candles from an old woman that day, and later discovered that she stole them from a cabin down the mountain, where Bancroft lay dead, killed by the old woman's son in a gambling brawl. When Sue hears this, she throws the poisoned wine out of the window, and rushes out gladly into the night. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less

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Cast	+ Add Cast
9 cast members

Name	Known for
Lee Shumway James Carr (as L.C. Shumway) James Carr (as L.C. Shumway) See fewer	Go-Get-'Em, Haines (1936)
Melvin Mayo Hugh Bancroft Hugh Bancroft See fewer	The Death Warrant (1914)
George Routh Art Evans Art Evans See fewer	While the Children Slept (1913)
Jay Morley Jim - the Mechanic Jim - the Mechanic See fewer	The Little Boss (1919)
R. Henry Grey Dick - the Crook (as Robert Gray) Dick - the Crook (as Robert Gray) See fewer	Twin Kiddies (1917)
J.H. Colby Jimmy - the Crook Jimmy - the Crook See fewer	The Crash (1916)
Helen Jerome Eddy Sue (as Helen Eddy) Sue (as Helen Eddy) See fewer	The Flirt (1922)
Grace Eddy The Old Woman The Old Woman See fewer	The Doctor's Duty (II) (1913)
Julian La Mothe The Old Woman's Son The Old Woman's Son See fewer	Saved from the Harem (1915)