Name: The Lady in the Library
Genre: Drama
Released: 1917-10-19
Rating: 5.5
Cast: John Vosper, Vola Vale, Robert Weycross

Vola Vale is a charitable young woman who is engaged to John Vosper. He thinks of nothing but sports. She breaks off their engagement, and he gets drunk. Meanwhile, Barney Furey is a bad man who beats his wife, Jane Pepperell, and corrupts his brother, W. N. Carter, who gets killed. This causes Carter's wife to give up the ghost. Since her sister-in-law works as a nurse in the charity hospital Miss Vale sponsors, she dies asking Miss Vale who will take care of the baby. The baby promptly shows up in Vosper's library, and he falls in love with the helpless infant. But Furey decides to kidnap the child, because he is, after all, a villain.

This rare four-reel feature from the Balboa Amusement Producing Company is in very good shape. This raises some interesting questions, particularly about the editing. It's very good in the beginning, establishing the relationship among all these people. However, as soon as the baby shows up in the library, things start to get very confused. The mental didoes, and people in the right place at the right instant seem rather perplexing. Doubtless the film makers thought the audience would never notice these things. Still, at four reels, it moves along pretty well.

Miss Vale was a beautiful woman who could play make her eyes as large as platters when the story called for it. She made more than 90 movies, but by 1927, she was out of the movies. She died in 1970 at the age of 73.

The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)

Mildred Vandeburg, an heiress who devotes her time to a hospital that she has built in the slums, breaks her engagement to her fiancé, T. Huntington Forbes, because Forbes is only interested in horses and sports. Meeda Jones, a nurse employed in Mildred's hospital, is married to a criminal named Spike, who steals some jewels and convinces his brother Dan to fence them for him. When Dan is killed as the police try to arrest him, his wife dies of shock, leaving their baby girl homeless. To help the baby, Mildred decides to take her to Forbes's home, where she informs her former fiancé that there is a "lady in the library" waiting for him. When Forbes sees the child, he decides to adopt her and devote his time to her, thus curbing his interest in horses. Spike Jones learns about the baby and decides to kidnap her and hold her for ransom, but he is outwitted by Mildred and Forbes. Finally, the happily reunited couple decides to marry and raise the child as their own.

The Biggest Movies and TV Coming in September

See which big screen releases you can watch from the comfort of your couch.

Theatrical Releases Coming to Streaming

See who dazzled on the red carpet and took home gold at the 78th Primetime Creative Emmy Awards.

The Lady in the Library

Photos

Top Cast13

User reviews1

Related interests

Storyline

Top picks

Details

Tech specs

Contribute to this page

More to explore

Recently viewed