Recensione di st-shot

In the wiles of Canada outcast Maracene Eliot has but one friend, her dog. The aunt who raised her has done so cruelly leaving the young lady isolated and without a past. She meets a composer who falls for her but she refuses to marry him because she has no history. He returns to Europe, writes a classical piece inspired by her and it promptly flops. Meanwhile Marcene decides to drown herself and the child of the composer. Professionally and personally at a low point he glumly goes about his life when he meets Marcene's sister who explained her sisters predicament and perhaps the reason for the aunt's callousness. He marries the sister and then returns with her to Canada where answers to nagging questions await along with a couple of other surprises.

This copious tear jerker has more than its fair share of poignant moments in a somewhat contrived narrative that remains mostly in a permanent state of melancholy. Director Maurice Tourneur vision however is both graceful and deliberate in his telling, presenting a good deal of tasteful canvases that covers for the lack of action. Pauline Stark's touching performance is ultimately what carries the picture and opens the floodgates as a true orphan of the storm.