An old woman's memories are rekindled as she rereads her diary. She recalls her youth in England when she married a suitor over the objections of her parents and moved with him to the Wyoming frontier. They live a hardscrabble life there and suffered deprivation, hunger, Indian attacks, and the death of her baby. Although they eventually make a go of it, her husband becomes involved with another woman. Now that he is on his deathbed, will she forgive her husband after 40 years.
Direction
Borzage makes Wyoming desolation look almost erotic
Acting
Talmadge's face does what dialogue never could
Cinematography
Those amber-tinted flashbacks hit like fever dreams
Director
Frank Borzage
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Norma Talmadge's final silent film before talkies destroyed her career — she literally couldn't transition.
Borzage recycled this 'suffering woman forgives everything' template from his smash hit Humoresque (1920), because apparently audiences in the '20s LOVED watching women get wrecked.
US
