The Light in the Dark
About The Light in the Dark
Coat-check girl Bessie MacGregor is hit by Mrs. Templeton Orrin's car and taken into the house to recover. Mrs. Orrin's brother, J. Warburton Ashe, flirts with Bessie and does not mean it. She leaves. In a boarding house, thief Tony Pantelli and the landlady nurse her. Tony steals a chalice Ashe brought from England, believing it may be the Holy Grail, and steals it again when Bessie needs a cure. He is caught and tried. Ashe refuses to press the charge. A pawnbroker later says the glow came from radium he had put in the cup.
Cast & crew
More about The Light in the Dark
Clarence Brown directed and co-wrote it with William Dudley Pelley. Hope Hampton produced and stars. Associated First National released it on September 3, 1922. The original ran 63 minutes, seven reels, 7,600 feet. Some shots of the glowing cup were made in color. Joe Bonomo doubled Chaney.
Themes
Background
A 1922 feature that uses the Holy Grail as a slum cure and then explains the glow as radium hidden in the cup.
Making
Hampton's own company made the picture, with Brown directing her, and First National handling the release. The short church-and-school version is the print most often seen now.
Look
Alfred Ortlieb and Ben Carré photographed it. Selected shots of the chalice glowing were filmed in color.
Preservation
Half of the 63-minute feature is missing. The 33-minute reissue, The Light of Faith, survives.
Notes
- Lon Chaney plays Tony Pantelli. E. K. Lincoln plays J. Warburton Ashe. Theresa Maxwell Conover plays Mrs. Templeton Orrin.
- Dorothy Walters plays the landlady. Edgar Norton plays Peters.
- The feature was later cut to 33 minutes and circulated to schools and churches as The Light of Faith.
- A still survives of Chaney as Tony. Half of the original feature is missing.
- Alfred Ortlieb and Ben Carré are credited with the photography.
Scenes
- Tony steals the glowing chalice a second time so it can be used for Bessie.
- The pawnbroker, in Sing Sing, says he put radium in the cup.
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheLightOfFaith1920)
- Wikimedia Commons
