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The Message of the Rose
(1913) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by Wilbert Melville
Cast: Henry King [Manuel], Dolly Larkin [Ghula], Joseph Holland [Alonzo]
Lubin Manufacturing Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Produced by Siegmund Lubin. / Released 2 August 1913. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Alonzo, the timid, loves Ghula, a beautiful senorita of sunny Mexico. Enraptured by her charms, and not bold enough to personally declare his passion, he sends her a white and red rose, requesting that she wear the red rose that night if she returns his love, but if her heart belongs to another, to wear the white. Unconscious of his friend, Manuel, whose passion for Ghula is supreme, he entrusts him with the message and the roses. Manuel, seeing an opportunity to be rid of his rival, withholds the message and the red rose, giving Ghula the white rose to wear. That night, at the garden fete, Alonzo, seeing that Ghula wears the white rose, accepts it as his dismissal. The next day Ghula receives a message which she cannot understand, saying that Alonzo, since she could not give him her love, has given his life to the cause of the revolution, and when Manuel asks her to be his wife, she tells him her heart belongs to the one who has gone. Manuel’s first impulse is to confess his duplicity, but realizing it is too late, he leaves to join his command in the Federal army, with his secret undisclosed. As the months go by, Ghula despairs of her lover’s return and seeks solace in a convent. Taken as a prisoner of war by Manuel’s regiment, Alonzo, along with other prisoners, participate in a lottery of death, wherein those who drew black beans are condemned to die and those who draw white ones are liberated. Drawing the black bean, Alonzo is condemned to death, when Manuel, thinking to right the past wrong, sacrifices his career in liberating him, and asking forgiveness, confesses his perfidy and expiates his crime by being court-martialed and executed. On his return, Alonzo’s dream of love is shattered when he finds that Ghula has consecrated her life to the church, his only possession being the message conveyed by the rose from the hand of his lost love.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 7 December 2024.
References: Website-IMDb.
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