Very (very, very, very, very) loosely based on the poem Anabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe, this film tells the tale of a struggling author and his lady fair who are parted by movie-type circumstances.
Tries to capture the spirit of Poe without all that, you know, death and stuff. Nothing offensive but not really exciting either. It clearly had absolutely no budget but that’s no excuse for being boring. However, the scenery is wonderful.
How does it end? Hover or tap below for a spoiler.
He returns, they end up together. Meh.Read my full-length review here. (For some inexplicable reason, it was my most-plagiarized piece before people started swiping my Wizard of Oz review.)
If it were a dessert it would be: Sugar-free Bread Pudding. Old-fashioned and a bit artificial.
Availability: Released on DVD.
Movies Silently 
We have the dvd, and the scenery really IS gorgeous, and well shot. Maybe I should just leave any remarks right there.
Must confess to being a little protective of Mr. Poe’s work, as my moniker might imply. And I do prefer my Poe films filled with the weirdness, discomfort, and death he work so hard to imbue them with.
I feel similar protectiveness toward Tolstoy. Yes, this picture makes exactly zero effort to capture the macabre Poeness of its alleged source material.
As an admirer of both Poe & silent film, I think the two best early films drawing on Poe are “The Avenging Conscience” and “The Raven.” Henry B. Walthall is in both–a Poe look-alike for sure–& tho’ both have their silly lapses, they do a creditable job of capturing weirdness, the macabre, & death.
Yes, Griffith in his film “rolls back” death, so to speak, & I don’t much care for that sort of denouement. But the movie offers much for the Poe fan to feast upon. The scene between the detective & the Walthall character is for me one of the great moments in silent film & superbly evokes Poesque fear & dread. And, as often with Poe, the scene does so without any overt supernaturalism.
Well, if Griffith was nothing else, he was weird.