The Darkness Before Dawn - Cast

The Darkness Before Dawn (1915)
Short | Short, Drama

Primary photo for The Darkness Before Dawn

The Darkness Before Dawn (1915)

Short | Short, Drama

Carson, trustee for Elsie Moore, an orphan, invites her to his rooms with evil intent. Realizing his purpose she faints. Carson drags her into the adjoining bedroom, locks the door and hurries out to admit Elliott, a young physician, who ...See moreCarson, trustee for Elsie Moore, an orphan, invites her to his rooms with evil intent. Realizing his purpose she faints. Carson drags her into the adjoining bedroom, locks the door and hurries out to admit Elliott, a young physician, who is one of Carson's clients. Elliot does not know Elsie, nor of her presence in the house. He picks up a bracelet and glove which had been dropped by Elsie in her struggle. Carson's wink and subtle hint lead Elliot to believe he is harboring a willing mistress in the bedroom. Elliot, a man of high moral standards, is disgusted. He and Carson leave the house immediately on important business. Elsie, meanwhile, recovers consciousness and escapes. Months later Elsie, penniless, meets Elliot for the first time and is employed by him as stenographer. Elliot has had a previous love affair with Rose Lewis, a beautiful widow, but true to his ideals, he abandons his contemplated proposal when he discovers that she smokes, and leans toward a restless social life. Rose is not a woman of maudlin dissipation, but one with a profound liking for the high living of society. When she realizes she has lost Elliot, whom she dearly loves, she is influenced by the memory of her dead baby, the spirit of motherhood asserts itself, and she determines to discontinue the habits distasteful to Elliot and win back his affection. But Elliot has now seen in Elsie his ideal of the innocent, chaste, home-loving woman, and he marries her on the same day that Rose writes Elliot telling him she has conformed to his ideals in hone that their love might be reawakened. Rose, heartbroken at Elliot's marriage to another, cannot drown the desire to wait for Elliot as a husband, however long that may be. Elsie soon discovers Elliot's former love for Rose and becomes vaguely fearful. Elliot reluctantly takes Elsie to a ball at Rose's home. Elsie here accidentally meets Carson, and the sight of her terror in encountering him makes Elliot suspicious. Carson, still posing as a friend of Elliot, calls at the physician's home. He realizes Elsie's helplessness and is still eager to carry out his sinister motives. Elliot, to learn the truth, pretends to leave the house. He creeps back to the living room door, looks through and sees Elsie alone with Carson. Elsie shrinks in terror when Carson produces the bracelet and glove, tells her Elliot knows they belong to the woman who was in his apartments, and threatens to tell her husband unless she yields to his demands. Elliott, frenzied, bursts into the room, ejects Carson, beating him unmercifully, and believing Elsie guilty, leaves the house. He continues to live alone for the next few months, refusing to open Elsie's mail, and gracefully yielding to the love advances of Rose. On the eve of a trip, he calls upon Rose to inform her he has decided to divorce Elsie. At the same moment a trained nurse phones Rose's home to find Elliot. Rose answers the phone and even when the nurse tells her that Elsie is about to become a mother. Rose is determined not to tell Elliot. In hanging up the phone, Rose overturns the tiny box containing the clothes of her dead baby. Her heart goes out to the other woman, about to give birth to a child. She tells Elliot what is about to happen at his home, and forces him to go to Elsie's side. Elliot returns home just as his first-born is brought into the world. A reconciliation follows between Elsie and Elliot, and Rose is happy in the thought that she has acted justly and brought happiness to a deserving woman. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less

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5 cast members

Name	Known for
Ethel Clayton Elsie Moore Elsie Moore See fewer	Pettigrew's Girl (1919)
Joseph Kaufman Young Dr. Elliott Young Dr. Elliott See fewer	A Woman Went Forth (1915)
Earl Metcalfe Carson - the Defrauder Carson - the Defrauder See fewer	Ignorance (1916)
Octavia Handworth Rose - a Young Widow Rose - a Young Widow See fewer	Too Much Bull (1915)
William H. Turner Actor Actor See fewer	The Last Performance (1929)