“In
what measure shall Love forgive these deeds done for its sake?”
The Love Flower begins with a girl named Margaret and her
father Thomas Bevan living on an island in the tropics. He is a trader who has
been swindled and taken advantage of by another trader named Crane. His new
wife Clara is bored to tears on the island. Because of her boredom she takes up
with another man while Thomas is out. The servants know that the man comes
around the house and one of them tells Thomas as he is walking to the house. He
does not want to believe what the servant has told him. Thomas only believes
what he has been told when he sees the other man’s hat on a chair. Thomas goes
into the other room where he sees his wife and the other man kissing. The two
men start to fight. The other man takes out a gun. It accidentally goes off in
the scuffle and the other man is killed. Thomas takes Margaret and tries to
runaway unseen on a small motorized fishing boat. The boat needs gas so Thomas
goes to buy some. They see Crane by the boat. Thomas sneaks up behind the
trader and holds a gun to him so he cannot run and tells the police. Crane
promises Thomas he will be found and brought to justice.
A search goes out to every port in the world for Thomas
and Margaret. No one is able to find them for years. They have been hold up on
a small island with only one native. Margaret has not seen a white man except
for her father in all those years. That is until a young wealthy man named
Jerry appears on the island. He has been sailing the seas on his own exploring.
Jerry and Margaret run into each other. It is love at first sight for both of
them. She likes him but is suspicious of any stranger for the sake of her
father. She tells him to leave. Jerry leaves but he gets into a fight with some
natives over them stealing his coat. Margaret comes to his aid. In her hand
Margaret had the hyacinth flower which to the natives is considered a Love
Flower. Jerry picks up the flowers she had dropped. She runs away from him yet
she cherishes the flower he handed to her. He also cherishes the flower as it
reminds him of Margaret and places it between the pages of a book.
Crane manages to track Thomas and Margaret down to somewhere
in the area. He is told that a native has found them on an island. Jerry
returns to port. Not knowing that Jerry has seen Margaret, Crane has the young
man take him to the island. Crane finds Thomas. Jerry comes up to their camp.
Margaret automatically thinks Jerry is a spy and does not want anything to do
with him. She goes to his boat without him knowing and sinks it. In the morning
when they go to leave Jerry cannot find his boat. He sends out distress signals
which the police see and send out a police boat to the island.
Jerry loves Margaret and he is upset that she does not
believe him. He tries showing her the flower but that does not work. He finds
his boat in low tide. Margaret tells him that she sank it because she did not
want him taking her father away. Jerry then takes his boat and sinks it again
to prove he loves her.
Other things happen, my ADHD got in the way, Thomas is a
free man, and, big surprise, Margaret and Jerry get married.
I do not know what I was expecting with The Love Flower. I try to avoid D.W.
Griffith films because they can be so dragged out and the stories boring but I figured
The Love Flower only runs an hour and
thirty-six minutes how bad can it be. The film was not absolutely terrible but
it was not that great. Griffith direction is stunning as it usually is. The biggest
issue I had with this film is the story. It was very boring and a bit slow. I
am not going to say to not watch The Love
Flower; it is worth seeing at least once.
No comments:
Post a Comment