The Turmoil (1916) [NR]
Featuring:
Valli Valli, George LeGuere, Charles Prince
Written by:
Booth Tarkington
Directed by:
Edgar Jones
Release Date:
January 10, 1916
Original Title:
The Turmoil
Genres:
Drama
Production Companies:
Columbia Pictures
Production Countries:
United States of America
Ratings / Certifications:
US: NR
Runtime: 50
James Sheridan becomes wealthy and a power in a middle west city, where his entire life is absorbed in the turmoil of his own creation. The only thing he lacks is social standing, and this he strives to gain by methods he has successfully employed in driving a business deal.
James Sheridan becomes wealthy and a power in a middle west city, where his entire life is absorbed in the turmoil of his own creation. The only thing he lacks is social standing, and this he strives to gain by methods he has successfully employed in driving a business deal. His two oldest sons, Jim and Roscoe, are like him, products of the turmoil, but Bibbs, the youngest, is a weakling with a penchant for books. The father insists on Bibbs working in the factory, but as it is distasteful to him, and he is physically unfit for the task, his health tails and he is sent to a sanitarium. In the same city lives the Vertrees family, poor, but true aristocrats. There is a young daughter, Mary Vertrees, and Sheridan determines that his son, Jim, shall marry her, and thus make a wedge for the family into social prominence. He arranges a big dinner, with a vulgar display of luxury, which Mary Vertrees is obliged to attend because of a financial obligation Sheridan holds over her father. That night Mary is made to understand that she is to marry Jim, and she concludes to make the sacrifice. At the height of the dinner party Bibbs returns from the sanitarium. He is ignored by the family, and Mary is attracted to him out of pity. Roscoe Sheridan, the second son, is married to Sibyl, but their married life is far from happy. Like his father, he is lost in the turmoil of endeavor, and she is obliged to seek companionship elsewhere. She becomes infatuated with Robert Lamhorn, a worthless young man, who is secretly engaged to Edith Sheridan, the only daughter of the house of Sheridan. Jim proposes to Mary Vertrees, and she asks him to wait a while for her answer. Sibyl and Edith quarrel over Lamhorn, and Sibyl, knowing Mary's hold over the elder Sheridan, asks her to go to Sheridan and tell him Edith and Robert are engaged, and that Robert is only marrying the girl for her money. Sibyl's words remind Mary that she will be doing the same thing if she marries Jim. She writes Jim a letter refusing his offer of marriage. Much to the delight of his father, Jim has built a large warehouse in half the time contractors said was necessary for the undertaking. Accompanied by inspectors, Jim is on the roof of the building when it collapses, and he is killed. Sheridan is broken-hearted over his death. His sorrow is doubled over the fact that Roscoe, worried over "domestic affairs, has taken to drink. He then strives harder than ever to make Bibbs a thorough businessman, and his successor. Edith elopes with Robert, and Bibbs is the only one left to him. Bibbs has become attached to Mary, and on her advice agrees on a business career. She loves him, but thinks his attentions are prompted through pity for her. She refuses his proffer of marriage for the same reason she refused his brother. When Bibbs learns this he quits his place with his father, and he informs him he does not want any of his fortune. Sheridan awakens to the situation, and pays Mr. Vertrees fifty thousand dollars for some worthless street railway stock. Mary's family thus becomes financially comfortable, and she accepts Bibbs' renewed proposal of marriage, and he becomes the leading spirit in the Sheridan enterprises.
