''The Right to Live'' is a 1935 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

William Keighley William Jackson Keighley (August 4, 1889 – June 24, 1984) was an American stage actor and Hollywood film director. Career After graduating from the Ludlum School of Dramatic Art, Keighley began acting at the age of 23. By the 1910s and 1920s ...

and starring

Josephine Hutchinson Josephine Hutchinson (October 12, 1903 – June 4, 1998) was an American actress. She acted in several theater plays and films. Early years Hutchinson was born in Seattle, Washington. Her mother, Leona Roberts, was an actress best known for ...

George Brent George Brent (born George Brendan Nolan; 15 March 1904 – 26 May 1979) was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included '' Jezebel'' and '' Dark Victo ...

and

Colin Clive Colin Clive (born Colin Glenn Clive-Greig; 20 January 1900 – 25 June 1937) was a British stage and screen actor. His most memorable role was Henry Frankenstein, the creator of the monster, in the 1931 film ''Frankenstein'' and its 1935 sequel ...

. The film was shot at

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Burbank Studios The Burbank Studios (formerly known as NBC Studios) is a television production facility located in Burbank, California. The studio is home to '' Days of Our Lives'', ''Extra'', the '' IHeartRadio Theater'', and was formerly home to the Blizzar ...

, with sets designed by the art director Esdras Hartley. It is based on the 1928 play '' The Sacred Flame'' by

Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

, previously adapted into a film by the studio in 1929.

Synopsis

Maurice Trent proposes marriage to Stella Trent after an evening at the opera. She accepts, but shortly after their wedding he is badly injured while flying a plane. He loses the uses of his legs, and becomes deeply concerned that he can no longer be a proper husband to Stella. He clings to the hope that he will recover his ability to walk. When his brother Colin arrives from the

coffee plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

he owns in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Maurice enlists him to escort her around the nightlife of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in the way he no longer can. Over the months that follow Colin and Stella develop a passionate love for each other, despite Stella's guilt about her husband. When he learns from his doctor that he will never be able to walk again, Maurice is devastated. The same night Stella has resolved to run away with Colin to Brazil, but after an emotional talk with her husband she knows she can never leave him. The next morning Maurice is found dead by his nurse Miss Wayland, who has long nurtured a secret love for him. Distressed and jealous of Stella whom she has always resented, she accuses her of murdering him with an overdose of

sleeping pills Hypnotic (from Greek ''Hypnos'', sleep), or soporific drugs, commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of (and umbrella term for) psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep (or surgical anesthesiaWhen used in anesthesia ...

. It is left to Maurice's mother to explain that he killed himself, realizing that he could never recover, to free Stella to live her life.

Cast

as Stella Trent *

as Colin Trent *

as Maurice * Peggy Wood as Nurse Wayland *

Henrietta Crosman Henrietta Foster Crosman (September 2, 1861 – October 31, 1944) was an American stage and film actress. Early years Crosman was born in Wheeling, Virginia, to George Crosman Jr. a Civil War Major, and Mary B. Wick, a niece of composer Step ...

as Mrs. Trent *

C. Aubrey Smith Sir Charles Aubrey Smith (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948) was an English Test cricketer who became a stage and film actor, acquiring a niche as the officer-and-gentleman type, as in the first sound version of ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937) ...

as Major Licondra *

Leo G. Carroll Leo Gratten Carroll (25 October 1886 – 16 October 1972) was an English actor. In a career of more than forty years, he appeared in six Hitchcock films including ''Spellbound'', '' Strangers on a Train'' and ''North by Northwest'' and in thre ...

as Dr. Harvester * Phyllis Coghlan as Alice *

Claude King Claude King (February 5, 1923 – March 7, 2013) was an American country music singer and songwriter, best known for his million selling 1962 hit, "Wolverton Mountain". Biography King was born in Keithville in southern Caddo Parish south ...

as Mr. Pride *

Nella Walker Nella Walker (March 6, 1886 – March 22, 1971) was an American actress and vaudeville performer of the 1920s through the 1950s. Biography The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Walker, she was born and raised in Chicago. In 1910, she marrie ...

as Mrs. Pride *

Halliwell Hobbes Herbert Halliwell Hobbes (16 November 187720 February 1962) was an English actor. Early years The future actor was the son of William Albert Hobbes (1841-1909), a Warwickshire solicitor, and his wife, Marion Hobbes, née Dennis, (1838-1925). ...

as Sir Stephen Barr *

J. Gunnis Davis James Gunnis Davis (21 December 1873 – 23 March 1937) was a British-born American actor and director who had a career in films in the US. Early life He was born as Joseph Gunnis Davis on 21 December 1873 in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, Sun ...

Harvey, the Gardener

References

External links

* * * * 1935 films 1930s English-language films Warner Bros. films American drama films 1935 drama films Films directed by William Keighley American black-and-white films Films set in London Films shot in Burbank, California American films based on plays Films based on works by W. Somerset Maugham 1930s American films Films scored by Bernhard Kaun {{1930s-drama-film-stub