Stronger Than Death

Stronger Than Death is a 1915 American silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse, written by Bess Meredyth, and featuring Lon Chaney and Arthur Shirley. The film is notable for featuring two expatriate Australian actors together in the cast, Louise Lovely and Arthur Shirley. This was Louise Lovely's first American film - indeed it was the first time the actor, whose real name was Louise Carbasse, was credited as "Louise Lovely". The stage name was given to her by Carl Laemmle. Chaney had a relatively small role in this film as the attorney. The film is now considered to be lost. Plot June Lathrop, a pretty young orphan under the guardianship of Rupert Spaulding, meets John Henshaw, a young surgeon, and the two fall in love. June learns that Rupert Spaulding used to love her mother when she was a young girl, but he never proposed and so he lost her to another man. Now he is in love with June, and out of gratitude for raising her, she consents to marry him. Spaulding dies shortly after their marriage, and on his death bed, he extracts a written promise from June that she will never get married again. Upon learning of Mr. Spaulding's death, Henshaw proposes marriage to June, but she tells him that she promised in writing that she would never marry again. Spaulding's spirit haunts June and she begins to sleepwalk. One night she falls off the balcony while walking in her sleep and suffers a serious brain injury. Henshaw, now a celebrated surgeon, is called to perform the delicate operation needed to save her life.