The Man Without a Country (1917 film)

The Man Without a Country is a 1917 American silent film adaptation of Edward Everett Hales short story The Man Without a Country. It was directed by Ernest C. Warde, and starred Florence La Badie, Holmes Herbert, and J. H. Gilmour, and released by Thanhouser Film Corporation.

As described in a film magazine, Barbara Norton La Badie and her brother Tom Marlo, orphaned children of a veteran who gave his life for his country, go to live with their uncle Phineas Howard and aunt Hastings in the city. It is just before the entrance of the United States into the European war and the uncle is a pacifist. He holds meetings at home where Barbara assists him. Barbaras brother is a loyal American and is greatly troubled by the uncles expectations to count on him. Barbara meets John Alton Herbert, who wins her promise to be his wife. They are very happy until war is declared and Barbara cannot bear the thought of her future husband not doing service for his country. His Peace at Any Price button is the last straw and she gives him a choice of either joining the colors or breaking the engagement. John declares that he is a true pacifist and Barbara, believing that a man who cannot support his country is that countrys enemy, breaks the engagement publicly. Her fiance becomes very unpopular at his club because of his views and is taken to task by one of his fathers friends. Having lost Barbara and his popularity makes him resent the constant references to the United States and his debt to his country, and he curses his native land. Barbara enlists as a Red Cross nurse and her brother as a soldier. Later, an old friend of Johns family, Pop Milton Dundan, gives him a copy of The Man Without a Country and asks him to read it and rise above his treasonous views. He does so, and as he reads the immortal story the patriotic spirit of Barbara comes to him in a vision of Columbia who tells him that in a previous life he was the Philip Nolan of the story. She takes him back to historic times and shows him a succession of scenes from the book. The man of today sees with horror the famous court martial in which he was sentenced to never hear of the United States again, the tragedy of the careful carrying out of the sentence, and the pitiful death of the man, m

Source: Wikipedia