The Right to Live (1935)

Maurice and Stella Trent are happily married. When Maurice is crippled in an airplane crash, he and his mother send for his brother Colin to come help keep Stella busy. He is to show her a ... See full summary »

Director:

William Keighley

Writers:

W. Somerset Maugham (play), Ralph Block (screen play)

Stars:

Josephine Hutchinson, George Brent, Colin Clive

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Josephine Hutchinson	...	Stella Trent
George Brent	...	Colin Trent
Colin Clive	...	Maurice Trent
Peggy Wood	...	Nurse Wayland
Henrietta Crosman	...	Mrs. Millie Trent
C. Aubrey Smith	...	Major Licondra
Leo G. Carroll	...	Dr. Harvester
Phyllis Coghlan	...	Alice - the Maid
Claude King	...	Mr. Pride
Nella Walker	...	Mrs. Pride
Halliwell Hobbes	...	Sir Stephen Barr

Storyline

Maurice and Stella Trent are happily married. When Maurice is crippled in an airplane crash, he and his mother send for his brother Colin to come help keep Stella busy. He is to show her a good time during what promises to be a 5 month recovery before an operation will allow Maurice to walk again. Stella and Colin become very close, and things come to a boil when Maurice believes his life may not be worth living any longer after all.

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Plot Keywords:

airplane crash | opera | chess | mother son relationship | doctor | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 January 1935 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Sacred Flame

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Vitaphone Corporation, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

As Maurice helps Stella on with her wrap and they turn to exit the booth at the theater Maurice accidentally knocks his program off the booth ledge. Maurice is unaware his program falls down onto audience members below.

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Connections

Version of The Sacred Flame (1929)

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Soundtracks

"The Wedding March"
(1843) (uncredited)
from "A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op.61"
Written by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Background music after the wedding

User Reviews

Colin Clive's greatest performance

Simply put, THE RIGHT TO LIFE arguably features the tragic Colin Clive's greatest performance on film. Made just before BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and costarring Josephine Hutchinson, who four years later would become "The Bride of the SON OF FRANKENSTEIN" to Basil Rathbone in the third of the Universal "Frankenstein" series (effectively becoming the late Colin Clive's daughter-in-law!), this film gives you the chance to see the much-tortured Clive just before he had to crank himself back up to a fever pitch for James Whale as Henry Frankenstein in BRIDE. His final scene with Hutchinson in THE RIGHT TO LIVE is utterly, believably heartbreaking. Two years later, he was dead, his ashed remaining unclaimed in the basement of a Hollywood mortuary for the next 41 years. Henrietta Crosman, so insidiously jealous and selfish in John Ford's great 1933 masterpiece PILGRIMAGE, superbly plays a VERY different sort of mother here, and the supporting cast is outstanding.