Romance and heartbreak walk hand-in-hand when Philip Chagal accidentally meets Helen Lawrence in a restaurant where she is a waitress. Unhappily married to a woman who suffers from mental illness, he is attracted to her and they make a date to go sailing, arriving at Philip’s country home just as a storm is breaking. Helen learns who he is for the first time, a celebrated-and-famous concert pianist and, falling in love with him, decides to leave before matters go further. A hurricane hits and their car is crippled by a falling tree. Rising water forces then to seek shelter in the choir loft of a church, where they spend the night. They are rescued in the morning and Helen meets Philip’s wife, and learns their story. Helen and Philip meet once more, and Philip sails to Europe with his wife but promises to come back someday. —IMDb
John Malcolm Stahl (January 21, 1886 – January 12, 1950) was an American film director and producer.
Born in New York City, New York, he began working in the city’s growing motion picture industry at a young age and directed his first silent film short in 1914. In the early 1920s Stahl signed on with Louis B. Mayer Pictures in Hollywood and in 1924 was part of the Mayer team that became MGM Studios.
In 1927, John Stahl was one of the thirty-six founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With the industry’s transition to talkies and feature-length films, John Stahl successfully made the adjustment and for Universal Pictures he directed the 1934 film Imitation of Life which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. The following year, he directed Magnificent Obsession, starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor.
John Stahl continued to produce and direct major productions as well filler shorts right up to the time of his death. Some… read more