The Price of Ambition - Production & Contact Info

The Price of Ambition (1915)
Short | Short, Drama

The Price of Ambition (1915)

Short | Short, Drama

Young stockbroker Walter Scardon is successful in business and making a comfortable living, but discontented by his desire for great wealth and business standing. His wife Ethel is devoted to him heart and soul. He meets a king of finance,...See moreYoung stockbroker Walter Scardon is successful in business and making a comfortable living, but discontented by his desire for great wealth and business standing. His wife Ethel is devoted to him heart and soul. He meets a king of finance, Dudley Hale, and tries to interest him in a big deal which, if successful, will more than treble his own fortune and place him among the businessmen who count. But Dudley Hale has no great faith in Walter's ability and refuses to enter into the deal. They leave the club where they have been talking over the matter, and Walter is walking home, when suddenly Dudley clutches his arm, bidding him look at a woman who is passing in a taxi. Walter sees that the woman is his own wife Ethel. He conceives the idea of using Dudley's decided interest in Ethel to his own advantage, and tells Dudley that the woman is his sister, and invites the financier to call that evening and meet her. Dudley agrees and Walter, leaving him, hurries home. He tells Ethel that she must use every effort to charm Dudley that evening and also that she must pretend to be his sister instead of his wife. Walter believes that if Dudley thinks her a single girl he will be more likely to love her and allow himself, through her influence, to be led into Walter's deal. Ethel is horrified at the idea, but her love for her husband is so unselfish that she agrees to do as he wishes. That evening Dudley calls and Ethel is so charming that he begins to love her whole-heartedly, much to Walter's delight. The two men also talk business and Dudley agrees to think over entering into his host's business scheme. The next day Walter brings Dudley home with him and Ethel is forced to carry on the deception again. This state of affairs lasts a few days and Dudley has almost agreed to join issues with Walter, when he discovers, through seeing her picture in a society journal, that Ethel is Walter's wife, and he reproaches Ethel for having so tricked him. She cannot defend herself without betraying her husband and so permits him to think that she alone is to blame. He leaves her and writes to Walter that the deal is off. When he commands her to write to Dudley and try to make peace with him she also realizes his selfishness and lack of honor in his nature and her love for him begins to die. Ethel refuses to write to Dudley, whereupon her husband is brutal to her. He decides that he must take the initiative himself, and accordingly writes to Dudley a rather affectionate note asking him to call that evening and signs Ethel's name. Dudley visits Ethel and seems very sure of his welcome, the respectfully tender love which he has before shown for her now gives place to passion and when she reproaches him for his presumption he shows her the note which he supposes to have come from her. Ethel denies all knowledge of it. Just as she is about to confess everything Walter, who has been listening to the entire conversation, enters and interrupts her, Dudley then whispers to her that a welcome will await her at his home at any time, then leaves husband and wife together. Now comes phone calls that Walter's option on the mine in which he has invested every cent is shortened. He must put up more money that very night or lose everything he owns. Walter now begs Ethel to obtain money from Dudley at any price. She refuses and will not listen to his commands; thereupon he changes his tactics and pleads with her to save him for the sake of her old love. She remembers how dearly she once cared for him and at last agrees to go to Dudley and ask him for the money. Dudley at first welcomes Ethel very passionately, but she has now determined on frankness at any cost and so tells him the whole truth. He realizes that he has misjudged her and gives her the money for Walter just because he loves her. Walter, who has followed Ethel to the house unknown to her, overhears her confession, but does not know that Dudley has given her the money. He breaks in and storms and makes himself general disagreeable and when he is shown the check his manner changes and he fawns upon Dudley. Walter now has gained his point, so tells his wife that she had better return home with him, but it is now Ethel's turn to voice her feelings. She tells Walter that he has killed her love for him and that her affections have been won by Dudley. For one moment Dudley and Ethel gaze into each other's eyes, each reading the love in the other's soul, then they part, Ethel returning to her girlhood home where she means to wait until she is free to marry the man she loves. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less

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3 cast members

Name	Known for
Frederick Roland Walter Scardon (as Fred Roland) Walter Scardon (as Fred Roland) See fewer	Hearts of Oak (1914)
Ethel Grandin Ethel Scardon Ethel Scardon See fewer	The Crimson Stain Mystery (1916)
Graham Velsey Dudley Hale Dudley Hale See fewer	Lights Out (1946)

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