The Silent Lady

In this 1917 drama a young orphan named Kate finds shelter in a New England lighthouse, cared for by a trio of aging keepers and their doctor friend. When illness comes, the stern Philemon hires a live in nurse named Miss Summerville, hoping to shield the crew from gossip and preserve order. Yet the plan unsettles the small community, since each keeper and the visiting physician weigh their own desires against duty to the child. The arrival of Captain Peyton, a lighthouse inspector, intensifies the atmosphere of propriety and rumor. Miss Summerville resists romantic advances and works to maintain her professional role while the men wonder what she will do next, keeping the lighthouse steady through a cloud of judgments.

The Silent Lady was directed by Elsie Jane Wilson in 1917, based on a story by Elliott J. Clawson. This early silent drama centers on a fragile coastal community and the pressures of propriety in a crowded home.

Box office data for this 1917 release is not readily available and there are no widely cited grosses from the period. The film survives mainly in reference works rather than commercial histories.

There are no major awards listed for The Silent Lady, which is typical of many early silent dramas that circulated outside the modern awards ecosystem. While its cast includes familiar names of the era, credible archives do not note nominations or wins.

The film unfolds as a study of how a small lighthouse town polices behavior and dreams. It probes the tension between duty to a vulnerable child and the pull of private longing, all under the pressure of gossip and male authority. Seen through a nurse's steady hand, the tale asks what else a caretaker can offer when social rules tighten and suspicion hovers over every door. Its era feels intimate and stark.