Motion Picture Classic (1923, 1924, 1926)

The Slave of Desire "The Magic Skin" Rewritten in Short-Story Form by Grace I mib The antiquarian, in great exci Raphael Valentin, that he is AND SO," said the L p i) e i Raphael con eluding his story with the smile that had won him almost a» much lame as his famous vi "and so, with in> last wish. I w 0 n n o t only my H fc but my love as well. Happiness everlasting." The little gathering in the sumptuous studio of the feted poet Raphael looked at each other in a blurred perplexity. Palpably, they did not understand the story with which their charming host had been regaling them, faintly, bemusedly smiling the while he told of events as richly embroidered as an Arabian \ight"s tale, as fabulous as legends of Ali Baba. Some of them present were old friends of Raphael's. They had seen him in his struggle for existence, they had watched him go wretchedly from hopelessness to hopelessness. They had caught glimpses of the intricacies of his fortunes after he had found the Magic Skin. In these enlightened days magic skins were not to be believed in, and these men. artists, poets, painters, dilettantes and darlings of society, were skeptics, every one of them. Still, they could not but believe that magic skin, or mere prey of variant fortune the young Raphael had come thru some amazing haps and mishaps. They had, perforce, to take his word for the explanation thereof. But now they were perplexed. "If I follow you rightly." said one of the listening friends, "your friend the antiquarian told you when he gave you the magicskin that with each wish you might wish your life would dwindle bv so much." teraent, tells entitled to the the young poet, magic skin THE SLAVE OF DESIRE Fictionized by permission from the Goldwyn production of the adaptation by Charles Whittaker of the novel by Honore de Balzac, "La Peau de Chagrin." Directed by George D. Baker. The cast: Raphael Valentin George Walsh Pauline Gaudin Bessie Love Countess Fedora Carmel Myers Rastignac Wally Van Antiquarian Edward Connolly Mrs. Gaudin Eulalie Jensen Mr. Gaudin Herbert Prior Champrose William Orlamond Tallifer X icholas de Ruiz The General William von Hardenburg Emilc Harmon McGregor The Duke George Periolat Finot Harry Lorraine Major Dome Calvert Carter '• Exa ment," smiled Raphael. ' ' \ n d . * ' pu rsiwd the inquiring one, "the wish you w i sh e,d Bave Pauline from t h e ra u rderous machinations of F e d o r a was the last r e m a i n i n '^ wish left to you. With that last wish your life was at an end." "I If a certainty," again smiled the wilfully enigma t i c Raphael. "But . . ." said the friend, and he looked at the other friends in the circle about the cheerfully open grate, and spread his ringers apart in a gesture of giving the situation and the problem up once and for all. Raphael was quoting, " 'He who loses his life shall gain it,'" he was .saving; "that was my last wish. With the making of that wish I was to pass into the Great Beyond. And yet you see me here tonight, in splendid health, in excellent spirits, in the full possession of my negligible but happily recognized talent and in the proudest possession of all. that of Pauline, my beloved wife." "You speak in paradoxes." said one of the school of Futuristic painting. "Ah, said Raphael, "I have tried your several patiences long enough. You have dined at my table, sipped of my wine, looked upon the incomparable loveliness of my Pauline. Now you shall hear my story. The story of the magic skin, as it really happened, coherently, and not as you have had it by word of mouth from this friend or that foe. "You remember when father, the Marquis and was left penniless but with a pot my died. YeS. hh bicti you remember how (Fifty-five)