The Light That Failed (1939) DVD-R

Starring Ronald Colman, Walter Huston, Muriel Angelus, Ida Lupino, Dudley Digges, Pedro de
Cordoba
Directed by William A. Wellman

Print: black/white
Runtime: 97 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

Based on a classic tale from Rudyard Kipling, this melodrama chronicles the desperate
attempt of a painter to finish his greatest painting before he goes blind. His affliction is due
to a war wound and his final project is to paint a portrait of London's most notorious
prostitute. Trouble begins when the hooker falls deeply in love with the artist. Unfortunately,
social mores forbid their union and this frustrates the wanton woman. Meanwhile, the artist
feverishly continues to paint her. The result is exquisite. Unfortunately, by this time, the
whore can no longer contain her frustrated rage, and unbeknownst to the painter whose
sight is nearly gone, viciously slashes it. Later the artist takes his prized work and shows it
to his best friend, a military officer, in a heartbreaking scene. Afterward the two colleagues
head down to fight in the Sudan. There the devastated painter begs the officer to allow him
to participate in one final, glorious charge atop a shining white stallion.