LOVE NEVER DIES is a melodrama one can't really judge given one-fourth of the film does not survive (it originally ran 80 minutes but only around an hour of the film still exists). One can follow the story from what remains but major missing elements make it seem quite abrupt. Additionally, several of the title cards have clearly been replaced with newly made ones.
Lloyd Hughes stars as a Nice Young Man of no background whose earnest ambitions and hard work allow him to mingle among his "betters" and seem to have a future as a promising young businessman, even though his "mother" Liz is clearly a prostitute. He woos and successfully wins pretty Madge Bellamy but she and her lower-middle-class set are unaware of his history and she has never met his mother. A young orphan named Dora shows up one day and drops big hints about his mom. Eventually, Madge's father finds out as well and threatens to kill Lloyd, persuaded by Madge not to do so only by her agreeing to leave Lloyd and come back to the homestead.
Humilated and devastated, Lloyd decides to leave town (bizarrely deciding to take with him the eight-year-old orphan Dora) and try to build a new life. When the train they are on has a major wreck, Lloyd decides to list his name among the dead and start a completely new life. Meanwhile both his mother and wife learn of the "death" and are bonded by their grief. Years pass and Lloyd raises Dora who he apparently sends off to boarding school during the school year and while she is away decides to visit his old hometown just to see the place again when he is spotted by his mother and learns that Dora has given birth to his son. The duo are briefly reunited. This is where the major segments appear to be missing. The lost footage apparently lets Lloyd know his "mother" is in fact not his real mom (a fact that was mentioned early in the picture by one of Liz's friends) but someone who loved him and raised him (apparently director King Vidor and the author do not consider adopted parents "real" ones) and most crucially missing, that Madge has married Joel (Joseph Bennett), her longtime also-ran beau who has stepped in after Lloyd's "death" to help her and raise their son. The surviving print goes from Liz fainting at realizing Lloyd is still alive to a quick scene of Lloyd and Madge in each others arms reunited, to another quick shot of Lloyd deciding to leave and go back to the city and the latter-day viewer clearly will not understand why he is leaving given there is no mention of the second marriage or Madge's bigamy since this footage is gone.
As Lloyd is leaving town on a back road, he is jumped by Joel who intends to kill him for coming back and potentially ruining his happiness. Lloyd is successful at taking the gun away from Joel but convinces him he is indeed leaving and will not return. Joel however is tortured knowing Madge will never love him now and decides to commit suicide by taking a small boat over the rapids. Lloyd realizes this as he sees him in action and rushes to rescue him, nearly killing himself in the process and while he is able to reach Joel and bring him to shore after he has been thrown in the river, Joel expires in the sand but not before confessing he was the one who told Madge's father about Liz and planted the seeds for the destruction of their marriage. And that's the end of the movie!!! At least, that's where the surviving print leaves off, surely there was a final scene with Lloyd and Madge now happily reunited.
Lloyd Hughes was a handsome leading man (especially in profile) and is quite good although he's fairly unknown even among silent movie buffs today although he has major roles in the surviving silent classics TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY, ELLA CINDERS, THE LOST WORLD, and THE SEA HAWK. Leading lady Madge Bellamy is lovely and pleasing in her part in one of her very first film roles in a nice silent screen career that would include LORNA DOONE and several John Ford films. LOVE NEVER DIES is a sweet little love story that would probably still be quite a minor title even if the film were intact but what remains is rather a pleasant old-fashioned romance drama.
Lloyd Hughes stars as a Nice Young Man of no background whose earnest ambitions and hard work allow him to mingle among his "betters" and seem to have a future as a promising young businessman, even though his "mother" Liz is clearly a prostitute. He woos and successfully wins pretty Madge Bellamy but she and her lower-middle-class set are unaware of his history and she has never met his mother. A young orphan named Dora shows up one day and drops big hints about his mom. Eventually, Madge's father finds out as well and threatens to kill Lloyd, persuaded by Madge not to do so only by her agreeing to leave Lloyd and come back to the homestead.
Humilated and devastated, Lloyd decides to leave town (bizarrely deciding to take with him the eight-year-old orphan Dora) and try to build a new life. When the train they are on has a major wreck, Lloyd decides to list his name among the dead and start a completely new life. Meanwhile both his mother and wife learn of the "death" and are bonded by their grief. Years pass and Lloyd raises Dora who he apparently sends off to boarding school during the school year and while she is away decides to visit his old hometown just to see the place again when he is spotted by his mother and learns that Dora has given birth to his son. The duo are briefly reunited. This is where the major segments appear to be missing. The lost footage apparently lets Lloyd know his "mother" is in fact not his real mom (a fact that was mentioned early in the picture by one of Liz's friends) but someone who loved him and raised him (apparently director King Vidor and the author do not consider adopted parents "real" ones) and most crucially missing, that Madge has married Joel (Joseph Bennett), her longtime also-ran beau who has stepped in after Lloyd's "death" to help her and raise their son. The surviving print goes from Liz fainting at realizing Lloyd is still alive to a quick scene of Lloyd and Madge in each others arms reunited, to another quick shot of Lloyd deciding to leave and go back to the city and the latter-day viewer clearly will not understand why he is leaving given there is no mention of the second marriage or Madge's bigamy since this footage is gone.
As Lloyd is leaving town on a back road, he is jumped by Joel who intends to kill him for coming back and potentially ruining his happiness. Lloyd is successful at taking the gun away from Joel but convinces him he is indeed leaving and will not return. Joel however is tortured knowing Madge will never love him now and decides to commit suicide by taking a small boat over the rapids. Lloyd realizes this as he sees him in action and rushes to rescue him, nearly killing himself in the process and while he is able to reach Joel and bring him to shore after he has been thrown in the river, Joel expires in the sand but not before confessing he was the one who told Madge's father about Liz and planted the seeds for the destruction of their marriage. And that's the end of the movie!!! At least, that's where the surviving print leaves off, surely there was a final scene with Lloyd and Madge now happily reunited.
Lloyd Hughes was a handsome leading man (especially in profile) and is quite good although he's fairly unknown even among silent movie buffs today although he has major roles in the surviving silent classics TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY, ELLA CINDERS, THE LOST WORLD, and THE SEA HAWK. Leading lady Madge Bellamy is lovely and pleasing in her part in one of her very first film roles in a nice silent screen career that would include LORNA DOONE and several John Ford films. LOVE NEVER DIES is a sweet little love story that would probably still be quite a minor title even if the film were intact but what remains is rather a pleasant old-fashioned romance drama.