New-York tribune., 1921-03-06
How Moody Evolved
Faith Healer, !" Now
Ready for Screen

Three solutions were written By VII
liam Vaughn Mood1 for tia d,sA
"rhe srn beaier~ ,,eror. he
satisfied with his work, according :.
hts widos.. who. in collaboration w,s>
Milton Stills and Q. Wall Coverto,
wrote The scenario for the sere.,
version for Paramount, which Huvo
Riesenfeld will present for an exteno.,
engagement at the Criterion Theater
beginning Sunday, March l3.
The playwright was faced By III.
same problem that his hero was asked
20 solve. 1t was a question of pro.
found interest 20 Mr.. Moody and IL
one which occupies the thought of
nany professional men and artists.
"Mr. Moody was from the beginnine
deeply interested in the question
| dedicated to some great work shopla
not feel called upon to deny himself
the ordinary human lot," said Mrs.
Moody. "He was turning over in his
mind this problem as motive for
stage play with deep interest when
one day he happened to read some
lress notices about a man who was
going about the country healing the
sick by prayer.
at Immediately occurred to Mr..
Moody that he might use this medium
as setting for the problem of his
play, deeming that story of religious
dedication would give it more uni
versal appeal.
"The story as he told it is one Of q
E young shepherd, Michaelis, who in the
solitude of mountain herding became
absorbed in the religious idea of heal
ng as presented in the New Testament,
and who afterward, feeling that he had
a divine call to carry out a mission Of
healing, travelled over the country heal.
ing the sick
among those whom he was called to
help was paralytic woman, the young
wife of a well-to-do farmer Her af-
Fiction came as a reaction from
death in the family. In the home Of
this patient, Mary Beeler. Michaels
sees and fails in love with beautiful
! young girl-Mrs. Beeler's niece-Rhods
Williams. The healing is performed.
but the healer. realizing that love for
the young girl is beginning to pre-
occupy his thought, feels that he is
losing his healing power in proportion
to the growth Of his love A crowd
of sufferers. having heard of the pres
ence of the healer in the Beeler house
hold, gathers in the fields around the
house clam oring for help. One woman
| forces her way into the room with
sick baby in her arms imploring bis
help;
Michaelis is unable to go on with bis
work, and this awakens him to the be-
ief that he is called upon to make
choice between his mission and love.
"In an earlier version of this play"
continued Mrs. Moody, "Mr. Moody
made the healer renew his dedication
| to his work, renounce his love, Danish
all thought of love for the future, and
go forth again about his work with re-
newed conservation to his mission But
Mr.. Moody was too great an artist and
too true to his understanding Of life
to be satisfied with this denouement
He felt that the problem in his own
mind had not yet been solved. he
drafted the play aud, with the imps-
tience at the false conclusion, went
over to the other extreme and made
the healer give up his mission and re-
nounce his healing power for the love
of the girl.
at was, Of course. impossible ior
him to rest satisfied with such con.
clusion. Suddenly the truth. with all
its reassuring certainties. became
clear to him. God he says in the
play. does not deny love to any Of his
creatures; it is on each mans head
the use he makes of it. He realized
that even the girl whom Michaelis
loved needed the very healing power
which the latter had been tempted 10
renounce for her sake-that she was
one Of those he was called upon to
heal.
"This girl - Rhoda Williams-whils
very. young. had been carried away BY
an illusion of love and now looked
upon herself as unworthy of Michaeis's
love, being, as she called herself, q
wicked woman; but her consciousness
of his spiritual exaltation filled her
with the high idea of setting him free
from herself, and with that idea she
tells him her whole story. In the
moment Of realizing the inspired solu-
tion Of their mutual problem Their
thoughts are turned TO the suffering
people waiting for the healer Rhodas
first thought is Of them. and Michaells'
responding to 1t, passes out into the
crowd to go on with his work
Thus, in the writing of his plsy,
Mr.. Moody progressed from one stage
of conception Of limitation to another
not so limited and then to q third
which brought him to vision Of life
and solution of his problem which
satisfied his artistic sense. In his
earlier conception he had not preserved
the spiritual freedom which rightly be-
longs to all human beings; in his sec
ond he had broken down idealsm IN
favor Of vision of love which must
ultimately bring destruction, but In the
third he reached an inspired under
standing that spiritual freedom is the
healer's real power and that pure
human love does not weigh against tbs
freedom, but rather sustains it."
Milton Sills, who plays the htle
role in "The Faith Healer" and aided
in adapting the play to the screen. was
personal friend of the playwright
and his wife at the time the play was
written. When the play WAS being
considered for presentation on ,i'le sne
stage Mrs. Moody urged that Mr.. Slll'
play the title role.