Road To Yesterday, The

275. THE ROAD TO YESTERDAY (1925-usa). With JOSEPH SCHILDKRAUT, WILLIAM BOYD, JETTA COUDAL, VERA REYNOLDS. Produced and directed by CECIL B. DE MILLE. The name C.B. DeMille is virtually a synonym for “movie director,” and this ambitious production shows why. “On the edge of the Grand Canyon, in the shadow of infinity,” five human destinies become strangely entangled. A bride suddenly fears her husband because of something unexplainable reaching out of the past; he in turn is disillusioned and renounces his belief in God. Another woman, about to be married, is magnetically attracted to a handsome young minister both feeling that they have loved each other during a previous existence-but, disdaining his profession and faith; she returns to her mediocre fiancŽ. A train carrying all five people crashes, and as it is engulfed in flames and their fates hang in the balance, they are suddenly whirled “along the Road to Yesterday.” It is now three centuries earlier a time of lords and ladies, gypsies and witches, castles, duels and high adventure. The characters are seen in different guises and relationships, but ones that explain how they will feel hundreds of years later. The bride will have good cause to fear her husband: in the past, he was an evil lord who tried to burn her as a witch! The other woman did indeed love the minister in the past, when he was a dashing hero trying to save her from the clutches of that same lord. After a good amount of suspenseful action, they are whisked back to the train wreck, where they untangle the complications, realize their true loves and return to their faith in God. As might be expected from the director of The Ten Commandments,” this film is visually powerful, dramatically compelling and a most unusual combination of passion, melodrama, religion and spectacle. Silent film with music score, correct projection speed. 136 minutes ÒSilentÓ Drama