FROM THE SUBMERGED is part of a collection entitled "American Film Archives: Vol. 3: Disc 1". The DVDs deal specifically with American short films that deal with various social issues. These are the sort of films that usually would be forgotten or lost had it not been for some film preservationists work. Now this set certainly isn't for everyone, as the content is a bit dry. However, for history teachers (like myself) and cinemaniacs (again, that would be me), it's an invaluable set. As the films are all silent, they actually are very watchable along with the optional audio commentary--which gives nice background information.
The film begins with a homeless man living in the park. His family apparently has disowned him. However, soon he reads a newspaper and sees a personal from his father--begging him to return. The man arrives to find his man on his deathbed.
The next scene finds the man well off once again--wearing a tux and attending a fashionable party. He escorts his date to a secluded place, as he wants to ask her to marry him. However, both times he tries, people seem to interrupt.
In the next scene, the man and his friends are "slumming"--walking by the very breadline where he once stood. When he tells his fiancée about this, she laughs and thinks it's all rather funny. He just can't bring himself to marry her now and tears up her photo. Instead, he dresses in his old clothes and goes in search of a poor woman who once helped him when he was down and out and ready to jump into the river. He finds her and, in an improbable turn, asks her to marry him--and they are married almost instantly. Only then does he reveal to her his wealth--and they live happily ever after.
Overall, a rather preachy morality tale that actually is pretty good for 1912. Such sentimentality and improbabilities would not have been seen in films made a few years later, but at the time this film was made the film was reasonably well made and received.