The Cup of Life is a 1915 American silent drama starring Bessie Barriscale. It was directed by Thomas Ince and Raymond B. West with a scenario written by C. Gardner Sullivan and Ince.^[1][2]

Though Thomas Ince produced both films, this film is unrelated to The Cup of Life (1921).^[1] It is about the lives of two women who choose separate paths. It is extant.

As described in contemporary film magazines,^[3][4] sisters Helen and Ruth Fiske are living a humble life on their department-store salaries. Helen dreams of an easy life of luxury and Ruth dreams of a simple, but contended domestic life. Helen takes up with the wealthy John Ward, despite Ruth's doubts. Ruth marries a man of modest means and they build a solid household. Helen begins circulating among men of the monied class.

After some years, Ruth is now a mother and runs a happy household. Helen has been abroad, but her position in high society is waning as she ages. Helen returns to America to win back a former suitor, James Kellerman, but he has moved on to a younger, less jaded woman. The sisters are reunited, but seeing her sister's dream fulfilled depresses Helen further and she proceeds further down a path of dissipation.

• Bessie Barriscale as Helen Fiske
• Enid Markey as Ruth Fiske
• Charles Ray as John Ward
• Frank Borzage as Dick Ralston
• Arthur Maude as Jack Jordan
• J. Barney Sherry as James Kellerman
• Louise Glaum as Irene Bullard
• Harry Keenan as John Standing
• Howard Hickman as Higsby
• Jerome Storm as Sam Dugan, credited as Jerry Storm

Complete prints of The Cup of Life are held by the Library of Congress and the Cineteca Del Friuli in Gemona.^[5]

• The Cup of Life at IMDb