Smilin' Through (1932)

On the day of his wedding, Sir John Carteret's (Leslie Howard) fiancée, Moonyeen (Norma Shearer), is killed by a jealous rival named Jeremy (Fredric March), leaving him emotionally devastated. Carteret spends three decades in seclusion, mostly communing with the spirit of Moonyeen, until he learns that her niece, Kathleen (also Shearer), has become an orphan. He adopts and raises the child as his own but is alarmed when, as a young woman, she falls in love with the son of Moonyeen's murderer.