Lost1914Thanhouser CompanyOne reelDrama

Adrift in a Great City

Name: Adrift in a Great City
Genre: Drama
Released: 1914-01-13

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“Pat Moran, the prosperous foreman of a construction gang, sends to the Old Country for his wife and daughter. On his way to greet them at the pier, he meets with a serious accident and is taken, unconscious, to a hospital. When he comes to himself, he sends tracers to seek his wife and daughter—but they cannot be found. Meanwhile, the two women, penniless and friendless, are reduced to beggary. The girl finds work in a sweat shop, but her eyes are overtaxed, and she is thrown out, blind and helpless. Then, she wanders the streets, playing her violin—and one day blunders into the hospital grounds where Moran is convalescing out of doors. The doctor learns her story—Moran listening near by. The foreman recognizes in the ragged, blind girl his lost daughter. Grief is turned to joy—the doctor assures them that Kathleen’s sight can be restored—and father, mother and daughter are happily reunited.”

Summary from Reel Life · 10 January 1914

What the papers said

3 reviews

Read in full · 1 min

“This is a well-produced story of a situation which might easily arise in a large city. A workman had sent for this wife and daughter to come from their European home to New York. On the way to meet them at the dock he is knocked down and taken to a hospital, severely injured. The woman and the girl are left alone. After their money is spent they become street beggars. One day they happen to wander into the yard of the same hospital where the husband and father is convalescing. This is better luck than would be likely to occur in real life, but it results in a happy reunion and consequently a pleasant ending for the film.”

The Morning Telegraph · 18 January 1914

“This film presents a section of real life, beginning with an accident that was well pictured. It is not, however, a strong offering, as there is not enough plot and the photography is cloudy in places.”

The Moving Picture World · 17 January 1914

More reviews

14 January 1914The New York Dramatic Mirror1 min

“This is a one-reel offering, featuring Flo LaBadie in the role of the blind girl. There is somewhat of interest in this general subject—that of the two women in an unprotected position—but in this instance the subject has been poorly handled. It is also crudely, cheaply, and unconvincingly set. The settings are all bare and were evidently taken early in the morning and therefore lack the cheerful presence of the usual onlooker in the city scenes. The story is about an immigrant girl and her mother, who go from bad to worse in trying to make a living, and when all seems blackest, the girl having lost her sight, they meet the father, who has been in a restaurant, unconscious from the effects of an accident.”