Volume II: Filmography Volume II: Filmography
September 27, 1912 (Friday)
Length: 1 reel
Character: Drama
Cast: James Cruze (rich father), Marguerite Snow (daughter of the rich father, a charity worker), Carey L. Hastings (poor mother), Marie Eline (child of the poor mother), Leland Benham, Cardinal Farley (as himself, in a cameo role)
ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, September 21, 1912:
"A rich banker and his daughter look at life from widely different angles. He sees the world at its darkest, she at its sunniest. He believes in holding the down-trodden down, she in raising them up. She dies, and it changes his entire viewpoint. He comes to see things as his dead daughter saw them - and in the end he gets his child back to share his viewpoint with him."
SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, September 21, 1912:
"The rich banker did not realize how differently he and his daughter looked at life until the girl returned from a convent school where she had passed many years. The banker's motto was 'Everyone for himself, and me first.' The girl believed in aiding the poor, and that wealth carried with it an obligation to be useful. The father admired his beautiful daughter, even though he did not understand her. She loved him and hoped some day to bring him to a realization of his duty toward the helpless and friendless. Before this happened, the clash came. Returning to his home one day, the banker was surprised to hear chatting and laughter in his dining room. Investigating he discovered that his daughter had brought 'some of those beggar brats' home. He was enraged that his house should be so polluted, and sternly ordered the girl to throw her guests out immediately. Vainly she pleaded with him, and finally declared that if the others went, she would go too. The man did not believe she meant it, and jeeringly told her to try it. She bowed, and, followed by her humble guests, left the house.
"The girl went with them to their tenement home, and, having no money with her, gave one of the poorest of the party a jeweled bracelet which her father had presented to her. Then, weary of the world, she sought refuge in a convent, found peace, and was soon happy as a teacher in a little parish school in the slums of the city. The father, in the meantime, believed his daughter was dead, for the bracelet was found on the charred remains of a woman, burned to death in a fire in the slums. Rich, but lonely and heartsick, the banker took a vow to do good where he had done harm, and soon became better known for his kindliness and charity than he had been for his business ability. He believed his daughter dead, and she, knowing that no search had ever been made for her, supposed that he had closed his heart against her. Among the banker's new protegées was a little girl, who reminded him of his daughter when the latter was a child. At her invitation he accompanied her on one occasion to the parish school she attended, and there to his surprise and joy met the daughter he thought was dead. There were mutual explanations and mutual forgiveness. The banker thanked heaven for the happiness that had again entered his life, and to show his gratitude in a practical way, decided to endow the school, for it was the school and a tiny scholar that had brought him back to his daughter. The dedication services were graced by the presence of Cardinal Farley, and the building now stands as a memorial and constant reminder that a father, who had lost the daughter he loved, regained her after many days, and through the charity he had once sneered at as something that should not exist."
REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, September 29, 1912: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.
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REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, October 5, 1912: |
"Because her father is brutally uncharitable, his daughter who has been educated in a convent returns there unknown to him and he is led afterward to believe her dead. Henceforth, devoting his life to charity, he finally discovers her again at a school dedication. The scenes for this were taken at an actual dedication in which appear some splendid views of Cardinal Farley. Mr. Cruze and Marguerite Snow play the leading parts."
REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, September 25, 1912:
"The evident purpose of this picture is to teach a lesson to the hard-hearted, stingy old men who refuse help to the poor. A girl living with her rich father, fresh from the convent, sallies out one fine morning bent on philanthropic work. She returns to her house accompanied by a destitute woman and four shabby children. The father objects when his house is used to entertain them in, and pours out his wrath upon the daughter. The daughter, feeling that the whole world is cold and uncharitable, makes her way back to the convent and becomes a nun. The father is led to believe that his child is dead, and it is not until five years afterward that he accidentally discovers the truth. His five years of loneliness have softened his heart and the rest of his life is spent in trying to make amends. One cannot feel that the girl is justified in leaving her father, even though he refused to concede to her demands, unless, perhaps, she was uncharitable herself, and this is not the impression the producers wish to convey. James Cruze is the father, Marguerite Snow the daughter, Carey L. Hastings the poor mother, and the Thanhouser Kid her child."
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Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.