Volume II: Filmography

HER DARKEST HOUR

August 20, 1912 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Cast: Marguerite Snow (leading lady)

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, August 17, 1912:

"The 'Thanhouser twist' is getting to be as famous in film stories as the late O. Henry's 'twist' was in magazine stories. This reel features the 'twist.' Don't you think the wronged girl is going to do exactly as she doesn't, and therein is the 'twist.' The girl emerges from 'Her Darkest Hour' in a way you would never guess, but will much applaud."

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, August 17, 1912:

"In Her Darkest Hour the dramatic has full sway. An heiress marries against her father's wishes. The father disinherits her and replaces her in his home and affections with a small niece. The marriage proves a fiasco. The man flees when he finds the girl is cut out of her father's gold. All the romance is gone out of the girl's life and she returns to her parent to beg his forgiveness. But he will have none of her. He holds the niece tightly to him, and telling the daughter that she has been eliminated from his life for all time, orders her forever out of his sight. It is indeed a dark hour for the daughter who, however, comes to her lucky cousin's aid later, and reawakens in the aged parent is filial love. Thereafter she shares the affections of her father with her little cousin."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, August 24, 1912:

"The daughter of a wealthy man imagined she was deeply in love with her father's chauffeur, and demanded that she be allowed to marry him. When her father very properly and angrily refused, the young woman was urged by her suitor to elope with him and very foolishly consented. In a short time her romance was utterly dispelled. The chauffeur threw off the mask and bluntly told his wife that he had no intention of supporting her. Then he deserted her, and the last that was heard of him was that he was beating his way out West on a freight train. The wife soon fell into financial straits. The few valuables she had were sold or pawned. She sought her father. The interview was an unsatisfactory one. The man showed no signs of relenting, but with his arms about his niece, told his daughter that the little one had sole possession of his affections. He ordered her away. She was hardly out of sight before the little girl pleaded with the old man to forget and forgive, and finally won him over. Joyously she raced after the woman and overtook her. The woman, however, was not grateful. She spurned the child and proceeded on her way. Then the accident occurred. The child leaned too hard on a frail railing and she fell into the water. The woman at first refused to extend any assistance. However, her better nature asserted itself. She leaped from the bridge, rescued the child, and brought her safely to shore. The woman's father had witnessed the accident, but feebleness prevented him from arriving in time to extend any aid. He realized the temptation to which his daughter had been subjected, and how bravely she had overcome it. The father's arms were outstretched and he embraced his erring daughter."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, August 25, 1912:

"An heiress elopes with her father's chauffeur, and soon after, the husband realizing that her father will never acknowledge the marriage, deserts her. The young wife suffers the privations of poverty and goes to her father with a plea to be forgiven. He refuses and tells her that his little niece has won the love which she had forfeited. But the niece pleads with the old man and succeeds in softening his heart. She runs after her cousin, catches up with her and asks her to return, but the girl refuses. The niece then falls into a stream, and her cousin battles with her conscience as to whether she shall enjoy such a revenge or rescue the child. She takes the latter course, springs into the water, brings the child to shore and soon after is welcomed back home by her grateful father. The play opens well, is staged in the fine Thanhouser way of doing things and is ably acted."

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