Volume II: Filmography

CROSS YOUR HEART

November 22, 1912 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Cast: Marie Eline (the farmer's little daughter), Helen Badgley, Leland Benham (the little boy), James Cruze (the boy grown up), Marguerite Snow (the daughter grown up), Francis Newburgh (the girl's grown up brother)

Note: The title was listed erroneously as Cross My Heart in The Motion Picture Story Magazine, December 1912.

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, November 16, 1912:

"A little boy, inmate of an orphan asylum, ran away. He fell in with an itinerant knife grinder. The boy had no home life, and when his companion suggested that they steal some chickens, he did not object. The farmer was alert, however, and although the knife grinder escaped, the boy was made a prisoner. The farmer had two little children, a boy and a girl. They had gone to bed, and came down to investigate. They were sorry for the tiny prisoner and when their father was out of the room, released him. The little girl lectured him and then assisted him to escape through a window. The little orphan came into good fortune. A wealthy real estate broker saw him and later adopted him. The boy when he grew to manhood was taken into partnership by his benefactor. One day the firm engaged a new stenographer, and the junior partner did not know the youth was one of the children who had aided him years before. The stenographer squandered his money, and ran heavily into debt.

"Brooding over what he called his misfortunes, he saw a chance to take a sum of money from the safe, and yielding to impulse did so. Hardly had he left the office before the theft was discovered by the junior partner, who was morally certain that the stenographer was the guilty party. He followed him from his home, and while waiting in the sitting room for him to appear, noticed on the mantelpiece a picture of two children. He recognized them as the ones who had saved him from imprisonment years before, and on questioning the stenographer's pretty sister found that she was the little girl who had made him swear to be honest. When the boy came downstairs prepared for flight, he was shocked to see his employer there. The junior partner, however, did not have him arrested. He explained how he had been given a second chance, and because of it had made good. The young man with tears in his eyes swore he would make good in the future."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, November 24, 1912:

"Dramatic in its every scene, this play carries a heart interest not found in the average picture story. Beginning with the childhood of the leading character, it shows him when an urchin as he runs away from an orphan asylum. He is then seen as the companion of a poor scissors grinder, who makes him enter a chicken coop at night and steal a bird. Caught, he is about to be placed under arrest by the local constable, when the farmer's children permit him to escape on the promise that he will never steal again. He grows up, succeeds in business. The son of the farmer also reaches manhood, but turns out a weakling. Both young men become employees in the same office. The son of the farmer steals from the safe and is caught by the other. He follows the thief to his home, and there meets the girl who years before had made an honest boy of him. He relents, tells the story of his childhood, and the other takes his oath to keep straight in the future. The play is splendidly acted in both of its periods, is finely staged and exceedingly well directed."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, December 7, 1912:

"A story of a boy who grew up. It makes a heart-warming little picture that calls to human sympathies strongly through its simplicity. The three little children are brought together early in the story. The little girl (the Thanhouser Kid) and her smaller brother are the children of a farmer who has caught a kid about nine (an orphan whom a tramp scissors grinder has picked up) stealing his chickens. The farmer has locked the kid in the closet while he calls up the constable; but the little girl, moved to pity, lets him go after a promise, cross his heart, that he won't steal anymore. Marie Eline makes it ring true. After a well-suggested lapse of years the boy has grown up and becomes the employee of the same farmer's son who steals from him. His thoughtful and humane method of handling the situation brings him again in contact with the girl who had long before helped him. In her natural way a means of recognition is furnished and another cross your heart promise is given and received, and a pretty love story began. James Cruze plays the boy grown up; Marguerite Snow, the girl, and Francis Newburgh her grown-up brother. A very pleasing offering."

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