Volume II: Filmography

IN THEIR HOUR OF NEED

May 23, 1913 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Cast: Florence LaBadie (the daughter), Riley Chamberlin (the doctor)

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, August 23, 1913:

In a note in his Moving Picture Educator column, Rev. E. Boudinot Stockton recognized that In Their Hour of Need is a sermon on 'Oslerism' of the clergy. The congregation thinks their minister is too old to be of any more use, but he proves them wrong. Good for sermons on St. John 10:11-13 and Romans 5:7-8; also in the forgiveness of injuries. (William Osler, a physician, once suggested the possibility of killing everybody at age 65.)

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, May 24, 1913:

Some of the influential members of a little country church were dissatisfied with their minister. They pointed out that he was old fashioned and growing more and more feeble, forgetting the fact that he had spent all his life in their service. The leaders got the rest of the congregation into line and finally a committee broke the news to the old pastor that his service was to terminate, 'a young, active minister' having been acquired to replace him. The old man grieved bitterly, but was of too kind a nature to hold resentment against any man. He greeted his successor courteously, admonished him to take good care of his flock, and then wearily departed. A relative offered the minister and his daughter shelter, but forced them to work like laborers on his farm, while all the time he took credit to himself for his self-styled charity. The minister's daughter had been engaged to the young village doctor, but returned his ring, telling him that her father needed her undivided attention.

The new minister was a great success in the village. His sermons were bright and snappy, he took an active part in the social side of the church, and for a time the general opinion was that the change made was most successful. Then trouble came. The village was smitten with cholera, quarantined, and practically became a detention camp. The doctor stuck to his post loyally, the young minister, in cowardly fear, vanished during the night. And thus was the flock left without a shepherd. It was not for long, however, for the old minister in his place of exile heard the sad news and returned with haste to the village. He was not afraid of death while his people were in peril. He nursed the living and cared for the dying, then was stricken himself. For a time it seemed that he too would pass away, but he recovered, and one day there was an interesting ceremony in the little village church. The trustees who had driven the old minister away now escorted him into the building in triumph, and led him to the pulpit, and told him that his place was with them, now and always. Thus were his latter days as peaceful and happy as they deserved to be.

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, May 25, 1913:

A good old-fashioned story is the basis of this film, which has been produced with a good deal of realism and pathos. The story opens with a scene in a church where the old minister is pronouncing the benediction, and it is shortly after this incident that the congregation decides that they need a young minister in the place of the old faithful. The scene where the committee comes to the old man's house to acquaint him with the decision is rather abrupt, giving with that portion of the picture a lack of repose. The remainder of the story is an interweaving of the love story of the daughter, a plague of yellow fever which causes the new minister to desert in fear, and reinstalling of the old man in his old position in acknowledgment of the fact that he braved the epidemic and came back to his congregation in their hour of need.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, May 31, 1913:

Here is a new turn in the story of the old minister, whose place has been taken by a younger man. Yellow fever enters the town and the young minister deserts. But the old pastor, learning of the situation, returns and faces the plague. The young doctor, in love with the minister's daughter, shares in the honors. This makes an absorbing story and one worth seeing.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, May 28, 1913:

There are certain qualities - or rather possibilities - about this drama which deserve note. It deals with the struggle between age and youth - the tragedy is the old minister who is forced out to make way for a young rector. Old as it is, the theme has possibilities. It carries a sincere ring. Here the old pastor comes to the rescue of the yellow fever stricken town when the cowardly rector decamps, and so wins his public back again. There are obvious crudities in direction. For instance, the way characters were stricken with fever and the way they all recovered so suddenly struck a hard blow at the picture's strength. Less heroism and more humanness would have aided the drama in seeming real. Able direction would have made the pathos of the old minister the keynote and have subordinated the fever camp incident. In his single scene, the actor as the new minister did not convince. The other players are fairly successful. Good photography.

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