Volume II: Filmography

HIS SACRIFICE

June 13, 1913 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Cast: Harry Benham (Dr. Martin), Gerda Holmes (Josie Martin, his wife), David H. Thompson (Mr. Smith, his cousin), Carl LeViness (the detective), Helen Badgley (the baby girl), Muriel Ostriche (beautiful daughter of Dr. Martin's patient), Adele Rey, Sidney Bracy

Notes: 1. Adele Rey (the screen name of society woman Evelyn Prevost) appeared in the film. 2. It was originally announced that there would be no Thanhouser release on this date; however, the schedule was changed. 3. An expanded story by John Charles Haynes, based on the scenario of this film, appeared in the July 1913 issue of The Photoplay Magazine. 4. Gerda Holmes appeared under her married name, Mrs. Rapley Holmes, in some credits.

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

SOCIETY GIRL IN FILMS? Count Mourik de Beaufort, society writer in the New York American, gave Manhattan picture fans a scare last Sunday when he printed an interview with Adele Rey, a Thanhouser player, in which she claimed that she was none other than Evelyn Prevost, cousin of Mrs. John Jacob Astor and a society bud of the first order. Miss Rey's (or Prevost's) latest Thanhouser picture is His Sacrifice, a drama released in June. The newspaper man stated that the young woman had gone into the photoplay field 'to be useful as well as ornamental.'

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, June 14, 1913:

The young physician ranked high in the medical profession. He was wealthy and undoubtedly would have been a very happy man if it had not been for his jealous wife, who constantly interfered with his professional affairs. Finally she made a scene in the presence of a patient, and the doctor, losing his temper, angrily declared that he wished he was rid of her forever. The doctor's cousin, who secretly hated him, called soon after the wife had again quarreled violently with her husband and was in the room when the woman swallowed poison and died. When the doctor, summoned by the cousin, hurried into the room, he was told by his kinsman that with her last breath his wife had accused him of poisoning her. A patient, who in fact, was the one who had heard the doctor threaten his wife, had followed the men into the room. Remembering his words she turned on him and accused him of the crime, then rushed from the house to summon a policeman. The cousin persuaded the physician that it was hopeless to prove his innocence, so the doctor signed away fortune to his unscrupulous relative and fled.

The fugitive obtained work on a farm and was very happy there, until a detective, who chanced to be in the neighborhood, was invited to spend the night at the farmhouse. The officer showed the farmer a circular offering a reward for the capture of the doctor, and also exhibited to the farmhand, not knowing that he was the man of whom he was in search. That evening the farmer's little daughter was taken ill, and the frantic farmer drove off for the nearest doctor, many miles away. The fugitive went into the little bedroom and saw that the only thing to save the child's life was an immediate operation. He did not hesitate, and the child's life was saved. But the detective, his suspicions awakened by the rare surgical skill displayed, recognized his quarry and made him a prisoner. The doctor was brought back to the city and there he was informed that his cousin had confessed and his innocence was established. So he returned to the country, and a clutch of the little arms and a kiss from the baby lips were ample payment for the sacrifice he had so gladly made.

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, June 15, 1913:

Rather an unusual turn has been given the development of this production, which makes it somewhat more interesting than ordinary. A doctor whose wife is mad with uncalled for jealousy poisons herself and dies, placing the blame on her husband. A cousin of the woman's, an unscrupulous man who was in the room with her at the time of her suicide, keeps back what he knows, allowing the doctor to become a fugitive. When he is working as a hired man on a farm, trying to conceal his identity, the child of the house takes sick and can only be saved by an immediate operation, which he performs. In the meantime, a detective is on his heels. The affair is cleared up at last by the unscrupulous cousin confessing what he knows.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, June 18, 1913:

Recently several companies, Licensed and Independent, have produced photo plays similar in a general way to this one. A doctor, once respected and famous, but now hidden away from society, either as a fugitive or a degenerate, is suddenly called upon to bring into play to save the life of a child. The story, as we have it here, has possibilities, but there are too many loose ends to the plot, too many abrupt turns in the action, too many convenient incidents for the story to be convincing. The prologue, which seems really unnecessary, is abrupt and awkward. The author would have done well to have dispensed with it entirely. A well-chosen subtitle and scene would have answered the purpose better, and relieved him of the necessity of working sympathy for the doctor after his harsh words to his wife and his more cowardly running away. Allowing his cousin to flim-flam him into showing the white feather does not speak well for the doctor's character. When a man is innocent of a crime and runs away, fearful that he will be convicted on circumstantial evidence, takes the most delicate treatment to make him feel justified in the eyes of the spectator. There is no reason for letting the spectator in on this doctor's secret so openly. A well-planned suggestion that he was wanted by the authorities for a crime of which he is innocent would have been sufficient. The upshot of it all is that the spectator does not feel any too kindly toward this doctor, and his subsequent sacrifice falls far short of being impressive. Acting and photography are quite acceptable.

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