Volume II: Filmography

BACK TO NATURE

August 8, 1911 (Tuesday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Cast: Marguerite Snow, James Cruze, Marie Eline (the sick child), John I. Booker (the cleaner)

Note: One schedule listed the release date erroneously as August 9, 1911.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, August 5, 1911:

"Back to Nature is a lesson in success - showing that the obtaining of it in a prosperous city is actually much more difficult than 'back on the farm.' Of course, the accepted idea is that the tattered country boy comes to the city and makes a fortune; but fortunes of this making are really the exceptions and the country boy who succeeds is usually the country boy who leaves the overcrowded city alone and 'works' his farm into a paying proposition. In the present picture, this realization comes to one who is NO boy - indeed, a broken-down 'city failure' of middle years. But even at his age he changed to a city knock-down to a 'back to nature' triumph, and resurrected a wife and family along with himself."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, August 12, 1911:

"After extracting the best that was in him in the course of 20 years service with them, the People's Insurance Company discharges Joe Jackson, a faithful bookkeeper. So at middle life, Joe finds the sum-total of a 'city career' - a nervous wife, a drooping infant and a grown up son and daughter, whom the city has converted into shallow, idle, selfish creatures. His own gains are a bank account that wouldn't stand the strain of city rent-paying and city living, while he was hunting for a job, so Joe concluded to get 'back to nature.' He bought a farm with his savings and transported himself there with his family, much against the wishes of two members thereof - the indolent son and daughter, of course. But farm life proved the best blessing that could have been wished on the pair. They finally jumped into it with a vim, and it rejuvenated them, making them self-respecting and self-supporting winning the daughter a prosperous neighbor for a husband. And the country air gave the youngest child the good health that the city could not extend to it.

"In his new world, the farmer found that he had many friends, and he gradually became a person of influence among his neighbors, who had a chance to observe his sterling qualities. Oddly enough, it happened that many of them were policy holders in the insurance company that had once employed Joe, and there was a fight for control. And the farmers, who believed that the corporation needed to be reformed, decided to pool their influence, and gave Joe their proxies. They had confidence in his knowledge and integrity, they knew he was not falling behind. The contest between the two big 'interests' was so close that Joe, to his surprise and that of others, found that he held the balance of power. And the president, who had thrown him out, was sure that the one-time clerk would not avenge himself.

"But Joe proved he was mistaken. Of the two forces he preferred the old directors, and from his knowledge of the business, gained during his obscure work, he was able to impress the board with the necessity for reforms he advocated. They expressed a willingness to carry out his idea, and he left the control of the company where it was. The directors were impressed with the ability of Joe. The president admitted, shamefacedly, that the man had formerly been an employee, but had been let out. The president went to Joe's farm to offer him another job, at much higher pay. The farmer left the decision to his family, and the vote was unanimously 'no.' Each member of the household realized that he or she had gained morally and physically by 'going back to nature,' and the president returned to the city, wondering, but still envious of the happiness he saw in the obscure little upstate farm."

REVIEW, The Billboard, August 12, 1911:

"While the production as pictured in this film is an admirable one from every point of view, being well plotted, adequately and appropriate staged and costumed, and finely acted, the producers are to be praised more for the selection of this theme than for anything else. The film is a plain piece of advice to city people, showing them what is to be gained in the way of health, money and happiness out in the farm. The film pictures a particular incident wherein the worn-out city man and his unhealthy (both in mind and body) family go to the country and recuperate, regaining their health and making good financially. Of course, it is understood that the production is not plotted after hard and fast rules or any proven facts, but is simply a suggestion that will generally be accepted as a good one. As stated, aside from its educational value, the film is a charming one and full of interest."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, August 13, 1911:

"Attention to the smaller matters of stage business and properties as shown in this production raises it above the average offering. Notably might be mentioned the seating of the family about the dining table, the lumber wagon, the packing cases in the new home awaiting the opening by the movers, the arrangement of the office scene, not to forget the realism of the farmyard. Homely, in the good old usage of that muchly abused word, this picture play is one of simplicity compared with the scores of others based upon the more or less complicated plots of old-time worldwide usage in story and drama. Would it not have been better, however, to have eliminated the final portion of the story wherein the former bookkeeper secures the proxies of the insurance policy holders and thereby wins a victory over the president of the company he had worked for? This but serves to complicate matters, and the business is rather difficult of comprehension. It would also have been better to have made the father appear somewhat older, and the son is hardly suited to the role, as the actor appears somewhat effeminate for the part. This father is a clerk in an insurance company. He is discharged because of his advanced years, after a faithful and long service. His son is a loner, his older daughter is inclined to be wayward, while his youngest child is an invalid. He buys a farm and moves into the country, where the entire family soon becomes fascinated with the new life. Neighbors give their insurance voting proxies to the father, who returns to the city and enforces certain demands upon the board of directors of his old company. He is offered a new position in the city, but with his family he votes to remain in the country."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, August 19, 1911: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 16, 1911:

"This film presents a definite problem, and carries it to a logical conclusion, showing how it was possible, at least for one family, to reinstate and reorganize their lives for the better. The story is well put on, told and acted. Discharged by the People's Insurance Company after a long clerkship, the father with his wife and three children went to live on a small farm in the country. Here they all gained both moral and physical health, and in the course of time the father became a man of influence in the community. He was appointed by a committee of farmers, stockholders in the People's Insurance Company, to readjust some of that company's methods. He did so, so thoroughly that his former employers were impressed and wished to rehire him for an influential position. Both he and his family, however, preferred open life of the country."

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