Volume II: Filmography

THE GIRL OF THE GROVE

April 5, 1912 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Director: George O. Nichols

Cameraman: A.H. Moses, Jr.

Cast: Florence LaBadie (the girl), Joseph Graybill (the wooer), Marguerite Snow (his wife), James Cruze, William Russell (the doctor)

Location: Florida

Note: The New York Dramatic Mirror described Graybill as "the man with the little black mustache;" also see following film, A Love of Long Ago.

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, March 30, 1912:

"The Thanhouser Florida producer set up his camera in an orange grove the other day and took some peachy pictures that he called The Girl of the Grove. That is, he took pictures when his company wasn't busy eating oranges. It was a great temptation for the company and they just couldn't resist it. They had the liberty of the grove and they simply floundered in oranges. Finally, seven hundred pieces of yellow peel were swept away and work on the picture commenced. It was a dramatic picture, too, and the bunch were not feeling at all dramatic, only orangy. They couldn't be serious after all those oranges. Finally, there were corralled some of the 'leads' who hadn't engaged in the orange feast. There was Flo LaBadie, Marguerite Snow, and Joe Graybill. Graybill's fingers, under examination, showed yellow as from orange stains, but he said it was cigarettes. Some of the others who had good alibis were allowed to work. The picture came through a success."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture News, March 23, 1912:

"The girl was young, pretty, and also a good business woman. When her father died, she took up the reins of management and ran an orange grove with successful results. Her mother, who lived with her, was proud of the self-reliant girl, and their life was peaceful and happy. Her capable hands were so busy, making a modest fortune, that she had no time to think of love. One day, however, the 'prince' appeared. He was a tourist from the North, good looking, well dressed, and of gentlemanly manners. It was love at first sight on both sides, and the girl dreamed of a happy home with the man she loved. Then the awakening came. She learned that the man had a wife, an invalid and a cripple. The man did not tell her; the news was broken to her by accident. Self-reliant people suffer the most when sorrow comes, it is said, and the girl was no exception to the rule. Life had become bitter to her, and in a moment of weakness she decided to end it all, and wandered down to the sea. Looking around to know that she was unobserved, she was just in time to see another woman leap overboard. The girl forgot her own troubles, jumped into the water, and saved the unfortunate. After she had brought her ashore and revived her, she recognized the unhappy one as the wife who was the barrier between herself and the man.

"The wife did not know her rescuer, but in gratitude told her story, of physical suffering, of neglect and coldness that had made her determine to seek rest in the grave. The girl listened and breathed a silent prayer of thankfulness for her romance is blasted, and she could see clearly that the man was not worth a sacrifice. So the thought of self-destruction passed away and never again to return. The self-reliant girl pitied the poor weak woman, and induced her to make her home with her. There later the girl received a letter from the man, telling of the death of a 'rich relative' which, he explained, made their marriage possible. He added that he would call that afternoon to discuss the date of their marriage. The man was promptly on hand. The girl met him and led him through the grove to the house. Then she stepped aside and pointed to a woman asleep in an invalid's chair. The man looked and recognized the wife he thought dead. 'I saved her life,' the girl whispered, 'your neglect and brutality drove her to attempt suicide. My intention is to see that her remaining days are happy. You have no part in the life of either of us. Go and never return.' The man, touched for once, made no comment, but departed. The wife awoke and sleepily asked the girl if they had a visitor. 'No one that either of us knows or ever will know,' was the reply. 'Go to sleep again, dear, and awake to a happier future. You are living in an Adamless Eden now,' and the wife, with a half-sleepy smile of comprehension, dozed off again, while the girl watched her with a look of love and pity. For even if you are capable and self-reliant, it is hard to realize that your idol has feet of clay and that the days of romance are over for you forever."

REVIEW by Gordon Trent, The Morning Telegraph, March 24, 1912:

"In The Girl of the Grove, released Friday, April 5, the Thanhouser players put over a dramatic story par excellence. It is a made-in-Florida issue. There is not alone a strong story, but very pretty settings. The story is of a girl who would end herself because she has found her sweetheart to be a married man. She is the grove girl. About to leap into the sea, she detects another woman in the same act, saves her and takes her to her home in the orange grove. The woman explains that neglect on her husband's part drove her to the attempt at suicide. The girl learns the husband is the man who wooed her, and for whom she, too, intended taking her life. She finds comfort in the thought that no human life was sacrificed for so unworthy a being. The love she had for him goes to his abused wife. She finds comfort in the fortunate woman. Flo LaBadie plays the girl, Joseph Graybill the wooer, and Marguerite Snow his wife."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, April 7, 1912:

"Only two small portions deserve critical comment, for the picture-play is otherwise praiseworthy. The one is where the man finds the woman's handbag and at once proceeds to look for the note just as if he knew one was to be there, instead of making a real search for money or other things, as would be natural. The other lies in the melodramatic emotion of the villain in most of his scenes, and especially when he learns of the death of his wife. It smacks of the cheap-tactics of a cheap, old timey melodramatic actor. The scenes are beautiful, the story has a good grip in it, and the work of the two women is especially fine. A girl dweller in Florida is the boss of her mother's orange grove. She meets a tourist who woos and all but wins her, when she learns he is already married to an invalid woman, seeing him in the latter's company. The man writes to the girl to meet him at night and they may elope. That evening she sees his wife attempt suicide, just as she had thought of doing, by jumping into the sea, and she saves the life of the invalid and brings her to her own home. The next day she sends for the man, who has learned of the supposed death of his wife, and he is led to her as she sits dozing in a chair, and then the girl turns on him and orders him away forever, whereupon he departs and the two women are left to their single blessedness."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, April 13, 1912:

"An orange grove picture story, taken in Florida. The girl was boss of the grove. A stranger, coming in to see the grove, finds her at work, dressed in overalls. This meeting is followed, a few weeks later, by a love scene set up in a great tree with branches like immense arms. The 'boss' later finds that the man is married. The man's sick wife is neglected; the disillusioned girl, 'the boss,' is also despondent. Each is on the point of drowning herself; but the 'boss' rescues the wife. The girls comfort each other. It is pretty well photographed in interesting background; but it is slight. A good, romantic filler."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, April 10, 1912: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

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