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Jess
(1914) United States of America
B&W : Four reels
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: Constance Crawley [Jess Croft], Arthur Maude [John Neil]
Kennedy Features, Incorporated, production. / Scenario by Arthur Maude, from a novel by H. Rider Haggard. Cinematography by William F. Adler. / Released 18 February 1914. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Silas Croft, an Englishman, has taken up farming in South Africa and has been unusually successful. His sister in England, ill, widowed, and left with two little girls, Jess and Bess, starts for South Africa to make her home with him. The sister, however, is stricken with death just after landing from the steamer and the two little girls are sent on to the brother. Jess is the older of the two children and when the mother dies she entrusts the care and happiness of the younger child to the sister, scarcely older. Gladly received and tenderly reared by their uncle, Silas Croft, the girls grow to beautiful and gracious young womanhood on his farm. Sixteen years after their arrival in South Africa, John Neil, a young Englishman who has been an army officer, comes from England to learn South Africa farming and selects Silas Croft as his schoolmaster. Both Jess and Bess fall in love with John Neil. Neil really loves Jess, but she, believing herself bound by the promise given her dead mother, makes John thing she cares nothing for him and goes on a visit to Pretoria, then the principal city of South Africa, so that John may forget her and turn to Bess. Shortly after the departure of Bess for Pretoria occurs the first revolution of the Boers against the British Government. Bess has an admirer, Frank Mueller, a wealthy and influential Boer, whom she hates and fears. Mueller knows that Bess is in love with John and plans to get rid of him. Pretoria, held by the English, is surrounded by Boer troops and Mueller, now a high officer of the Boer Army, writes to Jess that her uncle is ill and needs her. John Neil has gone to Pretoria and Mueller is sure that he will accompany Jess on the trip home. Mueller sends a pass and two of his men to act as an escort. Jess and Neil start, but once outside of the British lines, they are taken captive by Mueller, who laughs at the way they have fallen into his simple trap. Mueller attempts to kill both, but both escape. While in danger Jess has confessed her love for John. Now upon the screen is shown the fighting which took place around Pretoria. For week after week the Boers besieged and the British defended the city. The fighting is shown with strict regard for historical accuracy. In 1877 the Transvaal was annexed to Great Britain and in December, of 1880, occurred the rising of the Boers. This was rather an internecine war than a rebellion. Many Boers took the side of England and not a few Englishmen fought on the side of the Boers. The fighting, for the most part, was done by volunteers on both sides, men without uniforms and with but little discipline, but trained to the use of arms since childhood and inured to hardship. At Majuba Hill the English regular soldiers met with a crushing defeat at the hands of the Boers, and in March, of 1881, a treaty was concluded which left the Boers practically independent. Failing in his plan to kill John Neil, Mueller captures Silas Croft and gives Bess the alternative of seeing her uncle die or of marrying him. She chooses to save her uncle, but before the marriage is performed Jess surprises Mueller, while he is asleep, and stabs him to death, releasing her uncle and Bess. Flying, Jess rejoins John in a cave near the farm. John is asleep when she returns to him and does not awaken until morning and when he does awake Jess is dead of exhaustion. The British troops arrive, saving Bess and her uncle and John Neil as well. Bess and John are married and return to England. The drama closes with a view of the English home of the Neil’s, which is all happiness, but in a tableau it is shown that no matter what comes, Jess will never be forgotten by either her sister, to whom she gave all, or by John Neil, who loved her very truly.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 21 October 2022.
References: Tarbox-Lost p. 209: Website-IMDb.
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