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The Maid o’ the Mountains
Also known as {The Maid of the Mountain}
(1915) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by Travers Vale
Cast: Louise Vale [Mary], Edward Cecil [Blake], Kenneth Davenport [Jim], Jack Drumier [U.S. Marshall], Franklin Ritchie [Van Buren], Mrs. LaVarnie (Laura La Varnie) [Van Buren’s mother], Charles Bennett [Van Buren’s father]
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Released 1 June 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Armed men, under command of the United States marshal, invade the mountain fastnesses in search of an illicit still. Blake, the moonshiner, and his partner, Jim, are in imminent peril of discovery when Blake, in a fit of ungovernable passion, shoots the marshal’s son from ambush. The young man is only slightly wounded and soon recovers, but Jim makes Blake believe that his victim is dead, because he desires Mary Blake, the moonshiner’s daughter. Mary is an unusual girl, far superior to her class, and she despises Jim. In the woods she meets by chance a young man like none whom she has ever seen, and returns his love. He is Arthur Van Buren, a novelist on vacation. Haunted by fears of her father’s threat to make her marry Jim, Mary one day yields to her sweetheart’s entreaties and accompanies him to the little church, where they are married. Van Buren is summoned home by the sudden illness of his father, and Mary, left alone, is forced to attend a dance at which Jim plans to announce his engagement to her. There is a stormy scene at home, in which Blake thunders that Mary shall marry nobody but Jim. Her defiance of this mandate results in her being locked in for the night. She climbs through the window and escapes, leaving a note in which she says: “Even though I may have been deceived and deserted by the one I love, I will end it all rather than marry Jim.” Reaching the river, she pushes a boat into midstream, and leaves her sunbonnet dangling from a thwart to give the impression that she has fallen from the boat and drowned. The plan succeeds, and her parents mourn for her. At the river’s edge Blake discovers Jim’s trick on seeing the marshal’s son ride by with the posse, and turns ferociously upon his former partner, who, cowed by Blake’s pistol, skulks away. Van Buren’s father dies, and the novelist returns to the mountains for Mary. Her father, believing him a scoundrel, attacks him, but Van Buren’s evidence of grief over the news of Mary’s death convinces the moonshiner of his innocence, and the mourners comfort each other. Back in town, Van Buren cannot find relief from his bereavement. Time passes, then one day the novelist’s car knocks down a woman with a baby in her arms. Van Buren, rushing to pick her up, looks into the face of his lost Mary. She is not badly hurt, but he takes her to a hospital, where she recovers and recognizes her husband. She tells him her adventures since the day they parted, ending with her discharge from the hospital where her baby was born. But of the hardships she has undergone she says little, that is her secret, a thing the mountain girl is proud to bear in memory as her silent tribute to the destiny which brought her into a new life. Tenderly he removes her to his home, where she is welcomed by his mother.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 13 December 2024.
References: Spehr-American p. 2 : Website-IMDb.
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