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Master of the Garden
(1913) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by Colin Campbell
Cast: Wheeler Oakman [Herbert Gray], Bessie Eyton [Bessie Harrington], Frank Clark [John Lewis], Eugenie Besserer [Mrs. Harrington, Bessie’s mother], Jack McDonald [Mr. Harrington, Bessie’s father], Gertrude Ryan [Gladys]
The Selig Polyscope Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Produced by William N. Selig. Scenario by Lanier Bartlett. / Released 8 December 1913. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? As Bessie Harrington sits in the shade of an ancient oak that is in her garden, Herbert Gray, the son of a neighboring estate owner, comes and falls in love with her. Wisdom only comes to their innocent minds after they had fallen from their pedestals of virginity. When her parents learn of her transgression of the straight and narrow path, the father orders her from the house. Early next morning, Bessie leaves, only taking a few of her belongings. As she stops behind the ancient oak, a dissolve shows our Savior counseling the young girl to put aside the sinful pride that is driving her away from home. But Bessie is too deeply mortified and hurries on her way to the city, where she will try to forget her sinful act. Years later, Herbert Gray, who has forgotten his “youthful peccadilloes,” has married and become a respected lawyer. In the meantime, Bessie, who has drifted steadily downward to the path of the underworld, reads in the papers as she sits in her sin-decked parlors an eulogy of the famous lawyer, Herbert Gray. She thinks in contrast of her own ruined life, when a young girl who has been enticed to enter, puts in an appearance. A stroke of goodness comes over this woman of the scarlet kind, and she determines to save the girl. Justice finds out the millionaire who brought the innocent girl to this den of vice. He is arrested and indicted, and at the last moment, Herbert Gray is called to handle the case. He determines to fight the prosecution on the grounds that a certain woman of the underworld is trying to blackmail his client. Gray demands that the “woman in black,” the chief witness in the case, be brought to the front. The woman who had saved the young girl is brought forward, dressed in black and heavily veiled. The court orders her to lift the veil, and as soon as Gray’s eyes fall upon her features he recognizes in her his sweetheart of his boyhood days, and he falls prostrate upon the floor. When questioned as to whether or not she knows the lawyer. Bessie, in order to save the reputation of his wife and child, denies any knowledge of him. The case goes against the millionaire. Leaving her associates, Bessie wanders about the streets and enters a church, where, after her prayers, she empties a vial containing laudanum. As the priest lifts her white face to the light there follows in a dissolve, a death dream in which the scarred soul of the erring one is seen fleeing from the cohorts of sin back again to the garden of innocence; the old tree in her earthly home of Paradise.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 10 December 2024.
References: Lahue-Selig p. 158 : Website-IMDb.
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