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Pique
(1916) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by Lawrence Marston
Cast: William Russell [Arthur Standish], Betty Gray [Arthur’s Cousin Mary], Jack Drumier [Arthur’s father], Mrs. A.C. Marston [Arthur’s Aunt Dorothy], Zoe Gregory [Raitch, a waif], Thomas Jefferson [Doctor Gossitt], William Jefferson [Thorsby], Arthur Macklin (Arthur Mackley) [Dymple], Franklin Ritchie [Raymond Lessing], Gretchen Hartman [Mabel Renfrew], Isabel Rea [Lucille Renfew, Mabel’s stepmother]
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / From a story by Augustin Daly. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The following takes place in the suburbs of New York. Ensign Arthur Standish of the U.S. Navy is ordered to report to his ship. Arthur’s cousin, Mary, is in love with him but her love is not reciprocated. Arthur’s father, Matthew Standish, and his aunt, Dorothy, accompany him to his ship. Upon returning home they discover Raitch, a girl waif, being abused by three crooks: Ragmoney Jim, Padder and Mother Thames, who use Raitch as a tool to steal. Aunt Dorothy’s heart is touched and she takes Raitch to her home to live. Raitch and Mary become friends. Later, at the Navy Hop at Old Point Comfort, Arthur meets his friend, Doctor Gossitt, and the doctor’s friends, Thorsby and Dymple. Gossitt introduces Arthur to Mabel Renfrew, supposed heiress of her late father’s estate. Infatuated with Raymond Lessing, a fortune hunter, Mabel treats Arthur with indifference and introduces him to her attractive stepmother, Lucille Renfrew, who has really inherited the estate. War is declared and the Atlantic Fleet is ordered to Cuba. After the war Arthur returns and calls on Mabel, with whom he is now deeply in love, and asks her to be his wife. Mabel rejects him. Meanwhile Ray has been making violent love to Mabel, but upon learning from Gossitt that Lucille inherited the estate Ray transfers his affections to Lucille. Mabel’s pride crushed and outraged at Ray’s perfidy, out of pique she accepts Arthur’s offer of marriage. The wedding soon follows and they spend their honeymoon abroad. Thorsby and Dymple, both having loaned money to Ray, propose to expose the fortune-hunter to Lucille. Lucille overhears Ray tell Thorsby and Dymple that he will meet their I.O.U.’s when he marries Lucille. Mabel and Arthur go to the Standish homestead to live. It is difficult for Mabel to conform to the habits of Arthur’s people, who are very religious. This leads to a quarrel in which Mabel tells Arthur she married him out of pique and confesses her love for Ray Lessing. Arthur, dazed, leaves for a long cruise on his ship. His father commands Mabel to remain with her child under his roof until Arthur forgives her. Love for her absent husband creeps into Mabel’s heart with the birth of her baby boy and she secretly longs for his return. As Mabel and her child are prisoners in Matthew’s house, she appeals to Doctor Gossitt to help her get away. Later, when Ray proposes to Lucille, she flatly refuses him, saying he is in love with her bank account and that her bank account declines. Ray sees Mabel’s note to Gossitt, and thinking she still loves him, plans to renew his suit. Mabel ignores his advances, realizing at last that it is her husband she loves. Matthew, believing Mabel has encouraged Ray, orders her to leave the house, but insists upon Arthur’s child remaining. Mabel refuses to go without her child. Ray plans to obtain possession of the child as a hold on Mabel and hires Ragmoney Jim, Padder and Mother Thames to kidnap the baby. Raitch tries to prevent the kidnapping and is taken along with the child by the crooks. Arthur is notified of the disappearance of his child. A large reward is offered for the return of the Standish child. Ray now goes to pay the sum he agreed to give the crooks, but they tell him they mean to demand $20,000 from the Standish family for the baby. A quarrel ensues in which the crooks kill Ray. The crooks then send Raitch’s dress to the Standish home to prove that they have the child. Through Raitch’s wit in successfully concealing in her dress the address of the den where they are being held, the kidnappers are caught at their own game. After a fierce struggle the child is recovered. The child and Raitch restored, Arthur returns home and Mabel confesses her love for him, thus bringing the story to a happy ending. Thorsby is accepted by Mary, whom he has loved, and Dymple proposes to Raitch. All receive the blessing of Aunt Dorothy and Matthew.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 15 October 2023.
References: Spehr-American p. 3 : Website-IMDb.
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