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A Woman’s Gratitude
(1912) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] Gaston Méliès and/or Robert Goodman?
Cast: Francis Ford [Pedro, the half-breed], [?] ? [Tom Brown], [?] ? [Sylvia]
G. Méliès production; distributed by [?] The General Film Company, Incorporated? / Produced by Gaston Méliès. / Released 4 January 1912. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [From Méliès promotional materials] Far West, in the Copper Country, in the days when a man made his own laws, Tom Brown, a young prospector, saved Sylvia from a brutal attack by her half-breed husband, Pedro. Later, when Tom struck a rich mine, the half-breed sought for complete revenge by throwing the prospector off a high precipice and “jumping” his claim. How Sylvia frustrated his sneaking plot, and to what extent a woman’s gratitude can carry her, are the features of this tensely dramatic, thrilling subject. // [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Pedro, a half-breed, crazed with drink, is brutally choking his wife when Tom Brown, a middle-aged prospector, happens along and rushes to her rescue, dealing Pedro many a hard blow, which he does not soon forget. This is evidenced by the half-breed’s immediate determination to have revenge at any price. Tom continues his way to the Assay Office, where his specimens of ore indicate that he has struck a rich copper vein. The good news spreads like fire and does not miss the ears of Pedro. The latter follows Tom to the place of his claim, struggles with him and throws him over the cliff. Then Pedro tears Tom’s claim to pieces and places his own upon the stake in its stead. Meanwhile Pedro’s wife, who had seen the two pass her house, scents a plot, and follows on foot the tracks left by their horses, arriving just in time to discover Pedro’s dastardly work. In vain she looks for the man who had once saved her life, but he was not to be found. At the foot of the cliff, injured and wounded, he tears a bit of his flannel shirt and with it flags the express train. The grateful woman, meantime, pieced Tom’s claim together and rides to the Register’s office, where she exposes Pedro’s crime. At the same time there comes a telegram telling of finding Tom Brown, assaulted by one Pedro. The latter is thrown in jail, but Tom, when he recovers, pays the half-breed’s fine on his wife’s account, and by his noble action inspires reconciliation and happiness into the home of Pedro, where it had never existed before.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 20 January 1912, page ?] A melodrama in which a woman, wife of a rough and brutal half-breed, shows her gratitude to a white prospector. He had saved her from her husband’s abuse one day when the half-breed was especially ugly. The half-breed bore him a grudge and tried to kill him. There is a good struggle at the edge of a very steep embankment down which the prospector is hurled. The half-breed has hurried on to the claim office to take up the prospector’s find. His wife, suspecting that he is going to harm the prospector, has followed. She finds that the claim has been jumped and, first restaking it, hurries to overtake her husband. The prospector, with a broken leg, which he himself has put into splints, has crawled to the railroad and flagged a passing train. A telegram to the town stops the half-breed’s work and the final outcome is acceptable. The plot is fairly well built. The “deus ex machina” is a bit too obviously favorable to the story, but this is not a very grievous fault in a melodrama.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 22 May 2024.
References: Thompson-Star p. 231 : ClasIm-226 p. 55 : Website-IMDb.
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