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The Deacon’s Daughter
Also known as [The Wayward Daughter]
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 950 feet
Directed by Sidney Olcott
Cast: Gene Gauntier, George Melford
Kalem Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by Kalem Company, Incorporated. / Scenario by Gene Gauntier. Cinematography by Knute Rahmn. / Released 7 January 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The production was shot at Kalem’s studio in Jacksonville, Florida.
Drama.
Synopsis: [The Moving Picture World, 8 January 1910, page ?] Scene I: The Minister’s Dissatisfied Child Meets Morton, the Stranger. The opening picture shows us the broad side verandah of the parsonage. The old minister has seated himself out in the yard where he can bask in the warmth of the sun. Down at his feet is Ruth, his youngest daughter, a slight, gentle slip of a girl of sixteen. The old minister is helping her with her rhetoric lesson, stopping every moment or two to stroke her head. Along the path from the gate comes Estelle, the minister’s elder daughter, a dashing, handsome girl, and with her the curate attached to the parish. The curate is very much in love with Estelle and they are accepted sweethearts, although Estelle is merely attracted by the young curate’s handsome face. Now she is annoyed by something, and the curate is trying to pacify her. His attention attracted by Estelle’s angry voice, the old minister rises as they approach. He inquires what the trouble is. Estelle tells him nothing. With a sigh the curate enters the house. The minister remonstrates with Estelle for her show of temper, and as his wife calls him, he leaves the two daughters together. Now Estelle pours out to Ruth her dissatisfaction with the quiet, peaceful life of the parsonage and tells how she longs to go out into the world and become a dancer. Seizing the horrified Ruth by the waist, she whirls her around in a mad dance. At this moment there appears coming up the path a tall, gentlemanly man, evidently a stranger to the town. Ruth flees to inform her father. The stranger compliments Estelle upon her dance and is telling her she should be on the stage, when the old minister descends the steps. Morton, the stranger, displays the card of the man he is seeking. The old minister informs him he is going in the wrong direction. At this, Estelle volunteers to show the stranger the house. The old minister assents. As they start down the path together, the curate comes from the house. The minister tells him of the stranger and exhibits the card. As he goes up the steps, Estelle returns from the gate. At sight of the curate her chin goes up in the air and she crosses to the empty bench. The curate stands with a resigned look on his face. Scene II: The Villain Winning His Way. The course of the curate’s love has not been running smoothly lately. Seated out in the garden, he is endeavoring to prepare his sermon. But his mind constantly wanders to Estelle and the stranger. Across the lawn comes Ruth. She seats herself on the hassock near the curate. Gentle little Ruth loves the young curate, although he has never suspected it. She is ever near him ready to do him any little service in her power, now replacing his papers when he brushes them from the table, now giving him a glass of water. Down the path from the house comes Estelle. The curate’s eyes light up and he leaps to his feet. She tells him she is going for a walk. And may he accompany her? No, Estelle prefers to go alone. Down towards the gate she goes. The curate looks after her, then returns to his seat. With his chin in his hand, he watches her depart, while back of him stands Ruth, her eyes filled with comprehending pity. At their trysting place down the lane, Morton is waiting impatiently for Estelle. Ah, here she is. He greets her eagerly and pours compliments into her ear. He attempts to kiss her. Estelle prevents the caress. But she is not averse to taking the walk with him that he is begging for, so off they stroll together. For an hour they wander through the pine trees. Across their path is the trunk of a young pine the wind has hurled down. Morton invites Estelle to sit. From his pocket he draws a handsome necklace and holds it towards her. At first, instinctively true to the teachings of her father, she refuses it, but Morton insists and clasps it around her neck. As he pours protestations into her ear, Estelle believes him and gives him the kiss he is pleading for. Now Morton’s infatuation for her leaps all bounds. In impassioned words he tells her of his love, begs her to come with him to the city. Clasping her in his arms, he crushes her to him. But his vehemence frightens Estelle. Wrenching herself free, she flees from him. He stands for a moment, calling her back, then hurries after her. Scene III: Estelle Determines to Marry Morton. Back to the parsonage come Morton and Estelle. Morton has been forgiven for his impetuosity, although Estelle refuses to go with him to the city. As he is bidding her good-bye, he holds her hand, then tenderly kisses it. This is seen by the curate who is approaching. Upon Morton’s departure, he remonstrates with Estelle. She answers angrily. He appeals to her in behalf of their engagement. Estelle, now thoroughly enraged, draws the engagement ring from her finger and holds it towards him. The curate gently refuses to take it. But Estelle throws it to the ground. At this moment the old minister comes slowly across the lawn. He greets Estelle fondly and calls her to a seat on the arm of his chair. Happening to glance up, he notices the necklace she is wearing. He asks where she got it. She refuses to tell. The old minister sternly demands an answer to his question. Estelle finally falters Morton’s name. At this, the old man’s face hardens with stern anger. He holds out his hand for the necklace. Estelle, now thoroughly aroused, storms in anger, but finally gives it to her father. He orders her to go to the house. But Estelle, sobbing passionately, throws herself in a chair. The old minister crosses to the curate, who has been a silent, suffering witness to the scene, and begs him to come to the house. As they move away, the curate turns in silent love to Estelle, but the old minister leads him on. After they have gone, Estelle lifts her head. She is still violently angry. Across her face comes a look of determination. Drawing paper and pen to her, she writes to Morton, telling him she will go with him out into the world and become a great dancer. Tonight at twelve he must come for her. Scene IV: The Elopement. That night at twelve, Morton comes cautiously up to the front gate of the parsonage. Glancing about, he whistles cautiously. Down the walk comes Estelle carrying her satchel. Morton greets her fondly. Estelle glances back longingly towards the silent house, but Morton picks up her grip and they move silently away. The next morning the old minister is out in the garden before breakfast, walking up and down slowly thinking of the scene he had with Estelle, his favorite daughter, the day before, when Ruth comes rushing excitedly from the house. She holds out to her father a note telling him she found it pinned to the pillow in Estelle’s room. It is Estelle’s farewell note to her father. The old man, with a moan of anguish, sinks into a chair. At this moment the curate comes up and inquires what the trouble is. Ruth bands him the note. He reads it and stands stunned and grief-stricken. As Ruth is consoling her father, the wife arrives. To her question of inquiry the old minister points to the note with trembling finger and brokenly bids her read it. Scene V: One Year Later. Estelle the Queen of the Midnight Revelers. It is midnight just one year after that night Estelle stole away from the silent, peaceful parsonage. What a contrast is presented. In a suburban café where the fastest set amongst the Bohemians of the great city are accustomed to meet for their late revels, a champagne party is in progress. Scattered about are numerous overturned and empty bottles. At one of the tables an artist, once a promising genius before dissipation dragged him down, is drinking with one of the city’s celebrated demi-mondes. Two other habitués of the café arrive. Now across the garden come Morton and Estelle. Gowned in a long clinging frock, Estelle offers a striking picture, but already the story of the life she is leading is beginning to be told in the lines of her face. Boisterous greetings mark their arrival, and bohemians drink to her health as the queen of the party. A dance is proposed, and to the passionate strains of a wild Hungarian waltz the partygoers whirl about in a delirium of drunken hilarity. Scene VI: The Curate Finds His Soul Mate. Back at the parsonage, the life of the family has fallen into a still more quiet and peaceful routine under the saddening influence of the absence of the elder daughter. In the garden Ruth is swinging idly backward and forward humming a little ditty. Up behind her the young curate steals, and sends her swinging up into the branches of the tree. Laughing at her cry of fright, he stops the swing and releases her. As they start forward, he invites her to take a seat on the empty bench. In the year that has passed, the curate has learned to know his own heart and he realizes it was not to the dashing Estelle the deepest feelings of his heart were given, but in gentle Ruth he has found his true soul mate. In a few simple fervent words, he tells Ruth of his love. Ruth glances up shyly into his face, her eyes shining with devoted love, then she turns to him and is folded in his arms. Scene VII: Two Years Later. The Young Wife Deserted. Two years have passed. Out on the porch, Estelle and Morton are having noon breakfast. Even Estelle’s splendid heritage of health, given her by her healthy, wholesome girlhood in the parsonage, was unable to stand the strain of dissipation. She is now an invalid. The maid enters with a letter for Morton. Estelle sees the address is written in a woman’s handwriting. Snatching it from his hand, she demands the name of the sender. Laughing tauntingly, he tells her to read it, and goes into the house for his coat and hat. Estelle opens it and reads of Morton’s plan to leave her for another woman. She reels at the shock. At this moment Morton returns ready for his trip. Coolly disregarding her passionate appeals, he throws a roll of bills in her lap. She orders him from her sight. He goes laughingly, sneering. Estelle, left alone, realizes how desolate is her plight. Sick and alone with no one near her that cares whether she lives or dies. Across her brain, satiated with the dissipations of city life, comes the thought of the quiet, peaceful parsonage. It seems like Heaven to her. She will go back. Back to the patient, loving ones she left so eagerly three years before. Scene VIII: Estelle’s Home Coming. Out in his garden, the old minister is reading. Except for a more pathetic stoop to his shoulders, the three years have passed lightly over his head. As he looks up, he sees Ruth being slowly led down the path by her husband. This is the first time the young mother has left the house. The minister helps her to a chair. His wife follows with the baby. The old man stoops beside the sleeping baby, then after a word of congratulation to the proud young father, returns to the house with his wife. Ruth begs for a drink of water and the curate goes for it. Left alone, she closes her eyes, a happy smile on her face. From the arbor beyond comes Estelle. She has come home. But the sight of Ruth’s happy sleeping face is too much for her to bear, and she starts to go. At this moment Ruth awakes, sees her, and calls her. The curate, as he is returning with the water, sees Estelle. Dropping the glass, he rushes towards her, calling excitedly to the old minister and his wife that Estelle has returned. The mother folds her lost daughter to her arms, but the old father’s face darkens with anger; he cannot forgive Estelle for having disgraced him. Estelle drops to his feet and kisses his hand. At the well-remembered touch of the fingers of his best loved daughter, the old man’s face relaxes slightly. The struggle is a bitter one, but finally he turns and holds out his arms in forgiveness. Estelle rushes into them while the remaining members of the now reunited family with happy tears filling their eyes, look on in thankful silence.
Reviews: [Variety, 15 January 1910, page ?] Someone in the Kalem factory has gone daft on “landscape.” In The Deacon’s Daughter an old time “Josh Whitcomb,” everything is in the air or on the ground. Even when an interior is set, the setting gives a sectional view which leaves the impression there is not wall between the lawn and the room, with low windows carrying the auditors into the trees. Everything is trees—when it isn’t grass. Trite though the story is about the “smooth stranger” and the “country girl,” the picture is not sane in displaying a “dive” at night (“a year after”) with the “country girl” the leader in the revelry, to again bring her into view the year after as the forlorn wife of “the smooth stranger.” If her husband caught her kissing a strange man during a drunken debauch, isn’t that sufficient grounds for desertion? A letter on the sheet said the girl would elope with her love at midnight. Midnight to Kalem and the pictures happens about noon, according to the daylight effect. Also, if the girl really eloped at midnight, she performed a miracle to get away without the family’s knowledge. They all trounced down immediately after she left, and all full dressed. There’s no novelty in the series, either in story or execution, but it will probably appeal to three-quarters of those who like “pictures.” // [The Moving Picture World, 22 January 1910, page ?] An interesting melodrama dealing with the love affairs of the daughter of a minister who is lured to the city by a villain and begins a course of dissipation which makes her an invalid. Then, she is deserted and finds her way back to the parsonage, where she is welcomed home. The story hasn't much in it that is new, but the way it is told makes it attractive and the excellent work of the actors in interpreting it keeps the audience interested from the opening scene to the last. Dramatically it is one of the best that has recently come from the Kalem people. Photographically it is an advance upon other similar films, and the finished acting is an important feature in the film’s many excellencies. The steady improvement in the Kalem films is an important factor in the increasing popularity of the firm’s pictures, and the company deserves credit for its work.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 5 April 2024.
References: MovPicWorld-19100108 p. 34 : Website-AFI.
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