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Little Marie
(1915) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by Tod Browning
Cast: Charles H. West (Charles West) [Beppo Puccini], Signe Aüen (Seena Owen) [Bianca Pastorelli], Tom Wilson [Sam Coggini], Walter Long
Reliance Motion Picture Corporation production; distributed by Mutual Film Corporation. / Released 3 July 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Beppo Puccini loses his wife at the birth of a child and conceives the idea that the doctor or the priest has been instrumental in taking the woman away from him. He drives them from his hut and refuses to allow anyone to touch the dead body of his wife or minister to his child and it is only by waiting outside his hut until he has fallen asleep after many hours of vigil, that the priest is able to finally enter and minister to the occasion. When Puccini wakes up and finds his wife’s body and the baby both gone, he goes almost crazy with grief and is only half reassured when he finds the priest has been caring for the child and returns it to him. An interval of several years finds him in America with his baby girl. He has become a laborer on a railroad under the foremanship of Sam Coggini. He lives just opposite the boarding-house in which his foreman lives. This boarding-house is run by an attractive Italian woman named Bianca Pastorell, who has noticed the child (Marie) and has made friends with her. One day Marie sees Bianca at the gate of the boarding-house, and points her out to Puccini who, seeing that his baby wants something, immediately conceives that he must get the woman for her. Bianca brings Marie a little present and in this way meets the father, who asks her to marry him. Bianca runs off considering it a good joke, but Puccini cannot understand jokes, and when he later sees Coggini meet Bianca every evening, he conceives the idea that Coggini is standing between him and his baby’s desire, and he decides to kill him. He places a bomb in Coggini’s office, but a workman sees him and saves Coggini’s life. Coggini “fires” Puccini. He watches the nightly meetings between Bianca and Coggini and finally works out a plan for their mutual destruction. He makes another bomb and plants it at the gate of the boarding-house in such a way that the moment the gate is opened it will explode the bomb. He sees Bianca come to the gate. Coggini appears, but just before he reaches the gate Puccini is horrified to see his own baby Marie run across the street and meet Coggini. Puccini then realizes that he must reach the gate before it is opened and he rushes down stairs and tries to cross the street in time to prevent the explosion, but is held up on the way by two street cars which pass each other. Finally he succeeds in crossing to find that Coggini, with the child on his shoulder, is just on the point of opening the gate. He dashes up, grips Coggini’s hands and holds them from the gate. He confesses his crime. When Puccini kisses Coggini’s hands and begs him for the baby’s sake to forgive him, telling him that it was through jealousy for Bianca that he did it. Coggini understands the situation and explains to Puccini that he is not in love with Bianca, but is married and has a baby of his own. He joins Bianca’s hand with Puccini’s. Bianca is petulant at first, but when she realizes that Puccini wants her so much that he is willing to commit a crime for her, and when Marie holds out her arms for her, Bianca turns to him and they are united in an embrace.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 19 October 2022.
References: Skal-Browning pp. 264-265 : Website-IMDb.
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