Volume II: Filmography

MISTRESS AND MAID

November 1, 1910 (Tuesday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, October 29, 1910:

"Mistress and Maid is a story that may have ended 'maid and mistress' had a schemer in skirt succeeded in reversing the order of things as she planned. For the servant in the tale was jealous of her mistress' wealth and beauty, and spent her days plotting to bring her preempt player to harm. Finally she hit upon a scheme that almost worked. Then a wonderful Newfoundland dog stepped into checkmate her, and succeeded. Your audiences will love that dog."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, November 5, 1910:

"Nan Willis is a wealthy young heiress who visits the fashionable seaside resort at which she is unknown. She is accompanied only by her maid, Susan, an envious woman, who bears her mistress no great love. Bored by the even tenor of her life, Nan decides to seek adventure by changing places with her maid, and thus escaping the restrictions of conventionality with which she has constantly been surrounded. She makes the acquaintance of a young lifeguard, Jim Holt, and accepts his offer to teach her to swim. A very real affection springs up between the two young people, and Nan is sure that Jim, unlike her other suitors, loves her for herself alone, as he thinks her only a lady's maid.

"While visiting an isolated lighthouse, Nan, accompanied only by Sue, is made a prisoner in one of the upper rooms of the structure. The plot is Sue's who hopes thus to be able to make her escape with Nan's jewels and other valuables. The rascal, a young keeper of the lighthouse, and his miserly old grandmother are made a party to the plot by accepting an offer to share in the spoils. Through her faithful Newfoundland dog, who braves an angry sea, Nan sends a message to her lifeguard sweetheart, who comes instantly to her aid. After a spirited encounter with the keeper of the light, who is also Nan's jailer, the young people make their escape in Jim's boat. They reach the hotel in time to confront Susan, who cringes with fear when caught red-handed with her mistress' belongings. Nan allows Susan to go unpunished, feeling that the happiness she has found in the proof of Jim's unselfish love more than compensates her for all the hardships she has endured."

REVIEW by Walton, The Moving Picture News, November 12, 1910:

"The theme is not new, but the way it is handled, in this case, gives it a new interest. A film that grips and by skillful presentation must be popular. The lighthouse scenes and the dog won deserved applause."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, November 12, 1910:

"A film detailing the woes of an heiress who, to escape the conventionalities with which her position surrounds her, changes places with her maid and falls in love with a lifeguard in the most approved romantic style. She gets imprisoned in a lighthouse through the maid's machinations, but an intelligent dog takes a long swim and delivers a note to her lover. Then follows a romantic rescue and the apprehension of the rascally maid, with the musical chimes of the wedding bells ringing in the near distance. There is life and animation enough to suit the most exacting, with good acting and clear photography as features of the picture."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, November 9, 1910:

"The young actress with the pretty face who played the part of the mistress in this impossible melodrama should learn to show us her back once in a while. Perhaps it is the director who is to blame; at any rate, this thing of constantly twisting the attitude so that one can face the front ruins the sense of reality that must be depended on to make motion picture acting effective, especially so in this film, which is so far-fetched in its melodramatic situations that no single element of the motion picture producing art should be dispensed with. The mistress visiting a summer resort with her maid changes positions with her, and in her new capacity falls in love with a life saver. On a visit to a lighthouse the real maid locks the mistress in an upper room of the lighthouse and goes back to the hotel to permanently usurp the position of mistress. The imprisoned girl sends a message by a dog to the life saver, and he comes to the rescue, after which the foolish maid is dismissed."

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