Volume II: Filmography

THE FLAG OF HIS COUNTRY

July 1, 1910 (Friday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Cast: Marie Eline (the granddaughter)

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, July 2, 1910:

"Here is a crackerjack reel for the week of fizz and fireworks - in fact it is so good it will rouse patriotism any old time you show it!"

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, July 2, 1910:

"Walter North is a New York man, married to a Southern girl. At the opening of the play their baby daughter is christened, and the young couple is living happily in their home in Baltimore. This is in 1861, the opening of the Civil War. At the first rumors of hostilities, Mrs. North's brother enlisted in the ranks of the Confederacy. When North refuses to follow his example, and casts his lot with the Union army, his wife bids him good-bye forever. She asked him to choose between his flag and her. He salutes Old Glory, and goes to war.

"Four years later when he returns he finds his old home deserted, and although he tries in every way to discover the whereabouts of his wife and child he is unsuccessful. He moves to a northern home and there becomes commander of GAR post. Mrs. North, who believed that her husband was killed in the war, comes North with her brother and her little grandchild to attend the reunion of the Confederate veterans and the GAR. While out working with her grandmother, the little girl is lost, and is picked up by North on his way to attend the reunion. Through the police the grandmother and uncle are notified of the whereabouts of the child, and when they come to claim her at the GAR post, there are mutual recognitions, and Mr. and Mrs. North are reunited. There is but one flag now, the blue and the gray clasp hands beneath its folds."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, July 16, 1910:

"A love story based upon what purports to be the division of a husband and wife by the late war. He chose his flag instead of his Southern wife and went to war. Long years afterward they are reunited through their grandchild losing himself and her grandfather finding her. There is much of pathos and much of loyalty, some of it mistaken, perhaps, but nonetheless earnest. Eventually they come together with only one flag over them, united like their country."

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

"This is a sure enough 'classy' picture, full of human feeling and good acting. It is one of the kind that is giving the Thanhouser people the fine reputation they are gaining. The story starts with the Civil War. A young married couple christen their baby boy [sic; the synopsis indicates a girl] and then the clash comes, the husband declaring himself for the blue while his wife and her relatives declare for the South. At the end of the war the husband, now a one-armed officer, can find no trace of his family, and it is only after thirty years that they come together during a reunion of war veterans of both sides. The wife with her grandchild (the boy having married and died) attends the reunion with her brother, a Southern veteran. The child strays away and is picked up in a park by her grandfather. His efforts to find the child's mother and her efforts to find the child bring all together in the post headquarters. The picture is strongly effective."

# # #