Volume II: Filmography

THE REFUGEE

May 21, 1915 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel (1,010 feet)

Character: Drama

Cast: Leland Benham (the refugee), Mary Elizabeth Forbes (the American widow), Ernest C. Warde (the French nobleman), Arthur Bauer (the German nobleman), Ray Johnston

Note: In Reel Life, May 15, 1915, page 15, photograph 5, the caption misattributes players who appeared in Daughter of Kings to The Refugee. The caption should apply to Daughter of Kings.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, May 15, 1915:

"On a ship coming to America from Holland recently was Mrs. Hollinsworth, a wealthy widow of New York. One evening, in her stateroom, she accidentally dropped a candle. Before she could extinguish it, a hand reached from under the berth and snuffed out the flame. Terrified, Mrs. Hollinsworth dared not attempt any ordinary means of escape. But, writing a note, begging someone to come to her rescue, she dropped it through the open porthole. It was found by a French nobleman. He called upon the first person he met for assistance, who happened to be a titled German. But, agreeing to make common cause against any unknown enemy, they hastened together to the widow's stateroom. The 'burglar' under the bed was hauled into the light. He was an eight-year-old boy refugee from Belgium. Though both the German and the Frenchman insisted upon taking the boy under their protection, the American woman soon had them convinced that this was a case in which the United States had every right to intervene. So the cool-headed little stowaway, who had put out the candle flame, found a home with Mrs. Hollinsworth."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, May 29, 1915:

"A pretty little story of a Belgian refugee, with a touch of pathos in it. An American girl, returning home, discovers a stowaway in her cabin. It turns out to be a Belgian boy, whom she then takes in her own charge. This makes a nice appeal."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, May 26, 1915:

"A slight story descriptive of a well-photographed incident dealing with a young child, a refugee from Belgium, consisting mostly of a picturization of a child's story of the destruction of his home and the death of his father and mother by the hand of the invaders. It would be a mighty good picture if it were real."

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