Volume II: Filmography

A MOTHER'S CHOICE

Advertisement from Reel Life August 29, 1914. (F-789)

September 1, 1914 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels (2,002 feet)

Character: Drama

Scenario: Carey L. Hastings

Cast: Carey L. Hastings (Anna Lehnberg), Arthur Bauer (Anna's husband), Charles Emerson (Anna's son), Nolan Gane (Anna's foster son, George), Ernest C. Warde (George's father), Peggy Burke (her son's fiancée), Virginia Waite, J.S. Murray, Ethel Jewett (sick woman in tenement), May Dunne (nurse attending sick woman in tenement)

Notes: 1. The surname of Lehnberg was used for a character, Anna Lehnberg, in this film; this was the surname of John Lehnberg, a Thanhouser actor. The use of players' surnames for fictional script characters was not unusual in films at the time and was practiced by other companies as well; for example, the Eclair studio. 2. From time to time, various Thanhouser players tried their hands at writing scenarios, and this release represents an effort of actress Carey L. Hastings, who also acted in the film.

ARTICLE, The New Rochelle Pioneer, September 5, 1914:

"Carey L. Hastings, sister-in-law of Lloyd F. Lonergan, took the lead in A Mother's Choice, soon to be seen in New Rochelle, with Charlie Emerson and Nolan Gane in supporting leads. Miss Hastings' work was a fine dramatic impersonation and she will win additional friends internationally."

ARTICLE, Reel Life, September 12, 1914:

"Carey L. Hastings, character lead with the Thanhouser Company, accomplished a daring feat lately in A Mother's Choice. She threw herself into deep water and was most realistically rescued from drowning by Nolan Gane and Charles Emerson.... Miss Hastings entered into her part convincingly, presenting a pale and drawn face, with eyes closed, above the water. Her struggles were excruciatingly true to nature. The two young men, half believing her to be sinking in earnest, were goaded to acquit themselves the more valiantly."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, August 29, 1914:

"Anna Lehnberg, wife of an anarchist, lives in daily terror of the police. Her husband, an expert chemist, has invented several explosives to be used against the enemies of the cause, and the woman fears that her baby son will be trained to follow his father's dangerous life. A woman in the same tenement dies, and Anna substitutes her own child for the infant of the dead woman. She realizes that the bereaved husband, a man of high character, not knowing that the child is not his own, will give it the best of care. Later, when the anarchist is experimenting with his explosives, he is killed and she is left alone with the baby, who has taken her own child's place.

"Years pass, and George, her foster son, now grown to manhood, has won her heart, but she often thinks of her own child. Reading in the newspaper that her real son, now wealthy, is visiting the city on his yacht, she determines to see him. Posing as a flower seller, she goes to the yacht, and, after seeing her son to whom she does not disclose her identity, she sets out for shore. The boat is upset, and she is rescued from drowning by her own son, and by George, the lad whose place he has taken. Realizing the wrong she has done him, she confesses to George the secret of his birth, but learns that he is perfectly happy with her, and as she has grown to care more for him than for her own child, he leaves the young millionaire in blissful ignorance of the fact that the 'flower woman' whom he rescued was his mother."

REVIEW, The Bioscope, January 7, 1915:

"A film which is somewhat handicapped by its plot - a very purposeless sort of story, leading to no definite conclusion and ending in a very unsatisfactory manner. All through the plot is inadequate, weakly constructed and artificial; however, it introduces numerous incidents which in themselves are exceedingly effective and, in some cases, quite sensational. The film is well acted and carefully staged. Although certainly not faultless, it presents many features of merit and interest."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, August 30, 1914:

"Fearing that her little son will be killed by the explosion of one of his anarchistic father's bombs, a woman substitutes him for the child of a woman in the same tenement. Years later the boy whom she has adopted has become even dearer to her than her own, who is now wealthy. She tells George the secret of his birth, but on learning that he is perfectly happy she decides to follow the decree of fate."

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