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The Better Way
(1909) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 990 feet
Directed by D.W. Griffith
Cast: Stephanie Longfellow [Elizabeth Parker], Kate Bruce [her mother], Henry B. Walthall [Oliver Sylvester], James Kirkwood [Squire Calvin Cartwright], William J. Butler [his father], [?] ? [his mother], Verner Clarges [the minister], Arthur Johnson [a Puritan], Mack Sennett [a Puritan], Owen Moore [a Puritan], Anthony O’Sullivan [a Puritan], Lottie Pickford [a Puritan]
Biograph Company production; distributed by Biograph Company. / Cinematography by G.W. Bitzer. / © 13 August 1909 by Biograph Company [J130564]. Released 12 August 1909. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The production was shot on 9-10, 12 July 1909 in the Biograph New York studio and on-location in Coytesville, New Jersey.
Drama: Historical.
Synopsis: [Biograph Bulletin, number 265, 12 August 1909, page ?] A BEAUTIFUL STORY OF PURITAN DAYS / No period of time was more poetic and afforded material for romance than the days of the Puritans. Quaint in manners, honest in character and picturesque in costume, they have furnished more inspirations to writers and artists than any other people. Their lives were one long line of tranquility, which seemed the personification of a poem. Appreciating this, the Biograph Company has in this production succeeded in portraying an episode of that period with all the tender decisiveness essential to typical perfection. Elizabeth Parker is wooed by young Oliver Sylvester, who is loved by her in return. Her all-absorbing dream is of the day when she will become the happy bride of Oliver. Fortune, however, is unkind to her family and dire straits force her to harken the proposal of old Squire Calvin Cartwright, an honest tender-natured farmer of considerable means. Marriage with the Squire would assure Elizabeth of her widowed mother’s comfort, hence she consents and is married. Oliver does not seem to realize the truth of the conditions and persistently seeks the poor girl, with a view of alluring her from her aged husband. What a terrible position for the girl, who really loves the fellow and so has not the power to repulse him firmly, her romantic dreams rising, almost taunting, in her mind. While Oliver is pleading earnestly, the Squire enters and fully appreciating her plight, makes the sacrifice, bidding her go with her heart’s desire, as he feels too old to make her happy and forget. Elizabeth is astounded, and under the influence of her young lover, whom she deludedly believes the soul of honor, accepts the proposed surrender, and leaves with Oliver. They have not gone far when he seizes the weak, trembling girl in his arms and passionately kisses her. That kiss is the awakening. She is aroused from her lethargy and is now fully alive to her sense of duty. Casting her lover aside, she dashes madly to her mother’s home, not daring to re-enter that of her husband. The Squire, however, although he seemed impassive at the time, sank into despondency when she was gone and would have died from grief, had not Elizabeth been persuaded to return to him whom she had now learned to love. // Synopsis available in Usai-Griffith-3 p. 13.
Survival status: Prints exist in the Library of Congress film archive (American Film Institute / Von Helmst collection) [35mm nitrate positive] and (paper print collection) [35mm paper positive]; and in the Museum of Modern Art film archive [35mm acetate fine-grain master].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Puritans - Religion: Ministers - United States
Listing updated: 25 March 2012.
References: Barry-Griffith p. 41; Spehr-American p. 1; Usai-Griffith-3 pp. 12-13 : Website-AFI.
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