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The Burden
(1914) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by John G. Adolfi
Cast: Eugene Pallette [John Bennett], Irene Hunt [Mary Bennett], Sam de Grasse [Will, Mary’s brother]
Majestic Motion Picture Company production; distributed by Mutual Film Corporation. / Scenario by Philip Lonergan. / Released 23 June 1914. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Mary Bennett was one of those women who always have to have somebody less fortunate than themselves to live and toil for. When John Bennett, her husband, was sentenced unjustly to state prison for a petty crime, she took in her brother Will and supported him in idleness on her earnings. Will did not know what it was to be grateful. He would go off for days at a time with his pals, returning at all hours of the night much the worse for liquor. One evening Mary sat alone and anxious, straining for her brother’s footsteps, when someone came hurriedly up the porch and tapped on the window, John’s old signal. With a rush of blood to the heart she ran and opened the door. A tall man leaped in out of the darkness, and she was clasped in her husband’s arms. When Will stumbled into the cottage next morning, it was deserted. The old wallet with Mary’s savings was gone. A year later, a desperate-looking vagrant shambled up to the open door of a cabin in a remote mountainous district. He could see a woman moving about within, and in a whining voice he began to beg food. She came out into the light, a man following. A look of mutual recognition passed between the squatters and the tramp, and a cruel grin overspread the features of the latter. Will had got his sister and her escaped convict husband in a trap. Threatening to notify the authorities and cause Bennett’s arrest, he extorted from Mary the little money they had in the house. Then helping himself to the one horse, he rode away. Inside three hours, Will flattered himself, the handsome reward offered for his brother-in-law’s capture would be his. He sawed and jerked at the horse’s bridle. Unfamiliar with his mount and the precipitous roads, loose with shifting dirt and rock, he rode recklessly. Suddenly, on the steep side of a gully, he felt the earth slipping from beneath him. His beast crouched like a cat, quivering all over. The rumble of a landslide down the mountain above them grew to a deafening roar, filling the ravine with thunder. Mary and John, fleeing the cabin, heard it, and a horrible gladness smote their hearts. In that moment they knew that fate had lifted the burden from them forever.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 4 July 1914, page ?] A rather interesting plot obtains in this picture play which is ably directed and well acted. Eugene Palette, Sam De Grasse and Irene Hunt in the principal parts. The plot embraces the commitment of a murder and two brothers are under suspicion. There are gripping and intense scenes which hold attention. The finale is gratifying. It is worth viewing.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 15 November 2022.
References: Website-IMDb.
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