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The Paymaster
(1906) United States of America
B&W : [?] 612, 668 or 685? feet
Directed by Mr. Harrington
Cast: Gene Gauntier [the mill girl], Jim Slevin, Gordon Burby
American Mutoscope & Biograph Company production; distributed by American Mutoscope & Biograph Company. / Cinematography by G.W. Bitzer. / © 23 June 1906 by American Mutoscope & Biograph Company [H79818]. Released 28 June 1906. / [?] Biograph 35mm spherical format? Color-tinted. / Gauntier earned $5.00 for her film debut. Locations shot in South Beach, Connecticut. The film includes a main title and intertitles. The moonlight scene was originally tinted.
Drama.
Synopsis: [Biograph Bulletin, Number 72, 28 June 1906, page ?] In “THE PAYMASTER” we have endeavored to give to moving pictures what “The Homestead” and “Shore Acres” are to the stage, a drama of homely American life, true to nature in all its details. In order to accomplish this our work was done in a New England village, centering in a big wooden mill, in which works the heroine, a pretty mill-girl. She loves the manly young paymaster of the mill, and he honestly loves her. The superintendent, a double-dyed villain, seeks to come between them, and failing in this, endeavors to ruin the paymaster by stealing the payroll and accusing the paymaster of the crime. His villainy is revealed by a dog who leads the heroine to the spot where the stolen money has been buried on the river bank. The girl confronts the dastardly superintendent with his crime, and he hurls her into the mill-pond above the falls. She is rescued in the nick of time by the hero, and the villain gets his just reward. The scenes are as follows: The Birthday Fete; In the Mill, showing the girl at work at the looms, an actual scene; The Conspiracy; The Robbery of the Payroll; Riot of the Mill-hands; The Burial of the Money, by Moonlight (tinted); The Dog Detective and the Recovery of the Money; The Denouement and the Daring Rescue at the Mill-pond.
Survival status: Print exists in the Library of Congress film archive (paper print collection) [35mm paper positive].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Animals: Dogs - Rescues - USA: Connecticut: South Beach - Water
Listing updated: 2 March 2010.
References: Film credits, film viewing : Musser-Emerge p. 5; Niver-First pp. 105-106 : Website-AFI.
Home video: DVD.
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