Richard Cromwell
Edward Middleton
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Synopsis
A young woman and her mother cannot meet the mortgage on their cottage. A conspicuously sinister visitor sees an opportunity, while a kindly young man enters their lives. Financial danger and romantic innocence become the ingredients of an exaggerated battle between virtue and villainy.
Cast
DirectorsEdward F. Cline
Inspirations
The film parodies nineteenth-century stage melodrama, particularly William H. Smith's temperance play The Drunkard. Its emphatic villain and endangered heroine deliberately display the conventions the comedy is mocking.
Sources and availability
The synopsis and editorial text were written for this collection. The references below were cross-checked to identify the film and its copy; each editorial section identifies its reference.
Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.
The reference concerns the original work. Restorations, colorization, translations and other territories may have different conditions. This site uses the player enabled by the channel.
Availability checked on September 10, 2026.
Photograph credit
Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.
- Richard Cromwell — from the Bill Keane collection · Attribution
- Alan Mowbray — Trailer screenshot · Public domain
- Buster Keaton — Unknown author · Public domain
- Anita Louise — Max Munn Autrey · Public domain
