Children of Eve (1915)

Director:

John H. Collins

Writers:

John H. Collins (screenplay)
John H. Collins (story)

Release Date:

10 November 1915 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Working Woman | Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire | Social Issues | Sweatshop | Factory

Cast

Viola Dana	...	Fifty-Fifty Mamie
Robert Conness	...	Henry Clay Madison
Tom Blake	...	Bennie the Typ (as Thomas F. Blake)
Nellie Grant	...	Flossy Wilson
Robert Walker	...	Bert Madison
William Wadsworth	...	Peddler
James Harris	...	Mill Foreman
Hubert Dawley	...	Bobbie Roche
Warren Cook	...	Doctor
Brad Sutton	...	Bouncer

Directed by
John H. Collins

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
John H. Collins		screenplay
John H. Collins		story

Cinematography by
John Arnold
Ned Van Buren

Production Companies

• Edison Company

Distributors

• Kleine-Edison Feature Services (1915) (USA) (theatrical)
• Kino Lorber (2012) (USA) (DVD) (included in "The Devil's Needle and Other Tales of Vice and Redemption" collection)
• Kino Video (2012) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-Ray)

Also Known As:

"Fifty-Fifty Mamie" - USA (alternative title)

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Fort Schuyler, New York Harbor, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Edison Company

Of the many films inspired by the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Children of Eve (1915) SPOILERS: Henry Clay Madison (Robert Conness), a student and clerk, falls in love with neighbor Flossy Wilson (Nellie Grant), an actress from "The Follies." Although she reforms under his influence, Flossy believes that she is unworthy of Madison and rejects his marriage proposal. She ends up alone in the tenements, dies and her child Mamie is raised by another woman. Seventeen years later, we see Fifty-Fifty Mamie McGuire, "Pride of the alley" (Viola Dana) going out with slang spewing Bennie, the Gyp (Thomas F. Blake), Mamie's "steady." Meanwhile Madison is now a capitalist and a calloused business man reading newspaper articles about child labor investigations at a factory he owns. At The Bucket of Blood dance hall & saloon Bennie & Mamie win a dance contest. Later Mamie steals a feather off a street vendor's push cart and is chased into a school building where she meets a handsome young man, Bert.

Madison's nephew Bert (Robert Walker) now 25 years old has become a social worker and soon falls in love with the worldly Mamie.After reading some of a bible he gave her she reforms and he elicits her help in his work. But soon Bert falls ill, and when Mamie tries to visit him, Madison, who now is concerned only with money, convinces her to give up the idea of marrying Bert. Mamie now wants to do good, and make it stick goes to work in Madison's canning factory to investigate conditions In addition to employing children, Madison's factory has no fire escape an only one staircase. When it catches fire, many children die and Mamie is seriously injured. Madison visits Mamie, who cries Bert's name in delirium. When Madison brings Bert, now recovered, Madison notices a photograph of Flossy, Mamie's mother and realizes that Mamie is his daughter.

She dies in Bert's arms, her father realizes all his money cannot save her and pleads for her to live but it is too late.