The Beggar Maid (1921)

The painter Burne-Jones and his famed painting "The Beggar Maid" are depicted in this speculative drama about the creation of the painting. Burne-Jones plays matchmaker for a young British ... See full summary »

Director:

Herbert Blaché

Writer:

Reginald Denny

Stars:

Reginald Denny, Mary Astor

Cast

Cast overview:
Reginald Denny	...	The Earl of Winston / King Cophetua
Mary Astor	...	Peasant Girl / Beggar Maid

Storyline

The painter Burne-Jones and his famed painting "The Beggar Maid" are depicted in this speculative drama about the creation of the painting. Burne-Jones plays matchmaker for a young British nobleman who has fallen in love with a servant girl on his estate. The artist shows that love can thrive between members of different classes by depicting on canvas a picture from Tennyson's poem about the love of King Cophetua for a beggar maid. As he relates the story of the poem in words and through his painting, the young earl sees the application to his own situation.

---

Plot Keywords:

painter | artist

---

Genres:

Drama | Short

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 September 1921 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Red Bank, New Jersey, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Triart Picture Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min 25 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A video copy of this film survives in the Library of Congress.

User Reviews

Beautiful but still

This silent movie, its story constructed around the famous Sir Edward Cole Burne-Jones painting, which in turn was based on the Tennyson poem, is a fair, if pedestrian romantic story about a rich lord (played by Reginald Denny) who loves a poor tenant (played by a Mary Astor so young she hasn't quite lost all her baby fat), who are brought together by the artist painting the picture. The compositions of the individual shots are beautiful -- parts of it were shot on Louis Comfort Tiffany's county home -- but the piece is very static -- I can only conclude that Herbert Blache's technique was not up to anything more and this increasingly out-of-date technique would, eventually, result in the end of his career by the end of the decade.