I saw this short drama at the 1998 Cinema Muto festival in Pordenone; they screened a print from the Library of Congress with the original intertitles missing.
IMDb's synopsis of 'The Fascinating Mrs Francis' is accurate but leaves out some useful details. SPOILERS AHEAD. After the youth becomes infatuated with the older Mrs Francis, his father convinces her to pretend to be a drunkard(!) so that the boy will dis-infatuate himself. Even if drunkenness was more heavily stigmatised in 1909 than it is today, I don't believe that this would dissuade a lovesick young man in the full flush of his hormones. Worse luck: after the young man (played by Herbert Yost) falls out of love with Mrs Francis, he decides to shoot himself. I was shocked that this callow idiot had access to firearms, and even more shocked that he'd be stupid enough to react so drastically to such a minor tragedy. I found the suicide attempt in this DW Griffith film to be even more shocking because it reminded me of the real-life tragedy of Bobby Harron, a young actor in Griffith's troupe who often played roles similar to the one Yost portrays here. After losing an important role to a rival actor, Harron shot himself ... surviving just long enough to claim that the shooting was an accident.
The ending of 'The Fascinating Mrs Francis' is touchingly romantic. The boy's parents introduce him to a young lady nearer his own age, and we see them hit it off. The father offers money to Mrs Francis for her help, but she refuses it. She does, however, tenderly kiss a rose that the young man had dropped. Nice ending! Good acting, too. I don't think I'd want to meet any of these people, but I'll rate this movie 9 out of 10.
IMDb's synopsis of 'The Fascinating Mrs Francis' is accurate but leaves out some useful details. SPOILERS AHEAD. After the youth becomes infatuated with the older Mrs Francis, his father convinces her to pretend to be a drunkard(!) so that the boy will dis-infatuate himself. Even if drunkenness was more heavily stigmatised in 1909 than it is today, I don't believe that this would dissuade a lovesick young man in the full flush of his hormones. Worse luck: after the young man (played by Herbert Yost) falls out of love with Mrs Francis, he decides to shoot himself. I was shocked that this callow idiot had access to firearms, and even more shocked that he'd be stupid enough to react so drastically to such a minor tragedy. I found the suicide attempt in this DW Griffith film to be even more shocking because it reminded me of the real-life tragedy of Bobby Harron, a young actor in Griffith's troupe who often played roles similar to the one Yost portrays here. After losing an important role to a rival actor, Harron shot himself ... surviving just long enough to claim that the shooting was an accident.
The ending of 'The Fascinating Mrs Francis' is touchingly romantic. The boy's parents introduce him to a young lady nearer his own age, and we see them hit it off. The father offers money to Mrs Francis for her help, but she refuses it. She does, however, tenderly kiss a rose that the young man had dropped. Nice ending! Good acting, too. I don't think I'd want to meet any of these people, but I'll rate this movie 9 out of 10.
