Robert leaves his mother's home and goes to New York. Six years later he writes he cannot spend Thanksgiving with her, so she goes to spend it with him. Feeling she would not fit in with his fancy friends, he sticks her in an upstairs room, where his elegant fiancée finds her and brings him to understand how badly he has behaved. He takes her downstairs, gives her the place of honor at the table and everything turns out well.
This Edwin S. Porter film is surprisingly heavy in titles for an Edison film for the era and for the modern audience, may be too broadly acted and title-heavy. For the era, when Griffith was still working on the subtler acting that would become standard, it is fine. The composition is excellent, as could be expected and there is a telling split-screen effect contrasting Robert's elegant house -- it looks cluttered to me -- and his mother's bare home.
In many ways this two-reel film is just made for a middle-class audience that has fought its way up from poverty. Films were still considered the theater for the poor and this movie, reminding the newly successful who they were, is a good effort.
This Edwin S. Porter film is surprisingly heavy in titles for an Edison film for the era and for the modern audience, may be too broadly acted and title-heavy. For the era, when Griffith was still working on the subtler acting that would become standard, it is fine. The composition is excellent, as could be expected and there is a telling split-screen effect contrasting Robert's elegant house -- it looks cluttered to me -- and his mother's bare home.
In many ways this two-reel film is just made for a middle-class audience that has fought its way up from poverty. Films were still considered the theater for the poor and this movie, reminding the newly successful who they were, is a good effort.
