The Little Fraud (1916)

movie

Country: USA
Genres: Drama, Short
Release: 1916-04-05
Director: Lucius Henderson
Writers: Elizabeth R. Carpenter
Language: None | English
Stars: Mary Fuller , Marcus Moriarity , Harry Hilliard , Robert F. Hill
Runtime: min
Awards: N/A
AKA: The Little Fraud (United States of America) , The Little Fraud
Plot: Chartry, a miser, and his niece live in an old lodge. Chartry is behind with the rent. Finally Chartry and his niece are put out. The girl, Joan, is broken-hearted. Chartry falls ill in the new home, which is simply a shack, and dies, muttering, "The old clock, the old clock." Deeming, the man who had rented the lodge, spends his days in the open and his evenings reading. One night the lamp at his elbow is shattered by a bullet. This happens again a few nights later. Next night Deeming reads as usual with shades up. After a while the lamp chimney is again shattered. Deeming springs up and runs out. Jim, his attendant, is giving chase to a young fellow, who runs like the wind. Deeming, however, joins the chase and after a while the fellow is caught. They take him back to the lodge. The supposed boy, in reality, is Joan. Next morning Deeming orders the boy brought to him. Joan enters and says to Deeming, "I got nothing to say, but if you let me stay here and work, I promise not to shoot you." Deeming ponders and finally agrees to take the boy into service. Jim and Joan work together in the garden. Jim is hail-fellow-well-met, but Joan is aloof. With Deeming she is more friendly. He attempts to read to the boy, to interest him in study. At night, Deeming sits writing and Joan slips in and sits down upon the hearth, gazing at the fire. Later Deeming invites a number of men friends to spend the night. The house is full. Joan has to wait on table. As she is placing a chair for one man to sit, the man turns and looks at the boy, then, laughingly remarks, "Say, you look more like a girl than a boy." Joan, just placing the chair behind the man, pulls it back. The man sits down on the floor instead. In the laughter that follows, Joan runs out. The same night Deeming calls Joan aside and says, "You'll have to give up the garret tonight. You can bunk in with me." But Joan spends the night in the woods, one day Jim goes off on an errand and sees Joan. Her cap is beside her. Suddenly, as Jim watches, she pulls off her black wig and her curls fall about her shoulders. Jim's face wears a wicked grin. He goes to her with a new light in his eyes. Instantly Joan scents trouble. She runs from him to the house. That night Joan has her first opportunity to get at the old clock. She. finds her uncle's will behind it. Deeming, who has heard the noise, fires, wounding the boy. Joan's wig falls off. Deeming then understands why he felt such an interest in the supposed boy. And although she was a little fraud, he does not send her away. Nor has she any desire to go, for in the following days she learns to love him as he loves her.
IMDB:tt0006929