The Unconventional Girl (1916)

movie

Country: USA
Genres: Drama, Short
Release: 1916-05-26
Director: Robert F. Hill
Writers: Robert F. Hill
Language: None | English
Stars: Joseph W. Girard , Mathilde Brundage , Edith Roberts , Mary Moore , Sydell Dowling , Stanley Walpole , Tony Merlo
Runtime: min
Awards: N/A
AKA: The Unconventional Girl (United States of America) , The Unconventional Girl
Plot: Helen Joy, the daughter of wealthy parents, is thoroughly unconventional, to the despair of her fashionable mother. The guests have assembled in the Joy drawing room for a dinner party, but are detained by Helen's absence. Helen, meanwhile, is having a glorious time coasting downhill on a bob-sleigh with about six or seven boys. She succeeds in pacifying her indulgent dad, who goes out to look for her, and she finally arrives home and seats self at the dining room table ahead of the guests with her two Pekinese dogs in a high chair beside her. Mrs. Joy enters with the guests and is horrified but in spite of her protests the dogs remain and the dinner is served. The scene then shifts to a kitchen and general living room in the slums, where Sylvia Brentano is trying to quiet her baby. Seeing her care-worn expression, her brother, Dave, assumes a determined look as he moved toward the window, where he picks up a screwdriver and places it in his pocket with a knowing look. At the dinner in the Joy mansion Helen is seen to cause a sensation as she announces to the assembled guests that she would like to be a burglar. Frank Worthing, who is engaged to Helen's sister, Dorothy, tells Helen that burglary is not a woman's job. Back in the tenement house Dave tells Sylvia that he must raise money somehow to keep them from starving. When he has left Sylvia comes to a sudden determination as they are in desperate straits. She hastily writes a note, then leaves the house holding her baby under her shawl. While the guests at the Joy mansion are engaged in a game of bridge Helen goes, unobserved to her bedroom takes a cloak from the closet and glides down into the hallway, where we see her removing some keys from the overcoat belonging to Worthing, and goes to his home. Suddenly she turns to the window where, to her horror she sees illuminated in the room light the figure of Dave, who is opening the window with a screwdriver. He moves toward the center of the room and Helen shrieks with fear as he drags her into the firelight. He takes her for Worthing's sister and laughs fiendishly as he exclaims, "His sister shall pay as mine has." Helen shrinks from him as he betrays his purpose of lustful revenge. As they look into each other's eyes, Dave realizes that he has made a mistake, and he tells her that a year ago he was an expert accountant at the office of Frank Worthing, where he introduced him to his sister Sylvia. Worthing ruined Sylvia and he left home. He went to Worthing and asked him if he was going to marry his sister. When Worthing answered his question with a sneer he pulled his gun and shot at the betrayer of Sylvia's honor. Owing to Worthing's recovery and the extenuating circumstances of his assault the judge at his trial merely sentenced him to a year's improvement on Blackwell's Island. On the day of his release Sylvia was waiting for him with a baby in her arms. Suddenly they hear a noise outside and on going to the window they see Sylvia placing her baby on the front stoop. Pinned to the baby's dress is a letter from Sylvia notifying Worthing that he must take care of the child, as she cannot support it any longer. Helen and Dave rush downstairs and Helen takes the baby from Sylvia, who, not understanding her motive, snatches the baby back. Dave reassures his sister, however, and then they all enter a taxicab which Helen engages. Meanwhile, in the Joy household they discover Helen's absence and are getting somewhat worried when the taxicab drives up and Helen, followed by Dave and Sylvia carrying her baby, breaks into the drawing room. Helen denounces Worthing. Dave assumes a threatening attitude as Helen tells Worthing he must marry Sylvia to legitimatize the child. Worthing protests, but Dave, exhibiting a pistol, warns him that this time he will make a sure job of it if he doesn't do the square thing by Sylvia and her child. Dorothy is overcome by this revelation of villainy on the part of her fiancé, Among the guests is a clergyman, who is called upon to marry Worthing and Sylvia. Sylvia only consents to the marriage for her child's sake and on condition that she shall be Worthing's wife in name only. The couple then step up to be married, and after the ceremony Worthing is ignominiously ordered out of the house. As the picture fades out there are indications that some day the "Unconventional Girl'' may become Dave's wife.
IMDB:tt0335506