Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1911)

992 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD "THE LITTLE STOCKING" (Imp). Following their usual custom, the Imp Lonipany arc going to make a little Christmas present to the trade and incidentally the public. To that end they have prepared a unique and original Christmas story entitled "The Little Stocking." A word of credit is due the Imp Company for the extra pains taken with this Christmas release, for it is quite evident that tlrey hfivejponcentrated thpir besticfforts to make a picture far above y^e usual nin oPImps. It is the besf Imp Christmas story that we have ever seen. The story itself is original and entirely out of conventional lines. It tells a' story of family separation that ends in eleventh-hour happiness on the day before Christmas. Some of the scenes are laid in the West and there are portrayals of rugged manliness that will appeal to all hearts. As the story opens, an Eastern man in straitened circumstances is bidding good-bye to his wife and little daughter on the day of his departure for the West to seek his fortune among the gold fields. In his valise is a pair of white stockings intended as a present for the little girl. He bids her put them on; but before one stocking has been put on by the little girl he hears the whistle of the train and departs hastily, carrying the other white stocking away with him in his valise. Scene from "The Little Stocking" (Imp). We see him ne.xt upon his arrival at the Western camp where he forms a partnership with one of the miners and they share a cabin together. In unpacking his grip he comes across the little white stocking and laughingly explains to his partner how he came away from home with it in his grip. The Easterner then writes a letter to his wife saying that he has discovered the white stocking among his effects and that some day he will return it, but only when he is able to bring it back filled with golden nuggets. The two partners start out to prospect and soon come to the edge of the great American desert where a sign-board warns them to be plentifully supplied with water before starting across. The men continue on their journey through the desert, but before they get across their water supply runs out and their suffering is intense. They are finally reduced to a hopeless condition for lack of water and fall perishing upon the sands. A party on horseback finds them there, scarcely alive. The Eastern man soon dies, but his partner is revived and taken back to the camp where in time he recovers. Christmas is drawing near and there comes a letter from the East, telling a tale of destitution and begging for assistance from a hand that is now dead. In going through the effects of his unfortunate partner, the honest, rugged Western miner comes across a letter referring to the little stocking and remembers what his dead partner wrote about its being some day filled with gold. Acting upon the thought the good man gets the little stocking and goes with it to the camp saloon where the miners are enjoying themselves. There he tells to these rough men the story of his partner's game, but luckless struggle with fate, reading them also the letter of appeal from the East. Upon his suggestion the miners stuff golden nuggests into the little stocking until it is filled. With the stocking in his possession the miner takes a train for the East arriving there just in time to save his partner's wife from eviction on Christmas day. The Western scenes are particularly well selected. The story is strong and the acting is unusually good. That it will fulfill its mission as a Christmas picture there can be no doubt. "THE TENDERFOOT FOREMAN" (Essanay). Edna Fisher, the charming little leading lady with the Essanay Western players, is now well on the road to recovery and will again soon be seen in the Essanay productions. Just prior to the making of Broncho Billy's Christmas dinner, in which she was thrown from a stage-coach, Mr. Anderson had just completed "The Tenderfoot Foffman," a rousing cowboy drama, in which he and Miss Fishfe^ appear in the principal parts. The story is characteristje of the best of Mr. Anderson's work and with the capable Miss Fisher is sure to be a hit. The story tells of a young Western woman, daughter of a ranchman, who has just died and who has just made the request in his will that she do not attempt actual management of her estate. However, Jane (Miss Fisher) feels thoroughly capable to run the big "Double K" and refuses to heed her lawyer's advice that she turn the ranch over to the management of a capable ranch foreman. A week as proprietress however, finds her feeling certain vague regrets that she had not heeded her father's and her lawyer's advices. The boys of the "Double K" are a rather bad lot and under the supervision of Buck Bradley, a surly puncher, take her instructions grumblingly and perform their duties with a carelessness and indifference born of their dislike of taking their instructions from a woman. Argument or kindly treatment of her "boys" prove of no avail. On the other hand their grumblings increase. Dissatisfied with the food at their meals they grouchily leave the table with the food half untasted or roar out their displeasure to Sally, the kitchen maid. One day, Jane, herself, enters the dining room to get at the bottom of the thing. Buck Bradley, bullyingly thrusts a plate of meat and the coffee pot at her and tells her that that sort "of stuff ain't fit fer hard-workin' men." The perfectly good food is left on the table and the boys, muttering threats against her, leave the room. Jane is in a quandary what to do. She must have another foreman and finally resolves to secure a new manager and advertises for one. A few days later the advertisement is answered. The applicant, dressed in the "store clothes" of a tenderfoot, appears and makes known his desire to be her foreman. She looks at him for a moment and laughs. "But you are a tenderfoot and these men are rough," she explains. "Just give me the chance," laughs Jack Reed (G. M. Anderson). So, rather doubtfully. Jack is employed. He straightway makes it plain that he means business when one of Buck's lanky cowboys gruffly addresses Jane. Jack seizes the man's hat, pulls it from his head and reminds him that he is in the presence of a lady. The cowboy starts for his gun, but a clean uppercut from Jack lays him sprawling on the ground. The whipped bully picks himself up and muttering a threat slips away. The girl looks at her new foreman admiringly, but with an anxious look in her eyes. "You'd better come in the house and get my daddy's .44," she says, "I'm afraid you're going to need it." It is an hour later that Jack, now in the proper outfit, and wearing "artillery," is visited by a committee of puncher's