Reel Life (1916-1917)

“ A N N I E FOR S P I T E”— AMERIC AN life, Annie preserves her inborn op¬ timism — her ability to smile at mis¬ fortune and stare trustingly with smil¬ ing, parted lips and big wistful eyes into the future that is always coleur de rose. Instead of being downcast by her hard fate, Annie believes implicitly in the very rich old lady who is some day to adopt her and be the fairy god¬ mother of her ownest own fairyland. No matter how many disappointments she experiences in the behavior of “nice old ladies” who look as though they ought to adopt a pretty little girl, but content themselves with merely casual attentions, Annie never loses faith in her dream. Then, at last, the dream comes true. A crusty old lady of many millions, Mrs. John Grant Nottingham, angered at the cupidity of her immediate rela¬ tives, instructs her lawyer, Andrew Walter, to pick out the most destitute girl waif he can find in New York and fetch her to the big mansion in Fifth avenue for adoption. When Lawyer Walter finds Annie — just as she has been dismissed in tears for some tri¬ fling infraction of the department store rules — he considers his quest at an end and takes the forlorn child to Mrs. Nottingham, who promptly adopts Annie, “for spite,” but soon learns to love her for the radiance of her happy smile and her naive accept¬ ance of all the fine feathers bestowed so lavishly by the rich old woman as her right, because she had always dreamed it would be just so — some day. The love interest comes when young Willard Kaine Nottingham, grandson of the old lady, whom she has never seen, falls in love with Annie under an assumed name. Mrs. Nottingham’s sudden death leaves Annie in pos¬ session of the vast fortune, but the courts decide a contest in favor of the family and Annie is dispossessed. Young Willard Nottingham, who has been employed as Annie’s private secretary, now becomes a beneficiary under the court’s decision, declares his love for Annie and is accepted. Included in the cast of “Annie-ForSpite” are such well known performers as George Periolat, who plays Andrew Walter, the family lawyer, with ad¬ mirable convincingness; George Fish¬ er, as Willard Nottingham; Gertrude Brandt, who is strikingly effective as A sympathy story with a lot of the stuff that makes ’em love Miss Mary AFTER Mary Miles Minter in the role of the adopted daughter of the very rich old lady in “Annie-For-Spite " showing that feathers have a great deal to do do with the looks of the birdie. old Mrs. Nottingham; Robert Klein, as Dr. MacElroy, and Eugenie Ford, as Mrs. Emily Nottingham. It is an admirably balanced cast. Newspaper and magazine comment upon Miss Minter’s work are invari¬ ably complimentary. For instance, the Portland Oregon Star, commenting on the announcement of the new play, said that it would be worth going to see if Mary would just appear and smile, adding: “But from all accounts the new ve Mary Miles Minter has start¬ ed work on her next production, “Periwinkle,” which is an adap¬ tation of the story by William Farquhar Pay son. In this feature the little star appears most of the,time dressed in trousers, rubber-boots, oil¬ skin coat and sou’wester. She is a little waif rescued from a shipwreck and reared by a beach comber and his daughter, and given the name of “Periwinkle.” George Fisher plays opposite Miss Minter and others in the cast include Arthur Howard, Clarence Burton, Alan Forrest, Harvey Clark, George Periolat hide affords Miss Minter superior op¬ portunities and brings out those quali¬ ties which are hers by divine right, to the limit of their availability.” The Elmira, N. Y., Gazette says: “Mary Miles Minter is the really and truly ingenue of photodrama, and we sigh to think of the inevitable day when custom will twist those glorious brown locks of hers into a conven¬ tional coiffure. Mary is just a little girl now, and honest, we hope they’ll let her wear her hair just as she does now until she’s thirty.” The San Francisco Chronicle says : Mary Miles Minter — she of the dreamy eyes and sunburst smile — is to appear in a new photoplay, “AnnieFor-Spite,” her latest production in the American-Mutual series. The pic¬ ture is said to be one of the best Jim Kirkwood ever turned out. The Wellington, Wyo., Standard says : “Mary Miles Minter, in ‘The Inno¬ cence of Lizette,’ is about as cute a little bit of all right as ever flashed across the screen in this jaded metrop¬ olis. So far as we are concerned they can take all the sex stuff that reeks on the screen and dump it into deep water, but in “Lovey Mary,” the American-Mutual have a maiden fair worth going hundreds of miles to see. There is no more attractive personal¬ ity in the motion picture universe.” REEL LIFE— Page Three