Revised list of high-class original motion picture films (1908)

TRAGEDY. U. D. 3169. THE POACHER'S DAUGHTER. Price, $G0.84. Approximate Length, 507 feet. A melodrama of intense human interest, superbly acted and beautifully presented. Amid lovely rustic scenes of forest and glade, this tragedy of defiance of game laws, illicit affection, detection and vengeance is cleverly laid. A poacher, his wife and daughter, living in the heart of a forest, have their encampment, a rough dwelling of stones, brushwood and clay, with the sward in front of the hut as a natural and unfettered living room. No love is wasted between the gamekeeper and the poacher, but affection, unlicensed by law, has sprung up between the poacher's wife and her husband's natural enemy. The poacher's daughter, a young girl of about ten years of age, waits upon her father and delights in his society. In his leisure moments he gives her lessons in his craft — teaching her to shoot, etc. The poacher is soon at work laying snares; alarmed by the approach of the keeper, he covers his traces and goes home to dinner. The poacher's suspicions of his wife's faithlessness are aroused, and these are verified as he witnesses a love scene between the faithless wife and the keeper. The keeper retires, and the miserable husband bids the wife depart. In the scone next presented, the poacher, securing a snared hare, is caught red-handed by the keeper. The poacher flies, pursued by his enemy, and, after a chase through most picturesque woodland scenery, he is overtaken, and a struggle ensues. The poacher, furious from jealousy, attacks the keeper, who thereupon shoots the law-breaker and kills him. In the struggle the poacher seizes and retains the keeper's cap. Leaving the body, the keeper hastens to tell the faithless wife, who accompanies him to the scene of the tragedy. Placing the body of the victim in a barrow, it is borne to a spot by the wayside and disposed to give the appearance of suicide. The scene now changes to the forest hut. The little daughter has prepared supper, and anxiously awaits her father. Taking a lantern, she determines to seek him. Her search is successful, and a pathetic incident is afforded by the child's grief. She returns home, absently carrying the keeper's cap, which she had removed from her father's hand. Seated at the neglected supper table, the truth is brought home to her by the sight of the keeper's cap, which she flings away in horror. Determined to avenge her father's death, she next takes his gun and ventures in search of the keeper. The faithless wife and her lover are seen by the child walking in the forest shades, and the little girl, maddened by the sight, avenges her father's death by shooting his enemy, and the double tragedy ends by the wretched woman throwing herself upon the body of the dead keeper. Order of Pictures: Poacher and gamekeeper drinking at separate tables. Poacher setting snares in the forest. Daughter taking lessons. Alarm: the keeper approaches. Poacher hides. The poacher's hut in the woods. Teaches his daughter to shoot. Keeper passes. Loving glances interchanged between poacher's wife and keeper. Poacher's suspicions aroused. Scene in the woods. Love passages between keeper and faithless woman are witnessed by the husband. Keeper retires. Poacher tells his wife to go. Poacher visits his snares. Discovered by keeper. Scuffle: flight of poacher. Keeper gives chase, which is continued through the forest. Caught. Struggle. Keeper fires and kills the poacher, who grasps the keeper's cap as he falls. Poacher's hut. Keeper announces the poacher's death to the wife. They go forth together. 161