His Mother's Thanksgiving

Name: His Mother's Thanksgiving
Director: Edwin S. Porter
Genre: Drama, Family
Released: 1910
Duration: 15 min
Cast: Herbert Prior, Mrs. William Bechtel, Mary Fuller

1910 Drama Family 15 minutes Directed by Edwin S. Porter

About His Mother's Thanksgiving

Robert, played by Herbert Prior, leaves his mother's New England house for the city. Eight years later she takes a pie from the oven, expecting him home for Thanksgiving for the first time in ten years. The rural postmaster brings a letter instead: he is staying in New York, and a check falls out. She goes to the city to surprise him and is sent upstairs with a tray while his guests dine below. His fiancée finds the pie and a note that says "my boy" and "your mother," and the picture ends with the mother at the head of his table.

Cast & crew

More about His Mother's Thanksgiving

Edwin S. Porter directed it for Edison. Mrs. William Bechtel plays the mother. Mary Fuller is in the cast. Edison released it on 22 November 1910 and copyrighted it the same day (J148140 through J148143). The length is 995 feet.

Themes

A pie baked for a son who will not come
A mother sent upstairs
A fiancée who seats her at the table
Thanksgiving
Robert
New England
New York
Herbert Prior
Mrs. William Bechtel
pie

Reviews

Variety of 3 December 1910 said a young man in a theater box wept, and called it well acted and nicely photographed. The Nickelodeon of 1 December 1910 said his shame was plausible and the acting could scarcely be bettered. Moving Picture World of 10 December 1910 praised the girl's action and asked how a young man like this could have such an elaborate home.

Look

Variety of 3 December 1910 called the photography nice. The Moving Picture World synopsis describes a vision dissolve: the mother's room fades to her son kissing his sweetheart.

Preservation

The Museum of Modern Art holds a 35mm nitrate print supplied by the New Zealand Film Archive. The National Film Preservation Foundation streams the 2013 preservation.

Notes

AFI notes that the son's name, Robert, is not in the published story but is on the film, and that his letter gives the city as New York and the year as 1909.
An IMDb note dates that letter 23 November 1909.
The Museum of Modern Art preserved a 35mm nitrate print found in 2010 at the New Zealand Film Archive. Colorlab finished the work in 2013 with a National Film Preservation Foundation Save America's Treasures grant.
The NFPF transfer was copied at 17 frames per second.

Scenes

The postmaster's letter tells her Robert is not coming, and the check drops unread.
She eats from a tray upstairs while the party goes on below.
The fiancée finds the pie and the note and brings her to the table.