Only in the Way

1911 Drama 1 reel (about 1,000 feet)

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About Only in the Way

Mrs. Gage, her savings gone, moves in with her son and gives a kitten to her granddaughter Marie, who uses a crutch. The son's wife says either the mother or she will leave. The husband sends his mother to an old people's home, and the wife tells her to go at once. Marie, deciding she is also only in the way, writes a note and sets out for the home with the kitten. She loses the crutch in a brook and keeps going. Her parents find the note, reach the home, and the wife tells the nurse that the grandmother is coming home with them.

Cast & crew

More about Only in the Way

Thanhouser produced the one-reel drama and the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company released it on January 31, 1911. It runs about 1,000 feet. Marie Eline, the Thanhouser Kid, plays Marie. No director, scenarist, or cameraman is credited.

Themes

Making

Thanhouser built the reel around Eline, already the company's child star, and a grandmother who arrives with nothing but a claim on the house.

Reviews

The Billboard praised Eline's acting and the photography. The Moving Picture World said the grandmother and the child were played so that a spectator would have trouble sitting through the reel unmoved. The New York Dramatic Mirror liked the performances and marked a continuity slip: the old lady's bag is already packed.

Look

The Billboard, reviewing the reel, singled out the photography. The cameraman is not named.

Preservation

A print is in the Library of Congress.

Notes

  • Marie Eline is the only player named in the credits.
  • The wife's line in the synopsis tradition is “Either your mother or I must leave this house!”
  • Q. David Bowers records a screening at Iona College on October 7, 1988, for an audience of about 400.
  • Walton, in The Moving Picture News, called the theme threadbare and likened it to Gaumont's Twilight of a Soldier's Life, released four days earlier.

Scenes

  • The wife delivers the ultimatum and the husband chooses the home.
  • Marie writes that she too is only in the way and leaves with the kitten.
  • She drops the crutch in a brook and limps on.
  • The parents find her with her grandmother, and the wife says Granny will leave with them.

Also available

  • Library of Congress

Quotes

Either your mother or I must leave this house!