The Firing of the Patchwork Quilt
About The Firing of the Patchwork Quilt
Mrs. McCoy packs a dinner pail for her son Jack, engineer of a passenger train on the D.L. & W. The next night she is sewing her patchwork quilt when a storm hits. She sees that the trestle is down and the track is covered with wreckage. She soaks the quilt in kerosene, carries it to the trestle, and sets it on fire. Jack sees the flames and his mother waving her shawl, stops the train, and jumps down to her. She collapses in his arms while the passengers gather. Mary Maurice plays Mrs. McCoy. Robert Gaillard plays Jack.
Cast & crew
More about The Firing of the Patchwork Quilt
Vitagraph produced the one-reeler. The General Film Company distributed it. Silent Era dates a release of 28 February 1912 under the title A Mother’s Devotion; or, The Firing of the Patchwork Quilt, and leaves the director blank. A 2015 account of trade notices says it first went out on 26 December 1911 as The Patchwork Quilt. Hazel Neason, in a Motion Picture Story Magazine interview cited by that account, named the story as hers. The company is Vitagraph, not Biograph.
Themes
Making
The quilt she is sewing when the storm starts is the same cloth she burns on the track. Neason’s script gives the whole rescue to the mother.
Preservation
Silent Era records 16mm reduction positives in private collections. The film is public domain in the United States.
Notes
- The warning is the burning quilt, not a lantern or a flag.
- Jack’s road in the Moving Picture World text, as repeated by later listings, is the D.L. & W.
- Gaillard is barely in the picture. Maurice carries the night.
- Silent Era lists 16mm reduction positives in private collections and calls the film public domain in the United States.
- An Internet Archive copy uses the title A Mother’s Devotion.
Scenes
- Mrs. McCoy sees the broken trestle between flashes of lightning.
- She burns the kerosene-soaked quilt on the track and waves her shawl.
- Jack stops the train and she falls into his arms as the passengers come down.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-a-mothers-devotion-or-the-firing-of-the-patchwork-quilt)