The Miller’s Daughter
About The Miller’s Daughter
Hazel, the miller's daughter, is courted by the farmer Rodney and by the city man Carringford. Her father wants Rodney, who saved the mill. She plans to marry Carringford. On the wedding day Carringford's real wife appears with proof. Hazel is turned out, tries to live by sewing in the city, and loses her machine. Her father rejects her again. She goes to the millrace to drown. Rodney pulls her out. After she has a child she brings the baby to her father, and he forgives her.
Cast & crew
More about The Miller’s Daughter
Edison produced and distributed it. Edwin S. Porter is credited as director and cameraman. Wallace McCutcheon is also generally credited as a director. Adapted from Steele MacKaye's play Hazel Kirke. Copyrighted by Thomas A. Edison on October 25, 1905, as H67874–H67885. Released November 6, 1905. 975 feet.
Themes
Background
An Edison story film of November 1905, taken from a well-known stage melodrama and retitled around the father.
Making
Porter staged the mill, the interrupted wedding, the city room, and the millrace as separate tableaux in under a thousand feet.
Look
Edwin S. Porter is credited as cameraman as well as director.
Preservation
A print of 12 minutes survives.
Notes
- In the play, Hazel Kirke is told her marriage to Arthur Carrington, Lord Travers, is illegal because he is already married, and she tries to drown herself.
- Porter's film makes Carringford a city man and Rodney a farmer, and it adds the slum sewing and the repossessed machine.
- Charles Musser writes that the title change, from the woman's name to her relation to her father, matches the film's ending, in which the father forgives her once she is a mother.
- A circulating copy runs 11 minutes 58 seconds.
- Edison catalog number 269.
Scenes
- Carringford's wife walks in on the wedding day with proof of the earlier marriage.
- Rodney pulls Hazel from the millrace.
- She returns with a baby, and her father takes them in.
Influenced by
- Hazel Kirke, a play by Steele MacKaye
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons
