The Miser's Heart
About The Miser's Heart
Kathy's mother is too ill to play with her and sends her off alone. The child befriends the miser who lives upstairs and Jules, a thief who has stolen a bag of baked goods. Jules shares the food, and Kathy shares it with the miser. Two other thieves break in for the miser's money, tie him up, and he will not give the safe combination. Kathy, who was asleep in the room, wakes. They tie her and hang her by a rope outside the window, several stories up, to make him open the safe.
Cast & crew
More about The Miser's Heart
D. W. Griffith directed for Biograph. George Hennessy wrote it. G. W. Bitzer photographed. Shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Released in the United States on 20 November 1911. Wikidata gives 18 minutes; a circulating copy runs about 16 minutes 26 seconds.
Themes
Background
Fort Lee was then the center of the early American studio business.
Making
A Biograph one-reeler shot at Fort Lee, with the suspense hung on a child lowered outside a window.
Look
G. W. Bitzer photographed the Fort Lee production, including the shot of Kathy hanging outside the window.
Preservation
A print survives. Copies are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Ynez Seabury plays Kathy. Adolph Lestina plays the miser. Lionel Barrymore plays Jules.
- Wilfred Lucas and Charles Hill Mailes play the two crooks.
- Blanche Sweet is billed as a neighbor, not the lead. Linda Arvidson plays Kathy's mother.
- Also in the cast: William J. Butler, Donald Crisp, Adele DeGarde, Edward Dillon, Frank Evans, Edith Haldeman, Robert Harron, Alfred Paget, W. C. Robinson, Kate Toncray, and J. Waltham.
- A print survives, including the Internet Archive copy TheMisersHeart_201404 and a Commons file.
Scenes
- Kathy shares Jules's stolen bread with the miser upstairs.
- The crooks dangle her by a rope outside the window until the miser will open the safe.
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheMisersHeart_201404)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Misers Heart DW Griffith - 1911.ogv)
