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The Idiot
(1914) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by Donald Crisp
Cast: Robert Harron [the idiot], Fred A. Turner (F.A. Turner) [the idiot’s father], Josephine Crowell [the idiot’s mother], [?] Donald Crisp?
Majestic Motion Picture Company production; distributed by Mutual Film Corporation. / Released 4 August 1914. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? There lived in a country an idiot who was very devout, attending church regularly, and singing on all occasions when joy possessed him the old hymn, “Halleluiah.” He was not of great assistance on the farm. His father would have preferred a strong healthy lad who could have eased his shoulders of the burdens of his declining years. Likewise his mother would have welcomed a daughter who could have saved her bent back and rheumatic joints from the grind of housework. Therefore, they cuff and elbow the idiotic son about which mistreatments he accepts silently and as a matter of course. He feeds the pigs, goes to the post offices, loves the woods and is kind to dumb animals. One day the house catches fire and his mother, choked by smoke, falls in the burning building. The neighbors try ineffectually to extinguish the flames and are forced back by the heat. The father, a coward at heart, hearing his wife’s cries, implores the watchers to rescue her, but none respond. The frantic old man then sinks to his knees and asks God to help him. As if in response to his prayers, the idiot, his son, whom he has kicked about, staggers into the flames, rescues his mother, and chanting the familiar hymn, falls dead at her feet.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 7 May 2020.
References: Website-IMDb.
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