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The Little Spreewald Maiden
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 985 feet
Directed by Sidney Olcott
Cast: Gene Gauntier [Freda], Sidney Olcott [Hans]
Kalem Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by Kalem Company, Incorporated. / Scenario by Gene Gauntier. Assistant director, Gene Gauntier. / Released 21 December 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Some location cinematography was taken in Germany.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [The Film Daily, 24 December 1910, page ?] Two American ladies touring through Germany happen on this little Spreewald girl and offer her a job in America. She consults with Hans, her sweetheart, and though he objects at first, he soon consents when Freda tells him of the large amount of money she is to earn and to bring back to him. So Freda goes to America and we are shown her departure where she leaves on the queer little Spree boat, accompanied to the water’s edge by her family and half the inhabitants of the village. The story then transfers to America, where Freda has her job as a nurse girl. But it is apparent that she has higher ambitions, for she is learning the language with the assistance of a good-natured Irish cop, who has the beat in the section on Riverside Drive, New York, where Freda goes to give her little ward his daily outing. Quick to learn and full of ambition. Freda goes to night school and learns stenography and typewriting. Soon she has a good job and has thoroughly ingratiated herself with her employer, not only because of her careful work, but because of her winsome ways as well, and so it turns out one day that her employer proposes marriage. Freda, however, thinks that she is bound in honor to Hans on the other side, and furthermore she has long been afflicted with home sickness for the familiar scenes of her fatherland. So she says “no” to her employer and starts back to Germany, but alas, like most Germans who come to America, she has become so thoroughly Americanized that she is a much better American than a German, and when she sees the primitive life of her own people, and finds that Hans has been courting another German lassie, she decides that America is good enough for her, and back she goes to her old job in the office, which, however, she does not hold very long, for her employer again makes his offer of marriage and is this time heartily accepted.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 31 December 1910, page ?] The picture will please, first with the sympathetic acting of Miss Gauntier and next by the picturesque scenery along the Spree. The American scenes are characteristic and typical and will be recognized as accurate. Wherever there are Germans this film should be popular.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 7 August 2023.
References: Slide-Aspects pp. 88, 89 : Website-AFI.
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