A little English girl, abandoned in India and raised by an Indian swordmaker, learns of her true origin and returns to England to seek out her birthright.A little English girl, abandoned in India and raised by an Indian swordmaker, learns of her true origin and returns to England to seek out her birthright.A little English girl, abandoned in India and raised by an Indian swordmaker, learns of her true origin and returns to England to seek out her birthright.
Merceita Esmond
- A Gossip
- (as Mercita Esmonde)
Irving Browning
- Undetermined Role
- (uncredited)
Frank Lackteen
- Undetermined Secondary Role
- (uncredited)
Jack Snyder
- Undetermined Role
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured review
Mary Pickford is a middle-caste Indian girl -- her father is a swordsmith. When British army officer David Powell is kind to her, she develops a yen for him. However, the locals rise up and matters grow very complicated.
Pickford is charming as a hard-nosed young woman who drives a hard bargain and isn't above filching food or a bolt of cloth. Powell is there to play the conventional upright love interest and certainly does so adequately. He was an accomplished actor, having come out of Beerbohm-Tree's company. His death at 41 in 1926 is a shame.
Mostly, though, this movie is another chance for Little Mary to play an exotic creature in an exotic land, as her vehicles in this period would have her, and she does so very nicely. The India in this movie directed by John Emerson is a place of caste and hatred and temples and sacred pools and cows, all of which are carefully explained in the titles. Most of the comic bits occur in the final third in the movie, when she has wound up in England.
What survives is a nice movie, although the last reel was missing from the print I saw. Rumor claims there is a complete 35 mm. Print. It is undoubtedly on the Pickford Foundation's To Do list, although I expect that with the casual racism and hatred between Hindu and Muslim these days, it's nowhere near the top. Still, someday.
Pickford is charming as a hard-nosed young woman who drives a hard bargain and isn't above filching food or a bolt of cloth. Powell is there to play the conventional upright love interest and certainly does so adequately. He was an accomplished actor, having come out of Beerbohm-Tree's company. His death at 41 in 1926 is a shame.
Mostly, though, this movie is another chance for Little Mary to play an exotic creature in an exotic land, as her vehicles in this period would have her, and she does so very nicely. The India in this movie directed by John Emerson is a place of caste and hatred and temples and sacred pools and cows, all of which are carefully explained in the titles. Most of the comic bits occur in the final third in the movie, when she has wound up in England.
What survives is a nice movie, although the last reel was missing from the print I saw. Rumor claims there is a complete 35 mm. Print. It is undoubtedly on the Pickford Foundation's To Do list, although I expect that with the casual racism and hatred between Hindu and Muslim these days, it's nowhere near the top. Still, someday.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe Alpha DVD offers the unrestored version, with the final conclusion missing, although the outcome of the story is apparent by this time.
- GoofsWhen Radha leaves the sacred pool and is pursued by the other people bathing there because she had not taken her shoes off, she leaves the pool and kicks aside the shoes of her pursuers so they will be detained for a while. However, when the pursuers leave the bath, their shoes are lying about in a different manner.
- SoundtracksLess Than the Dust
(1901)
from "Indian Love Lyrics"
Music by Amy Woodford-Finden
Lyrics by Lawrence Hope
Details
- Runtime1 hour 33 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content