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''Annie-for-Spite'' is a 1917
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As described in film magazines, Annie Johnson (Minter) is a homely orphan girl, who works in a department store and helps a widow take care of her six children in exchange for a place to stay. Despite her poverty, she dreams that she will one day be adopted by a rich old lady who will provide her with whatever she might want.
Meanwhile Mrs. Nottingham (Le Brandt), a wealthy widow, is looking for an heir. Her only son has died, and she does not wish to leave her fortune to her daughter-in-law, whom she dislikes, and to her grandson whom she has never met. To spite her daughter-in-law, she instructs her lawyer to find the plainest little girl in the city to adopt and become her heir. The lawyer finds Annie, freshly dismissed from the department store, and she is promptly presented to Mrs. Nottingham and adopted.
In the comforts of a rich home, and dressed in expensive clothes, Annie quickly transforms into a beauty. She also transforms the home and the attitude of Mrs. Nottingham with her positive outlook, and the old woman grows genuinely fond of her before she passes away, leaving her home and her entire fortune to Annie.
Emily, Mrs. Nottingham's daughter-in-law, is furious when she discovers this and seeks to break the will. Her son Willard (Fisher) is installed as Annie's secretary under a false name. He falls in love with Annie, and although the court case over the will is settled in Emily's favour, Willard and Annie are nonetheless happily married.
silent film
A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
directed by James Kirkwood and starring Mary Miles Minter. The film is based upon the 1916 short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
''Annie for Spite'' by Frederick J. Jackson. As with many of Minter's features, it is thought to be a lost film
A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...
.The Library of Congress/FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''Annie-For-Spite''/ref>
Plot
As described in film magazines, Annie Johnson (Minter) is a homely orphan girl, who works in a department store and helps a widow take care of her six children in exchange for a place to stay. Despite her poverty, she dreams that she will one day be adopted by a rich old lady who will provide her with whatever she might want.
Meanwhile Mrs. Nottingham (Le Brandt), a wealthy widow, is looking for an heir. Her only son has died, and she does not wish to leave her fortune to her daughter-in-law, whom she dislikes, and to her grandson whom she has never met. To spite her daughter-in-law, she instructs her lawyer to find the plainest little girl in the city to adopt and become her heir. The lawyer finds Annie, freshly dismissed from the department store, and she is promptly presented to Mrs. Nottingham and adopted.
In the comforts of a rich home, and dressed in expensive clothes, Annie quickly transforms into a beauty. She also transforms the home and the attitude of Mrs. Nottingham with her positive outlook, and the old woman grows genuinely fond of her before she passes away, leaving her home and her entire fortune to Annie.
Emily, Mrs. Nottingham's daughter-in-law, is furious when she discovers this and seeks to break the will. Her son Willard (Fisher) is installed as Annie's secretary under a false name. He falls in love with Annie, and although the court case over the will is settled in Emily's favour, Willard and Annie are nonetheless happily married.
Cast
* Mary Miles Minter - Annie Johnson * George Fisher - Willard Kaine Nottingham * Eugenie Forde - Mrs. Emily Nottingham * Gertrude Le Brandt - Mrs. J.G. Nottingham * George Periolat - Andrew WaltersReferences
External links
* 1917 films American black-and-white films American silent feature films 1917 drama films Silent American drama films Films directed by James Kirkwood Sr. 1910s American films Adaptations of works by Frederick J. Jackson 1910s English-language films {{1910s-drama-film-stub