The Vicar of Wakefield (1910)

Directed by

Theodore Marston

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

14 min

Rating

4.8 of 10 from 4 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A vicar warns his daughter about a wealthy suitor she later runs away with. The suitor tricks her with a fake wedding but her father ends up in jail. The deception is revealed and the family tries to set things right.

old-fashionedmelodramaticbriskmoralisticstagedearnestseriouscompact

What happens

The Vicar Of Wakefield is a 1910 American silent short drama produced by the Thanhouser Company. The film was adapted from Oliver Goldsmith's 1766 novel The Vicar of Wakefield, but covers only part of the plot and deviates significantly from the book to allow the story to be told within the confines of a single reel of film. The film begins with the vicar and his family heading to a picnic with Squire Thornhill, during the course of which the vicar notices Thornhill's interest in his daughter, Olivia. The vicar warns his family that Thornhill is a degenerate young man, but Olivia is seduced and elopes with Thornhill. Secretly, Thornhill arranges a fake marriage ceremony to capitalize on his sexual desires while avoiding the responsibility that would come with the union. Olivia learns the marriage was fake and that she has duped into a form of consensual prostitution with Thornhill, but escapes and returns home. Thornhill decides to take his revenge by having the vicar incarcerated for his debts. While in prison, the vicar learns that the marriage was in fact legitimate; Thornhill's uncle, Sir William, then forces his nephew to apologize to Olivia and fulfill his obligations. The identities of most of the cast are known, but the role of director, often erroneously credited to Theodore Marston is not. The film was released on December 27, 1910 and met with positive reviews. The surviving print is in the Nederlands Filmmuseum and has been released on DVD. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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