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A Romance of Old California
(1915) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: Victor Rottman (Victor Rodman) [the Don’s blind son], Mary Malatesta [Chiquita], Joseph McDermott [Chiquita’s father], Walter Coyle (Walter V. Coyle) [the Don], Mrs. LaVarnie (Laura La Varnie) [the Don’s cousin], Marie Newton [the Don’s cousin’s daughter], Ivan Christy [the surgeon]
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Released 14 June 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Romance.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The blind son of the wealthy don loves Chiquita, the peon’s stepdaughter, but his mercenary cousin schemes to make a match between the boy and her own daughter. The don’s brother, a physician, studies the boy’s affliction and believes that he can cure him. He discovers the boy’s secret, but remains silent, even after the scheming mother has revealed her tactics and the boy’s father, also, has expressed his hope that the children marry. Chiquita, fearing that her lover may not deem her pretty enough when he can see, buys a string of beads to enhance her beauty. Her drunken stepfather is furious at this waste of money which should have come to him, and ill-treats the girl. His sight restored, the boy asks for Chiquita, and the doctor goes in search of her. She has become ill and delirious through brooding and has wandered away. The doctor barely saves her from throwing herself off the top of a ruined wall. Lifting her unconscious form, he bears it to the hacienda and joins his entreaties to those of the boy, whose family are scandalized. When Chiquita opens her eyes, she finds that her dream has come true; her lover thinks her beautiful, and his father consents to their marriage. The scheming cousin and her mother are unable to understand how so proud a man as the don can countenance the alliance of his heir with a lowborn girl, but then, they do not understand what love is.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 11 October 2023.
References: Spehr-American p. 3 : Website-IMDb.
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