What the Daisy Said
| What the Daisy Said | |
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| Directed by | D. W. Griffith |
| Written by | Stanner E.V. Taylor |
| Starring | Clara T. Bracy |
| Cinematography | G. W. Bitzer |
| Distributed by | Biograph Company |
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Release date
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Running time
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12 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent |
What the Daisy Said is a one-reel film (about 12 minutes) made by D. W. Griffith for Biograph in 1910.
The film opens upon two sisters (Martha, played by Mary Pickford, and Millie, played by Gertrude Robinson) standing in a field of daisies. Millie plucks the petals off of one to divine whether he loves me... he loves me not. The girls part ways; Martha's next stop is the vegetable patch in which a lanky farmhand diligently labors with a shovel. She passes up the farmhand's polite offer to become sweethearts and promptly steals away to town to get her palm read by a woman fortuneteller. There, a mustachioed gypsy catches her eye, and he tells her a fortune in which he "plans her future to his liking". The pair run off together, crossing a brook into which he saves her from falling. They arrive at a waterfall where he "induces her to believe his prophecy must be true". After that brief exchange, Martha jubilantly skips home, passing the lanky farmhand who pays her no heed.
Arriving at the homestead, she immediately resolves to return to the waterfall. At their second meeting, the gypsy greets Martha with open arms and after some animated entreaties she meets his embrace. In a brief cutaway, Millie looks for Martha at the orchard, but can't find her. Martha reluctantly bids the gypsy adieu—after she is gone, he laughs and struts confidently. Martha's stealthy return escapes the notice of Father and Millie who are sitting on the porch of the homestead. They seem to accept the explanation of her absence when she motions to the second story of the house. Martha then talks Millie into getting her own fortune read and they slip away, hand in hand, over a rough-hewn fence, through the field of daisies, and into town. While the fortuneteller is examining Millie's palm, Martha is distracted by one of the townswomen. The crafty gypsy then swoops in and charms Millie into accompanying him to the romantic waterfall. When Martha returns to the fortuneteller's tent, Millie is nowhere to be found.
Millie, in the meantime, has bounced home and back to the waterfall, where the gypsy bids her to sit on a conveniently-placed bench. Martha wanders back to the waterfall (via the orchard), where she is horrified to find the gypsy with his arm around Millie and observes them long enough to witness him kiss Millie on the cheek. Heartbroken, Martha returns to the orchard to weep. To complicate things, Father departs the homestead and his route takes him by the waterfall where he discovers his daughter in close personal contact with the gypsy. In a fit of rage, the old man tears the gypsy from his daughter and reproves him wildly. Father raises his cane to strike the gypsy, but the gypsy impulsively fells him with a two quick blows to the torso. Aghast at what he's done, the gypsy escapes just as two passersby arrive on the scene.
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