A Mormon Maid

1917 film by Robert Zigler Leonard

April 22, 1917 (1917-04-22)

Running time

50 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageSilent (English intertitles)

A Mormon Maid is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and written by Charles Sarver and Paul West. While traveling westward with her family, Dora must face the proposal to become a Mormon elder's sixth wife. The film stars Mae Murray, Frank Borzage, Hobart Bosworth, Edythe Chapman, Noah Beery, Sr., and Richard Henry Cummings. The film was released on April 22, 1917, by Paramount Pictures.^[1]^[2] The film survives complete.^[3]

Plot

Set in the 1840s during the Mormon migration westward, this film introduces a young woman named Dora and her family as they travel west. After being saved from an Indian attack by a Mormon community, the family joins their wagon train traveling to Utah. Throughout the film, Dora is pursued by two men, one a recent convert to the church and the other a scheming elder with multiple wives. Dora's mother ends up killing herself due to her revulsion towards polygamy, leaving Dora to consider her own future and the man she loves.^[4] The elder is a former apostle of the church and is determined to have Dora as his sixth wife. After refusing to marry him, Dora eventually ends up killing the old man as he tries to capture her for his own. To summarize, the plot of this film explores the implications of Dora's rejecting becoming a polygamist wife.^[5]

Cast

Mae Murray as Dora
Frank Borzage as Tom Rigdon
Hobart Bosworth as John Hogue
Edythe Chapman as Nancy Hogue
Noah Beery, Sr. as Darius Burr
Richard Henry Cummings as Lion of the Lord

Reception

Like many American films of the time, A Mormon Maid was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors cut two intertitles, "I am not a –" and "You have scoffed at our faith – now you will pay."^[6] Many towns received this film with open arms, misunderstanding the film as an exposé on Mormonism and the religion's practices. One newspaper even went so far as to link the film to the K. K. K.^[7]

References

^ Hal Erickson (2015). "A-Mormon-Maid - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 1, 2015. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
^ "A Mormon Maid". AFI. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
^ Library of Congress. “Mormon Maid.” American Silent Feature Film Survival Database, 1 Jan. 1917, http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.2609/default.html. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
^ "Description". A Mormon maid (1917). c. 2000s. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
^ "Refuses to Become Wife Number Six!". The Buffalo Evening Times. 22 May 1917. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
^ "Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors". Exhibitors Herald. 5 (11): 33. September 8, 1917.
^ "Apollo". The Dayton Herald. 28 Feb 1920. Retrieved 2019-07-03.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to A Mormon Maid.

A Mormon Maid at IMDb
Karen Glenn, John Murphy (2013). "A Mormon Maid". Prepared for the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Provo, Utah. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
A Mormon Maid available for free download at Internet Archive