A Kentucky Cinderella
A Kentucky Cinderella is a 1917 American silent drama directed by Rupert Julian and featured Rupert Julian and Ruth Clifford, and a cast including child actress Zoe Rae. It was released June 25, 1917 by Bluebird Photoplays, a subsidiary of Universal Studios.
The film was based on an 1898 short story by Francis Hopkinson Smith. The short story first appeared in the Ladies' Home Journal in late 1898. The story was also included in Smith's 1899 short story collection The Other Fellow. The 1921 film Desperate Youth is also based on the same short story.
Plot
This story takes place in the pre-civil war south. When Ed Long and his brother Frank try to claim-jump a California gold mine owned by "Kentuck" Windfield Gordon and his partner John Silverwood. "Kentuck" is killed defending his claim. His daughter Nannie is now an orphan. Silverwood decides to send her to an uncle, Henry Gordon, living in Kentucky.After arriving in Kentucky, she finds out uncle Henry has remarried and the new Mrs. Gordon mistreats her when she believes Nannie is competing with her own daughter Rachel. Nannie is asked to leave the house. Aunt Chlorindy, the mammy who help raise Nannie when she was a child, helps her find a new home. The new abode is owned by a rich widow Mrs. Morgan. While living with Mrs. Morgan she meets Tom Boling, a rich bachelor. Tom stops pursuing Rachel, starts courting Nannie, they fall in love and decide to get married. During their wedding, Silverwood shows up and announces the California mine has struck the motherlode.