Hearts and Flowers is a 1914 American silent melodrama directed by Joseph A. Golden and starring Blanche Whiffen, billed at the time as Mrs. Thomas Whiffen, and Beulah Poynter. Golden also adapted the scenario. Produced by the Cosmos Feature Film Corporation, the five-reel film was distributed by the Alliance Film Corporation and released on November 30, 1914.
The film marked Whiffen's motion-picture debut and was the second feature released by Cosmos. Hearts and Flowers is believed to be a lost film.
Plot Martha Landers lives on a New England farm with her husband, Jacob, and their son, Joseph. Joseph is involved with a young woman but, after a confrontation with a rival, leaves the countryside and goes to the city. There he eventually obtains employment with a stockbroker and becomes involved in speculation.
Joseph asks his mother for $1,000, ostensibly to help establish himself in business, and promises a quick return. Martha sends him money intended to pay the mortgage on the family farm, but Joseph loses it in speculation. After Jacob is killed in a hunting accident, Martha is unable to meet the mortgage and loses the farm.
Martha travels to the city in search of her son. Joseph, now prospering and courting a wealthy young woman named Elsie, is ashamed of his mother and conceals her existence, telling Elsie that she is dead. Martha is left to fend for herself and eventually finds work as a scrubwoman in the building where Joseph has his office. She secretly watches him from behind a pillar. Elsie encounters Martha without knowing her identity, befriends her and gives her the violets she is wearing.
Joseph marries Elsie while continuing to conceal the truth about his mother. Martha watches the wedding from the crowd and afterward returns alone to her room. When she later becomes seriously ill, Elsie nurses her back to health, still unaware that she is Joseph's mother.
At Christmas, Elsie brings Martha to her home, where Martha unexpectedly encounters Joseph. On learning how her husband has treated his mother, Elsie prepares to leave him, but Martha refuses to allow their marriage to be destroyed. Joseph repents, and Martha reconciles the couple. An epilogue set a year later shows Martha as a happy grandmother playing with Elsie's child and Joseph reformed.
Cast Blanche Whiffen as Ma Landers Beulah Poynter as Elsa Norman
Production Hearts and Flowers was produced as the Cosmos Feature Film Corporation was re-entering film production in 1914. In November, the company, headed by Leo Rosengarten, negotiated for its output to be handled exclusively through the Alliance Program after both Alliance and Paramount had sought to distribute Cosmos productions. Under the proposed arrangement, Cosmos was to supply Alliance with one five-part production every six weeks. Hearts and Flowers, scheduled for release on November 30, was announced as the first feature under the arrangement.
The film was the second feature produced by Cosmos following its return to production, after Lena Rivers, which also starred Beulah Poynter. Joseph A. Golden was engaged to direct Hearts and Flowers and also adapted its scenario.
The production marked the motion-picture debut of veteran stage actress Blanche Whiffen, then billed as Mrs. Thomas Whiffen. Contemporary publicity emphasized her long theatrical career. The Moving Picture World noted that she had been on the stage for 46 years and described her as the "grand old lady of the American stage". Cosmos promoted Whiffen as the film's star, and contemporary advertising gave her top billing over Beulah Poynter. Whiffen appeared in only one further motion picture, Barbara Frietchie (1915).
Exterior scenes were filmed at Glendale Falls, Massachusetts, which contemporary publicity described as "one of the most interesting and picturesque spots in America".
Release The film was copyrighted by the Cosmos Feature Film Corporation on November 2, 1914, under registration number LP3804.
Cosmos initially advertised Hearts and Flowers for distribution on the states-rights market. By late November, however, the company had arranged for the film to be handled through the Alliance Film Corporation. Contemporary advertising explicitly identified Cosmos as the producer and directed exhibitors to book the five-part film through Alliance. Hearts and Flowers was released on November 30, 1914.
Preservation No copies of Hearts and Flowers are known to survive. The Library of Congress includes the film in its list of lost American silent feature films.
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