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  • The Third Ingredient (1917)
  • Short | Short, Drama
The Third Ingredient (1917)
Short | Short, Drama
A buyer in the Big Store where Hetty Pepper worked became surfeited by the loveliness around him and on seeing Hetty, whose drab features came as a welcome relief in the sea of cloying femininity, pinched her arm three inches above the ...See moreA buyer in the Big Store where Hetty Pepper worked became surfeited by the loveliness around him and on seeing Hetty, whose drab features came as a welcome relief in the sea of cloying femininity, pinched her arm three inches above the elbow and was knocked three feet by it. Thirty minutes later Hetty was without a job and with only twenty cents in her purse. The two dimes were exchanged for some rib beef. One hot beef stew, a good night's rest and Hetty would be fit to again go out and get a job. Digging in the rats' nest of paper in her cupboard disclosed the tragic fact that no potatoes or onions were evident. Beef stew cannot be made without onions and potatoes. Taking her pan she went out into the hall and there discovered the artist girl from across the hall peeling some potatoes with a shoemaker's knife. They were new potatoes and Hetty demonstrated to the girl the proper way to peel them. In the ensuing conversation, the girl explained that Art did not seem to be much in demand, but that potatoes alone are not so bad, boiled and hot, with a little salt and some butter. She tried to sell her paintings, but with no success. Hetty suggests that they bunch their commissariat. If they only had an onion their heaven would be complete. Hetty escorted Cecilie, the painter, into her room and set the stew pot onto the one-burner gas stove. Cecilie's eyes rested on a chromo of a ferry-boat on the wall and then bursts into tears. In explanation to Hetty's question she replies that two days ago she had been over to Jersey and was returning after another disappointment and that she in despondency had slipped over the side of the ferry-boat. But a young man had seen her and the next thing she knew she was supported by his arms. When the boat landed the man placed her in a cab. She refused him her name and address, but he claimed that he would find her anyhow as she belonged to him by right of salvage. The beef and potatoes boiled on, yet they lacked the soul that an onion would give them and Hetty determined to have one. In the hall she ran into a young man with a large pink onion in his hand. He stated that he had received it from a friend and that he was going to eat it. Hetty explains their difficulty and invites him to donate to the cause. He acquiesces and Hetty goes in to inform the other member of the corporation, but when she returned she found the young man leaning out of the window and giving instructions to a chauffeur in a green limousine below. To her question he replied that the car belonged to him. "But what were you going to with the onion?" asked Hetty. The man explained that he had caught a cold in saving a young girl who had fallen off a ferry-boat and that his mother had told him the best cure for a cold was an onion. He turns out to be the man who rescued Cecilie and they are soon in each other's arms. As Hetty peeled the onion at the sink a few minutes later, she remarked grimly, "But it's us that furnished the beef." Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less
Read more: Plot summary
Director
Thomas R. Mills
Writer
O. Henry (story)
See all filmmakers & crew (2)
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Status
Edit Released
Updated Apr 14, 1917
Release date
Apr 14, 1917 (United States)

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3 cast members
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