Her Bargain - Production & Contact Info

Her Bargain (1915)
Short | Short, Drama

Her Bargain (1915)

Short | Short, Drama

Rodney Blake and his aged, sick mother live together in poverty. Rodney displays great love and kindness towards his mother. He is an industrious young man and studies by early-morning candlelight before taking his scanty breakfast and ...See moreRodney Blake and his aged, sick mother live together in poverty. Rodney displays great love and kindness towards his mother. He is an industrious young man and studies by early-morning candlelight before taking his scanty breakfast and leaving for his day's labor. Heiress Dorothy Whitney lives at Oak Crest, a magnificent home surrounded by vast, beautiful gardens. She is an orphan, and fancies herself in love with Gordon Thorn, also from a rich family; he has shown his love for her and a wedding is arranged. Dorothy's maid of honor, old school friend Evelyn Day, arrives to help with the elaborate wedding preparation. When she meets Gordon, they suddenly find themselves deeply in love with each other and they elope. Dorothy is heartbroken. In her bridal dress, looking from her boudoir window to the street below, she sees Rodney Blake, one of many laborers, working on a big building. Revenge toward the man who so cruelly deserted her prompts Dorothy to send her maid to bring the man she sees before her. Rodney is ushered into Dorothy's home, where she offers him $20,000 a year if he will marry her and be her husband in name only. Instinctively a gentleman, Blake is about to refuse when a vision of his aged mother comes to him. Rodney consents, and the bargain is made. A contract is drawn between Dorothy's attorneys, which reads in part: "A marriage ceremony shall be duly and regularly performed between Miss Dorothy Whitney and Rodney Blake. In consideration of $20,000 a year, the said Rodney Blake agrees to waive all rights and privileges of a husband. To live in a separate part of the house; in public to accompany his wife at all social gatherings at her directions." Married to a beautiful girl of whom he knows nothing, sacrificing himself for the love of his mother, Rodney Blake faces a new world. Six months after the marriage of Dorothy and Rodney, Thorn and his wife are living a strange life: weak and sick, Thorn is an invalid with but a short life left. He is attended by a wife who shows her unwillingness to wait on him. Physicians are consulted and advise a blood transfusion to restore him to strength and health. They advertise for a healthy man to sacrifice himself for the cause, with a $1000 cash payment for the sacrifice. Living in a separate wing of Dorothy's home, Rodney and his mother, surrounded by wealth, live a quiet and uneventful life. Rodney looks at himself in a mirror, and sees himself as he was when he was happiest: as a laborer, earning an honest dollar. In the main body of the mansion Dorothy lives a languid, wasteful existence, attended by her maids. An invitation to attend a social affair, a lawn party, prompts her to summon her husband to attend her. The afternoon arriving, Dorothy and Rodney are surrounded by the rich upstarts and brainless, ill-bred rich. Rodney stands aloof from all. Dorothy sees this and for a brief second she shows a spark of what might be love, or admiration for the man who calls her wife in name only. Returning home, Rodney shows his disgust for the life, and having received $1000 of Dorothy's money so far, stands utterly ashamed of his dependency. He takes his old clothes and sinks into a chair in thought. A newspaper advertisement for a well and healthy man prompts him to answer it. Seeing his way clear to return the $1000 of Dorothy's money and free himself from the millstone about his neck, Rodney, in his old work clothes, goes forth into the night. In the beautiful garden Dorothy sees Rodney leave. She believes he is going back to the life he came from, admires his spirit, and follows him to Thorn's house. Rodney enters and is accepted for the blood transfusion. Dorothy follows, and comes face-to-face with Rodney, Thorn, and Evelyn. But it's too late, and Thorn passes away. Rodney leaves Dorothy away, and in the garden surrounding Oak Crest, by moonlight, a new love is born and the shades of night close upon the two lovers. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less

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Cast	+ Add Cast
8 cast members

Name	Known for
Sydney Ayres Rodney Blake Rodney Blake See fewer	The Man from Argentina (1915)
Doris Pawn Dorothy Whitney Dorothy Whitney See fewer	The Penalty (1920)
May Bensen Mrs. Blake (as Mary Elinor 'Mother' Benson) Mrs. Blake (as Mary Elinor 'Mother' Benson) See fewer	Mother (I) (1913)
Val Paul Gordon Thorn Gordon Thorn See fewer	Suspense (1913)
Wilbur Higby Doctor Willing Doctor Willing See fewer	Hoodoo Ann (1916)
Beatrice Van Evelyn Day Evelyn Day See fewer	The Black Box (1915)
Scott R. Beal Doctor Willing's Assistant Doctor Willing's Assistant See fewer	Just Like a Woman (1923)
Hylda Hollis Actress (as Mrs. Sloman) Actress (as Mrs. Sloman) See fewer	The Black Box (1915)