The Ghost of Smiling Jim's primary photo
  • The Ghost of Smiling Jim (1914)
  • Short | 20 min | Short, Drama
Primary photo for The Ghost of Smiling Jim
The Ghost of Smiling Jim (1914)
Short | 20 min | Short, Drama
Jim and Harry, two young miners, discuss in a public place a strike they have made and are overheard by Higby, a scheming ne'er-do-well. Higby, learning that the young miners have not filed a claim to their lucky strike, determines to "...See moreJim and Harry, two young miners, discuss in a public place a strike they have made and are overheard by Higby, a scheming ne'er-do-well. Higby, learning that the young miners have not filed a claim to their lucky strike, determines to "jump" them. This he does and establishes himself with friends on the claim before Harry and Jim return. The young miners attempt to oust the interlopers but are worsted in a gun fight. Harry is killed and Jim falls over a cliff. He is given up for dead. He recovers from the accident, but remembers nothing of his previous life. Making his way into the mountains he lives the life of a hermit, eating wild game he has killed by stealth and fish he nets in the mountain stream. Meantime his wife, having received a letter from Jim, written by the now demented miner before Higby jumped his claim, comes west with her little daughter. She learns that her husband's claim has been stolen and he had fallen over a cliff in a fight with the claim jumpers. For a time Jim's wife and daughter live in one of the houses which Higby has built from the profits of his stolen mine. Struggle as she does to keep a roof over her own and her daughter's head, Jim's wife finally finds herself unable to pay the rent and is ejected by Higby. Soon after the mother dies from shock and exposure and her daughter is taken into the Higby home, where she is made a household drudge. The girl has dreams of her own and often hears the neighbors telling of a ghost which roams the mountains and appears on the outskirts of the mining village only at nightfall. For months she dreams of visiting this lonesome soul and seizes the first opportunity to steal away into the hills to search out the supposed apparition. Night comes on and while she rides over the hills she sees a bowed figure scuttling along before her. Riding up fearlessly to the supposed ghost, the girl dismounts and puts her arms tenderly about him. She finds that the "ghost" is a middle-aged man with a face lined from suffering and his struggles to eke out a living from the woods and streams. Interested in the story which this creature tries to tell, the girl lingers in the mountains until a storm overtakes her. A tree, uprooted by the fierce gale, crushes in the cabin roof and the recluse is pinned beneath it. In its fall the tree strikes the hermit a glancing blow on the head. The blow serves to restore the "ghost's" memory, and, upon recovering consciousness, he recognizes in the girl who is ministering to him his own daughter. There is a happy reconciliation and Jim spends the rest of the evening telling his daughter of the wrong that had been done him fifteen years before. Together father and daughter evolve a clever plan to bring Higby to justice. The plan succeeds and the close of this story finds Jim and his daughter happily established in a beautiful home, built with money recovered after Higby's imprisonment. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less
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Director
Francis Ford
Writer
Grace Cunard (scenario)
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Status
Edit Released
Updated Dec 15, 1914
Release date
Dec 15, 1914 (United States)

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2 cast members
Name Known for
Francis Ford's primary photo
Francis Ford
Smiling Jim Smiling Jim   See fewer
The Purple Mask (1916)
Grace Cunard's primary photo
Grace Cunard
Jim's Wife / Jim's Daughter (dual role) Jim's Wife / Jim's Daughter (dual role)   See fewer
The Twins' Double (1914)
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