Home, Sweet Home
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
D. W. Griffith
Henry B. Walthall
Josephine Crowell
Lillian Gish
Dorothy Gish
Fay Tincher
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Over the protests of his mother and sweetheart, writer John Howard Payne leaves home seeking adventure. In England, he becomes involved with The Worldly Woman who rebukes him after he returns penniless from debtors' prison. He travels to France and then Tunis, where he dies, leaving only the song "Home, Sweet Home" as his legacy. In another story, Apple Pie Mary, a cook in a mining camp, loves a young man who goes East to marry a wealthy woman. He hears the song, however, and returns to Mary. The next story concerns a widow with three sons. When one son kills another over money, the grief-stricken widow wants to commit suicide, but she hears the song and decides to live for the sake of her third son. The final story involves a young wife who plans to leave her older husband for a younger man. As she hears the melody played by a violinist in another apartment, she decides to stay with her husband and the two raise a family. Finally, Payne is seen in a pit, imprisoned by Lust and Greed. His sweetheart appears as an angel in the sky and Payne is finally free to join her because of the good that has resulted from "Home, Sweet Home."
Director
D. W. Griffith
Cast
Henry B. Walthall
Josephine Crowell
Lillian Gish
Dorothy Gish
Fay Tincher
Mae Marsh
Robert Harron
Spottiswoode Aitken
Miriam Cooper
Mary Alden
Donald Crisp
James Kirkwood
Jack Pickford
Courtenay Foote
Blanche Sweet
Owen Moore
Edward Dillon
Betty Marsh
George Berringer
Teddy Sampson
Ralph Lewis
Irene Hunt
John Dillon
Earle Foxe
W. H. Long
George Siegmann
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Because the facility where this film was made was commonly called the Reliance-Majestic studio, some sources have referred to the production company's name as "Reliance-Majestic." The film opened on May 4, 1914 at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles. Some souces list it as five reels in length. According to an ad, F. A. Turner and W. E. Lawrence were in the film.
According to New York Dramatic Mirror, "This wonderful reel will be available at $10 a day to exhibitors in towns of less than 10,000 and at $20 a day in larger cities." Motography cited Home, Sweet Home as the first film ever to assemble an "all-star" cast. Modern sources credit Howard Gaye as an additional cast member, James Smith and Rose Richtel with editing, Karl Brown as assistant cameraman, and Ralph DeLacy as the property man. According to modern sources, the real John Howard Payne was denied authorship and royalty to the song "Home, Sweet, Home" and was homeless and penniless for most of his later years.
