What Could She Do

Gertrude McCoy's Kentucky Colonel father has died broke, so she needs a job. Unfortunately, the Colonel raised her to be a lady, so,when she fails as a governess, she heads to New York City to find work. she meets Marjorie Ellison at her rooming house, who offers to get her a job at the department store she works at, saves her from Harry Beaumont, who has gotten her drunk and is about to have his way with Gertrude... and then gets Miss McCoy almost jailed through Miss Ellison's own thievery. Police officer Frank McGlynn is impressed by her ability to keep her mouth shut and offers her a department job.

Unfortunately, this is a three-reel drama, and the copy I looked at this evening at New York's Museum of Modern Art is missing the third reel. I enjoyed looking at what survives.Not only was Miss McCoy one of those people whom the movie camera loved, but she gives a finely modulated performance here. Given the two other movies she appeared in during tonight's program, I believe this was because the director was John H. Collins. Collins was born in 1889, and had been working at Edison for a couple years. He began writing for them in 1913, and had directed four other shorts before this three-reeler. He would later go on to direct and marry Viola Dana, and make some marvelous, advanced movies with her for Metro; together they were 1910s Hollywood Power Couple. Alas, Mr. Collins died in 1918, a victim of the Influenza Epidemic.