The Apple-Tree Girl

That's just one of three goals Shirley Mason sets herself. The other two are how to make everyone like her, and how to be famous.

She certainly has a hard row to hoe. Everyone likes her pretty cousin, Joyce Fair, and thinks of Miss Mason as the smart, plain one -- a common situation for the beautiful actresses who star in romantic comedies. Only poor medical student Raymond McKee and her aunt, Jessie Stevens, like her. She is poor, her late father's investments having failed. As a result, she has become a teacher at one of those one-room schoolhouses that used to dot the countryside. However, she decides that if she likes everyone, they will like her; for fame, she teaches herself golf so she can compete in an international tournament; as for that millionaire.....

Miss Mason, like her sisters Edna Flugrath and Viola Dana, is pretty and charming and quite the actress. This movie, one of several directed by Alan Crosland for the Edison Company, was too late to save their movie-making operation. It's beautifully shot by Phil Tannura, large parts of it at the New London Golf Club. I find it a tad abbreviated in its story telling. It takes about a minute for Miss Mason to go from someone who reads about golf to competing in a world championship. Even so, it's a charming fable about a pretty girl, so that's more than good enough. It's another excellent dvd that Ed Lorusso has produced in collaboration with the Library of Congress. I'm looking forward to the next!