Local Hero -- aka MestnyiGeroi on Sep 10 2013, 02:27:39 AM wrote:burneyfan on Sep 10 2013, 12:47:23 AM wrote:Clue #1: A rich, odd aunt, not a fairy godmother, pretties her up for the ball. The sisters are jealous, but her prince won't be like Cinderella's.
Clue #2: Her loss of reputation is a blow, but far worse must be the loss of her trust.
Poor little thread. ;)
Clue #3: "Proper" people can be so judgmental and ostracizing; she's really left out in the cold.
I don't remember the aunt, but for the rest of the clues I'll guess Way Down East.
Yes, it's
Way Down East!
Spoiler-heavy explanation:
Clue #1: A rich, odd aunt, not a fairy godmother, pretties her up for the ball. The sisters are jealous, but her prince won't be like Cinderella's.
This is straight plot. Lillian Gish has a dowdy dress for the ball, and is sort of lurking around upstairs. There's an eccentric, wealthy, old aunt in the film -- the sisters decide to fake being nice (or at least halfway civil) to Gish when Gish first meets the family in order to impress this aunt with their generous spirit, even if they are really quite nasty girls). The aunt, who's no fool, decides to help Gish and sees to it that her dress is prettied up and she's coaxed downstairs to the main part of the ball, where she attracts a fair amount of favorable notice -- particularly that of "bad guy" Lennox Sanderson, who is no prince.
Clue #2: Her loss of reputation is a blow, but far worse must be the loss of her trust.
When people discover that Gish is an unmarried mother, they drive her away, talk badly about her, etc., but one of the most heart-rending scenes in the film is when she baptizes her baby with the name of Trust before he dies.
Clue #3: "Proper" people can be so judgmental and ostracizing; she's really left out in the cold.
The first half of the clue is simply true; when Squire Bartlett learns Gish's story, he throws her out of the house in a snowstorm, and Gish has her big scenes where she nearly freezes to death on the icy river.