The Heart of a Child (1916)

• 68%
• 1916
• Drama
• Harold M. Shaw
• Edna Flugrath
• Edward Sass
• Hayford Hobbs

Sally Snape, a child of the slums, is an artistic dancer. The girl is thrown early on her own resources, for her mother is killed by the drunken brute of a husband, the miserable home is closed, and Sally would have been without a roof had not a good-natured coster lad, Johnny Doone, befriended her. Johnny, whose love-making is repulsed by Sally, finds a sweetheart, Mary, and luckily the two girls like each other and becomes friends. Mary gets Sally a job at a jam factory, and here the girl meets Mr. Peastone. On bank holiday, Johnny Doone takes Mary and Sally to 'Appy 'Amstead. Mr. Peastone, who drives up in state, gorgeously arrayed, comes upon the party and Johnny and Mary, having stolen away for a little coster love-making, Mr. Peastone induces Sally to come and look at his trap. The girl is delighted with the pony, and accepts Peastone's offer to drive her home. But on the way the young man becomes enterprising and Sally is struggling in his unwelcome embrace when the trap is overturned by a recklessly-driven motor car. In the car are Lady Dorothea Lytham and her cousin Gilbert, Lord Kidderminster. The lady has had a desire to view the plebeian festival, and has insisted on driving herself, to the dismay of poor Gilbert. Hence the collision. But the accident has its advantages for Sally. Gilbert insists on something being done for the little girl whom they have injured. And so it comes about that after leaving the hospital Sally is taken under the wing of Joe Aarons, a good-natured variety agent, who finds out that she has "personality" and gives her a trial at the "Grecian," a typical East End music hall. Sally quickly becomes a musical comedy star, and takes a West End audience by storm. But success still leaves her with "the heart of a child." On the night of Sally's triumph, after leaving her at the door of the flat he has had furnished for her, Gilbert enters with a second latchkey, of whose existence Sally is all unwitting, to take his reward. But here again the pure child-heart conquers. He is repulsed and leaves contrite, throwing away the key into the road. Next morning he asks Sally to be his wife, and the girl's greatest ordeal has to be faced, for Gilbert's parents, Lord and Lady Fortive, are stately representatives of the old school. Sally, who has been given the option of going to Johnny Doone's wedding, as promised, or giving up Gilbert, defies him, chooses the former, and hurriedly leaves. Lord Fortive, unobserved, witnesses what happens, upbraids his son for letting Sally go, orders his car and father and son hurry to Johnny's wedding. The wedding party, which includes a very dejected Sally, is awed by the arrival of the Marquis and Gilbert, but Lord Fortive restores their gaiety by drinking the health of the blushing Mary. Then he proposes another toast: "To the future Lady Kidderminster!