Summary
In an exquisite subversion of the traditional ingenue narrative, 'Little Eve Edgarton' presents a protagonist forged in the crucible of intellectual isolation. Eve, portrayed with a hauntingly cerebral stillness, is the progeny of a nomadic botanist whose life is a relentless pursuit of rare flora. Her existence is a monochromatic tapestry of taxonomies and specimen jars, devoid of the sentimental fluctuations typical of her gender's cinematic depictions in the 1910s. When her father decrees a matrimonial union with his aged colleague, John Elbertson, Eve accepts this transactional destiny with the same stoicism she applies to her studies. The narrative pivot occurs as the troupe migrates from the wild heart of South Africa to the burgeoning artifice of Los Angeles for a scientific convention. Enter James Barton, a restless socialite whose superficiality serves as a foil to Eve’s profound, if repressed, interiority. Initially a pawn in a cruel social jest, Eve becomes the catalyst for Barton's moral awakening. The climax—a visceral encounter with the sublime on a mountaintop—shatters the pedagogical glass house Eve has inhabited, as a literal bolt of lightning and a subsequent display of scientific prowess force a reconciliation between the cold logic of the father and the warm vitality of youth.
Synopsis
Little Eve has always been the companion of her father, who, with his friend, John Elbertson, roams the face of the earth in search of rare botanical specimens. Eve has never known her mother and has been reared by her father in the studious atmosphere of the scientist, without any thought of love or anything approaching affection having entered her life. Shortly after the play begins her father decides she shall marry his friend, who is a man many years Eve's senior. The girl accepts the dictum as a matter of course. At this time they are in the heart of South Africa following their scientific pursuits. A native runner brings cabled information that there will be at Los Angeles a meeting of botanists, and the two men decide that they will attend. Eve, of course, going along as part of the traveling equipment. James Barton, a young man of wealth and of a highly flirtatious disposition, has grown tired of New York society and decides to shift the scene of his activities to Los Angeles. Shortly after he arrives there the attentions of the hotel guests is divided between his escapades with every pretty girl in sigh and the strange gathering of delegates to the convention. Little Eve Edgarton has attracted considerable attention from the guests, because being a rather pretty girl she remains hobnobbing with the botanists. Dressed very plainly and unattractively, her big bow spectacles make her noticeable upon the verandas and in the rotunda of the fashionable resort hotel. Barton has a cousin who has set her heart upon the young man marrying his friend, Miss Van Eaton. This cousin is inclined to play pranks upon Barton, and when she introduces Barton to Eve Edgarton, the courtesies are extended more as a joke than anything else. But, as in many cases, this joke did not work out as intended. Barton takes a sudden interest in the little botanist and the flirtatious young man finds much to attract him in the quaint and unusual personality of the little student. They indulge in horseback rides and gradually becomes better acquainted. On one occasion, while they have ridden their horses to the top of a mountain, a violent electric storm comes upon them and during the outburst, Barton is struck by lightning. Eve half drags and half carries him to a cave she has discovered in the mountain and by scientific methods of massage, she restores him from the shock. Here in the cave the senior Edgarton and his friend Elbertson accidentally discover the young couple, and then it is that the minds of the scientists are opened to the fact that youth courts youth and age is out of the running. We are left to believe that ultimately the young couple will enter a new life in partnership.
Review Excerpt
"The 1916 landscape of American cinema was a period of frantic evolution, a time when the grammar of the moving image was being codified by visionaries like Robert Z. Leonard. In 'Little Eve Edgarton', we find a fascinating intersection of Edwardian social mores and the burgeoning 'New Woman' archetype.To understand the gravity of Little Eve Edgarton, one must first dispense with the notion that silent film characters were mere caricatures of emotion. Doris Pawn delivers a performance that is sta..."
