The Eyes of Julia Deep
Directed by Lloyd Ingraham
Written by Elizabeth Mahoney
Starring Mary Miles Minter, Allan Forrest
Cinematography Frank Urson
Distributed by Pathé
Release date(s) August 1918
Running time 54 minutes (5 reels)
Country United States
Language Silent film
English intertitles
The Eyes of Julia Deep is a 1918 silent film starring Mary Miles Minter, directed by Lloyd Ingraham. The film is based on the short story by the same name, written by Kate L. McLaurin. It is one of the few films starring Minter which are known to have survived.
Plot
Julia Deep is a young woman working behind the exchange desk at a department store. She usually serves as the clerk of wealthy and eccentric widows, such as Mrs. Lowe. She feels very lonely in the big city, until she notices books in the apartment of the star lodger in the building she lives in. The lodger, Terry Hartridge is the son of a wealthy man who is using his father's fortune to blaze a trail across the white lights of the city. He is spending his money carelessly and doesn't put any time in paying the bills, much to the dislike of the department store owner Timothy Black. These bills are delivered by the nobly Lottie Driscoll of the Robin Stock Company.
After a while, Terry's money spending takes its toll. He finds out he is broke and turns home depressed, trying to shoot himself. Meanwhile, Julia secretly went into his apartment to read books when he was out. She hides at first, but reveals herself when she catches him trying to kill himself. She tries to stop him and offers to be his business manager to help him spending money the right way. He takes her advice and with the help of Black, he lands into a low paying job at the department store. He neglects his job to flirt with Julia. Black discharges her, saying Terry has a career future and can't afford to go out with a shop girl.
Julia and Terry don't stop seeing each other at their building. Terry proposes, but Julia declines, explaining it would ruin his career. Soon, Terry is promoted to a foreman on a ship. Mrs. Lowe is angry to find out her favorite clerk has been fired and visits her. She offers her to be her personal secretary at her home, but Julia doesn't want to leave Terry and refuses the job offer. Later that day, Lottie sees Terry and Julia at the park and becomes jealous. After Terry has left, she starts to play an act she can't live without Terry and pretends she is trying to kill herself. Julia believes her and promises her she will give her relationship with Terry up if she doesn't kill herself.
Julia goes to live with Mrs. Lowe to serve as her secretary. Terry is swept away with her disappearance and visits her at Mrs. Lowe's mansion. She explains her reason of leaving him. Terry sees through Lottie's act and takes her to the theater, where Lottie is performing the same act on stage she performed at the park. She realizes what happened and reunites with him. They decide to elope, but are stopped by Mrs. Lowe and Black. They fight over who has the fault and are noticed by the local sheriff. He is fed up with their kibbering and decides to arrest the four of them.
They are locked into a room, where they eventually apologize. Julia and Terry escape, but the sheriff's help notices and runs after them. Meanwhile, it is revealed Mrs. Lowe and Black were once lovers. They reunite and escape as well to get married. In the ending, the sheriff realizes they don't belong in jail. After Mrs. Lowe and Black get a marriage license, they promise to give Julia and Terry a fancy wedding.
Cast
Mary Miles Minter as Julia Deep
Allan Forrest as Terry Hartridge
Alice Wilson as Lottie Driscoll
George Periolat as Timothy Black
Ida Easthope as Mrs. Turner
Eugenie Besserer as Mrs. Lowe Carl Stockdale as Simon Plummet
Review Summary
Produced for the American Company in Santa Barbara, California, this quaint melodrama is one of only two or three Mary Miles Minter films to have survived. Minter was the breathtakingly beautiful but somewhat inert actress, whose name will forever be linked to that of murdered director William Desmond Taylor, with whom she was reportedly in love. Minter's Julia Deep, however, is surprisingly potent, and the actress is actually quite good as the supervisor of a department store's exchange department who falls in love with a handsome but irresponsible playboy (Allan Forrest). The girl's all consuming passion is so strong that it literally prevents the young man from committing suicide. It has long been accepted that Mary Miles Minter was forced out of films because of her connection with Desmond Taylor's 1922 murder; in reality, however, the likely reason for Mary's disappearance was probably that she had turned 21 and was thus free of her (stage) mother's iron grip. She herself once said that she was only in films for the money. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
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