Through the Murk - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

"Old Mother" Hudson, a woman of 45 or 50, ragged and a confirmed and sodden drunkard, is a Southwestern type of the "no good" settler. Her one aim in life is to keep herself supplied with whiskey. Her daughter, Ivy, a product of ...See more"Old Mother" Hudson, a woman of 45 or 50, ragged and a confirmed and sodden drunkard, is a Southwestern type of the "no good" settler. Her one aim in life is to keep herself supplied with whiskey. Her daughter, Ivy, a product of environment, is about 18 years old. Under ordinary circumstances she would be very pretty, but under the existing conditions, she is dirty, shiftless and lazy. Ivy is mortally afraid of her mother, who is very cruel to her, and who offers to swap her to "Big" Anderson, proprietor of the Dogtown Saloon, for a half keg of rye. Anderson, however, refuses to make the bargain as he does not think Ivy worth the price. In a nearby town, "Missouri" Joe, a ragged, dirty young man, and an exact replica of Ivy, so far as his soddenness and lack of spirit goes, is given his choice of leaving the town or breaking rocks. He chooses the former and drifts into the town where Ivy lives. There he is given work around the saloon by Anderson for his meals and sleep. He and Ivy meet and are mutually attracted, their companionship afterward becoming the one bright spot in their sordid lives. As their acquaintance ripens into love they both try hard to improve their appearance. Joe shaves himself with a butcher knife and Ivy washes her face and hands and combs her hair, which improves her appearance so much that Anderson awakens to the fact that he would like to make the swap with Mother Hudson. He therefore puts a keg of rye in a wagon and goes to the Hudson cabin to make the trade. In the meantime. Ivy and Joe are getting married, Joe having left Anderson's employ and gone to work on a farm. Despite Joe's pleadings, Ivy decides she cannot leave without bidding her mother goodbye, so she returns to the cabin and finds Anderson there bargaining for her with her mother. Ivy runs away and is pursued by Anderson. She runs to Joe for protection, and he, the primitive instinct awakened in him, fights desperately to protect Ivy. He springs to Anderson's throat and chokes him into insensibility, then, shouldering a club and with one arm protectingly thrown about Ivy, he points off, saying, "Over the hills lives the world. Come." Thus they go out into the world. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less