''The Eternal Grind'' is a 1916 silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

John B. O'Brien John B. "Jack" O'Brien (December 13, 1884 – August 15, 1936) was an American actor and film director of the silent era. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1909 and 1936. He also directed 53 films between 1914 and 1926. Biography O' ...

, and starring

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

. The film is inspired by the

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on Saturday, March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The ...

, which took place in 1911.

Plot

Louise (Pickford) is a sewing-machine girl in a sweatshop in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She lives together with her sisters Amy (Loretta Blake) and Jane (

Dorothy West Dorothy West (June 2, 1907 – August 16, 1998) was an American storyteller and short story writer during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. She is best known for her 1948 novel ''The Living Is Easy'', as well as many other short stories an ...

) and are all deprived by bad conditions at work and sickness. Louise tries for the three of them to survive and regards herself as the keeper of her sisters. Meanwhile, she stands up to her bosses and complains about the dreadful circumstances they work in. When Amy is seduced by the son of the shop-owner, Louise butts in and stops the romance. He eventually abandons Amy and becomes seriously injured in a cave-in. Louise has a secret crush on the son herself and tries to rescue him, hoping he will admit he loves her.

Cast

- Louise *

Loretta Blake Loretta Blake (April 17, 1898 – July 30, 1981) was an American film actress. She appeared in several films between 1914 and 1921. Early life Loretta Blake was born on April 17, 1898 at Akron, Ohio. She attended Saint Mary's Convent in Akron ...

- Amy *

- Jane * John Bowers - Owen Wharton * Robert Cain - Ernest Wharton

Reception

The film was received generally negatively, with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' saying, "Obliged by her Famous Players contract to star in pedestrian melodramas like The Eternal Grind, it was no wonder that Mary Pickford yearned to become her own producer".

Preservation status

A print is preserved in Cinematheque Francais.

References

External links