#798) The Maid of McMillan (1916)

#798) The Maid of McMillan (1916)

OR “For the W”

Directed & Written by George Daniel Bartlett and Donald Wilson Stewart

Class of 2025

The Plot: Jack Tower (Gordon Morrison) is the captain of the track team at St. Louis’ Washington University and pines for the lovely Myrtle Maroon (Dean Marion McDaris). Although Jack has his heart set on winning the big track meet and earning his letterman W, he is easily beat during training by “hick” Aloisius Higgins (Philip Bryan). There’s not much else plot-wise, but “Maid” was filmed at Washington University and produced by the campus Drama Club, making it, according to the opening credits, “the first college movie ever produced”.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film a “whimsical romance”, states its status as “the first student film on record”, and devotes a whole paragraph to its rediscovery and restoration.

But Does It Really?: Well, the NFR loves their student films, so of course they would include the first one ever. On its own, “Maid of McMillan” is a fun, cute little film; clearly made by a group of young theater students not taking things too seriously and just trying to entertain their classmates. “Maid” holds up well enough that a modern viewing can still elicit a few chuckles (it did for me), though it makes the NFR primarily due to its status as the first student film (as well as a time capsule of 1916 campus life). While I’m not enthusiastically supportive of the NFR decision to induct “Maid”, I’m not mad about it either.

Everybody Gets One: Both George D. Bartlett and Donald Stewart were law students at Washington University, as well as members of the school’s Thyrsus Drama Club, which in the spring of 1916 decided to try its hand at filmmaking. The cast is comprised almost entirely of Thyrsus Drama Club members, and Bartlett and Stewart make cameos near the end as the highwaymen. Stewart would go on to marry the film’s leading lady Dean Marion McDaris a few years after graduation. Side note: In Greek mythology, the Thyrsus is the scepter held by Dionysus, the god of – among other things – theatre.

Title Track: McMillan Hall was the all-female dorm at Washington University, and is still standing today, though as best I can tell it is now gender-inclusive housing.

Other notes

Before the opening credits (and after the retroactive credit for the National Film Preservation Foundation), there’s a typewritten prologue from “The Producer” informing us about the film’s student film status, and encouraging the viewers not to judge the film with “too critical an eye. Remember you are looking at a movie made in 1916.” That’s cute and all, but now what am I supposed to do?
Myrtle looks a bit like Lelia Goldoni from “Shadows”. Also the name Myrtle Maroon is an in-joke for Washington University students: the school’s colors – red and green – were referred to as “the maroon and myrtle” by students at the time. Today I learned that myrtle is a color.
The film’s first laugh-out-loud moment for me was the intertitle describing the nerdy Higgins upon his first appearance: “He means well.”
That is Washington University’s actual track coach Bill Edmunds playing the track coach. The school’s Chancellor Frederic Aldin Hall also makes an appearance giving Higgins his trophy, and later giving Jack the W for his letterman jacket.
The film’s other LOL moment for me: the handwritten “Censored” note when Jack and Myrtle go in for a kiss.
After Myrtle and Jack get engaged I had a feeling we were wrapping things up. Turns out there’s another five minutes in this 15 minute short, and not too much happens. There’s a funny bit with Myrtle and her suitcases, plus some drama with the highwaymen encounter, but honestly this thing should have ended at the 10 minute mark. But hey, I might be judging things with “too critical an eye”.

Legacy

“The Maid of McMillan” premiered at Washington University’s Univee Surkuss, an annual student-organized carnival. The film was so popular it was screened six times to accommodate student demand. “Maid” was also screened around that same time at local St. Louis theaters.
Outside of a screening in 1966 for the Class of 1916 50^th reunion, “Maid of McMillan” was all but forgotten until its rediscovery in 1982 by university archivist Beryl Manne and student Mitch Walker. Following an on-campus screening, the original 35 mm film disappeared. Fortunately two 16mm acetate prints were made from the original 35 mm print (most likely in 1966 for the reunion screening), and “Maid of McMillan” finally received a proper restoration in 2021 with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Washington University is still going strong, now known as Washington University of St. Louis (or WashU for short). Among the school’s countless alumni are at least three with an NFR connection: Harold Ramis, Peter Sarsgaard, and Robert Guillaume. Bonus shoutout to Tennessee Williams, who attended during the 1936-1937 school year, but dropped out when he didn’t win the school’s poetry prize.

Further Viewing: After bashing countless student films on this blog, it’s only fair that I show the one that I’m in: 2008’s “Floater” by Chad Janusch. I got involved through my mutual friendship with my co-lead Clay Newman and the film’s director of photography Mark Sandhoff. And no, we definitely did not have permission to film on Red Rock Island.