This is a short by D. W. Griffith that stars both Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore (though, like other Biograph shorts, there are no credits listed on the film). It's worth seeing just for these stars so early in their careers.
A lady dies and makes the nice preacher (Barrymore) to promise to carry out her wish that he buy something nice for her daughter out of some money she has saved from her no-good husband. The nice daughter sees a really awful and gaudy hat in the window of a shop and wants it (the hat was actually "tasteful" for 1911--it looks AWFUL today and very tacky). So, to fulfill his trust, the preacher buys her the hat anonymously. However, some dried up old prunes see it and begin spreading malicious rumors. But, by the end of the film, the old biddies get theirs!! By the way, on the wall of the home is the American Biograph logo (the studio making the film). This occasionally appears on some other Biograph shorts and must be some sort of inside joke--after all, who has this "AB" logo on their walls as part of their decorating scheme?!
A lady dies and makes the nice preacher (Barrymore) to promise to carry out her wish that he buy something nice for her daughter out of some money she has saved from her no-good husband. The nice daughter sees a really awful and gaudy hat in the window of a shop and wants it (the hat was actually "tasteful" for 1911--it looks AWFUL today and very tacky). So, to fulfill his trust, the preacher buys her the hat anonymously. However, some dried up old prunes see it and begin spreading malicious rumors. But, by the end of the film, the old biddies get theirs!! By the way, on the wall of the home is the American Biograph logo (the studio making the film). This occasionally appears on some other Biograph shorts and must be some sort of inside joke--after all, who has this "AB" logo on their walls as part of their decorating scheme?!