The Woman from Mellon's

Harry Townsend is a promising young stockbroker who hopes to marry Mary Petersby, the daughter of wealthy financier James Petersby. James initially approves of Harry because he seems destined for success, but when a financial panic wipes out the young man's holdings everything changes. Harry is banned from the Petersby household as class and fortune take priority over affection. With his prospects ruined and pride wounded, he looks for steady work and applies to a detective agency, hoping to rebuild his life and prove his worth without relying on his former status. The story focuses on love constrained by money and reputation, without revealing how the conflict resolves.

Directed by D.W. Griffith and released in 1910, the short stars Mary Pickford as Mary Petersby, with George Nichols and Billy Quirk in key roles. It belongs to the earliest phase of American narrative cinema, when filmmakers were shaping story conventions that would stick for decades.

Commercial data for individual 1910 shorts is scarce, and reliable box office figures for this film are not documented. Many films of the period circulated regionally, so their financial reach is hard to trace with modern precision.

Though not a household name today, the film is notable as an early Griffith-Pickford collaboration, showing the sort of domestic melodrama that helped build Pickford's star image. Its portrayal of a market panic and social exclusion reflects public anxieties of the era, and surviving records and stills give scholars material to study performance styles and staging in 1910 productions.

Contemporary reviews are limited, but the themes are clear: class, honor, and the fragile link between money and social acceptance. The plot turns on how economic collapse alters relationships and reputations, and the protagonist's choice to seek work at a detective agency adds a twist to his response, shifting the focus from romance to personal agency and social survival in an unforgiving urban world.