The Maniac Cook (1909)

A household cook named Margie has a sudden mental breakdown and attacks her employers, the Holland family. After being briefly restrained, she escapes the house and later sneaks back in. Driven by a "fiendish idea," she takes the Holland's infant baby from its crib and hides the child in the kitchen oven before starting a fire beneath it. The parents unknowingly begin to use the oven, but the baby is rescued just in time when the parents discover the plot during a struggle with the cook, who is then arrested by police.

Date of release
1909-01-04
TMDB
0.5 / 10 (1)
Runtime
9m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
D.W. Griffith

Casting

Interesting facts

The Maniac Cook is a 1909 American silent thriller film produced by the Biograph Company of New York, directed by D. W. Griffith, and starring Anita Hendrie in the title role. Principal cast members also include Harry Solter and Marion Leonard.

Production

The screenplay was produced at Biograph's main studio in New York City, which in 1908 was located inside a large renovated brownstone mansion in Manhattan at 11 East 14th Street. The film was one of many shorts that D. W. Griffith managed during his first year as a director for Biograph. His cinematographer on the project, G. W. "Billy" Bitzer, shot the drama over two days—on November 25 and 27, 1908—on interior sets at the Manhattan studio.

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