An amateur period drama about a friendship between a bullied boy and girl in an orphanage at the turn of the century where capital punishment is the norm. Filmed with the Allendale Middle School Drama group, Hexham. Title: Allendale Middle School Drama Group Present – Jane Forster Credits: Jane Forster Christopher Hogg Anna Kӧnig Title: in “Maisie” The film begins showing two figures riding in a two wheeled pony and trap along a country path. The passenger is a young boy who wears a...

An amateur period drama about a friendship between a bullied boy and girl in an orphanage at the turn of the century where capital punishment is the norm. Filmed with the Allendale Middle School Drama group, Hexham. Title: Allendale Middle School Drama Group Present – Jane Forster Credits: Jane Forster Christopher Hogg Anna Kӧnig Title: in “Maisie” The film begins showing two figures riding in a two wheeled pony and trap along a country path. The passenger is a young boy who wears a peaked cap and carries a cloth bundle on his lap. In a courtyard of a large stone house next to a clock tower a group of young girls in period costume play. They stop and stand in a line as the horse and trap arrive. As they pass by each girl curtsies. The pony and trap pulls up at the main door. The driver helps his passenger from the trap and he rings the bell at the door. They enter and walk across the hallway with a housemaid. The driver talks to the boy encouraging him to be happy in his new home and not to dwell on his sadness. The matron of the institution walks into the hallway and greets the driver as ‘doctor’. The doctor greets the matron and introduces the boy as Paul to the matron. The matron instructs the maid to take the boy’s belongings and then tells Paul to play outside with the other children. Paul, ignoring the other children, wanders off into the large garden, and sits at the foot of a large tree. He opens a bar of chocolate and is about to bite into it when he is confronted by a group of three boys. One of them grabs the chocolate and they all run off with Paul chasing after them. He tries taking back the chocolate but the boy who grabbed it threatens Paul. One of the boys picks up Paul’s hat and the three boys pass it to each other as Paul tries to retrieve it. The hat finally lands on the ground and a girl picks it up. The boy who threatened Paul sneers at the girl he calls Maisie Rogan, then asks what she wants. She responds. “Terence White, what do you want?” Maisie Rogan swings the hat which she hangs from her fingertip, as she waits for a reply. Terence and the other two boys turn and leave. Maisie encourages Paul to ignore them, especially Terence who thinks he has special privileges being the son of the matron. Paul says he doesn’t think his stay at the home will be a happy one but Maisie asks Paul to follow her and meet her friends. They run across fields, stopping to look from behind a stone wall at some young chicks on the other side. In another field they take the opportunity to stroke a Friesian cow. Stopping at a broken wooden fence Maisie points to a rabbit nibbling at grass in the field beyond. They then run up a grassy hillside, across the gravel driveway in front of the home and into a courtyard. Maisie stops at a trough next to a single storey building, turns on a tap above the trough and washes her hands. Paul does the same then turns off the tap. Maisie warns Paul that they might be late for tea [dialogue soundtrack cut short slightly]. She warns Paul that the supervisor in the dining hall is a stickler for clean hands. Maisie shows the supervisor her hands and introduces Paul. The supervisor finds Paul a seat at a table where he sits next to Maisie. One of the other staff on duty pours milk into Paul’s cup. Before eating the supervisor says grace, the children then begin to eat. The film cuts to Paul outside sitting on a wall, trimming a stick with his penknife. Maisie runs towards him calling his name. She tells him that the home will be having visitors, Paul is not impressed, but Maisie says that when visitors come there is cake for tea. Terence White and his friends are in the courtyard and they’ve found a ball and are covering it in mud. The ball belongs to Maisie and was recently lost. They place the ball on the gravel courtyard. The other children are standing outside waiting for the visitors’ arrival and are having their hands examined while the matron looks on. One of the boys points out Maisie’s ball on the nearby courtyard. The supervisor asks Maisie to “put it out of sight”. Maisie runs up to the ball and picks it up. An open top Rolls Royce comes up the drive way carrying two passengers. It draws up in front of the house where the children wait.  The two occupants and the matron inspect the children. One of the visitors hands out a small sweet or gift to each child. Maisie who waits at the end of the line rubs her face with her finger, which leaves a muddy smudge on her face. Each girl curtsies as the visitors walk past, Maisie is the last in line. The other visitor, an elderly lady, stops and looks in shock at Maisie. She turns to the matron who then looks in horror at the muddy mark on Maisie’s face. The younger visitor who was dispensing gifts, tries to suppress a laugh. The matron signals that Maisie should leave the inspection. Terence White and friends look very pleased with themselves. Maisie stands at the water trough washing her hands underneath the running tap, and then washes the mark off her face. She dries her hands and face on her pinafore. She then finds her ball again, and approaches Terence and his friends who are laughing at her. Terence goads her into having a game of ball. Angrily, Maisie throws the ball at him, the boys dodge the ball which flies through an open window of the house. Other children and the boys run away, leaving Maisie standing on her own. The matron comes to the window to reprimand Maisie. Maisie says, “Oh well, there goes my piece of cake.” The film cuts to Maisie working in the courtyard with a mop and bucket of water. She is pouring the dirty water from the bucket down a drain, as some washing nearby hangs out to dry. Maisie starts playing a game by trying to balance the shaft of the mop on her hand. The mop overbalances and brings down the line of washing. Maisie and Paul are sailing a paper boat in a stream, pushing it along with long branches of wood from a tree. The boat goes further downstream into faster flowing water. Suddenly a violent splash occurs near the fragile boat. Terence White and his friends are throwing stones at it from a wooden bridge above the stream. They manage to sink it and Maisie looks in anger at the group and they run away. On a sunlit patch of grass Paul lies on his back looking at the sky, while Maisie occupies her hands making something. Paul picks a nearby flower, Maisie identifies it as a buttercup. Paul asks why it’s called a buttercup, Maisie replies that if the flower is held under someone’s chin and it turns yellow in the reflected light, then the person will like butter. Paul tries to do the test with Maisie but she shies away. Paul notices that she’s wearing something around her neck and asks what it is. She shows the necklace to him but will not let him touch. It comprises of a simple piece of string on which is attached the skull of a bird or small mammal. Maisie explains that it’s her magic charm. Paul is impressed and asks where she got it from and she claims it was from the king of the gypsies who wanted her to be his queen. The charm was given her to keep her safe until she is old enough to become his queen. Paul turns away from Maisie not quite believing what he’s being told and Maisie complains that he doesn’t understand insisting the story is true and the magic works. She continues her story in any case which involves a special ceremony, and if it was found out she’d told anyone about her experiences she would die. Paul is sceptical. She jumps up and announces she’s going to see Mrs Midgey, Paul follows. They both run down the grassy hill. They climb over the rickety fence into the nearby field where they find a dead rabbit. Maisie says to Paul “It’s Mrs Midgey” Maisie thinks a fox has killed the rabbit, but the appearance of Terence White and his friends reveals the real culprit, as Terence boasts about his accuracy in throwing stones. Maisie throws Terence to the ground. He escapes and she runs after him up a hill. Terence stumbles and she grabs him by the leg, then grabs his hair and bangs his head on the ground. Suddenly the matron from the home and her supervisor Miss Pringle appear and break up the fight. One of Terence’s friends says that Maisie started the fight. Maisie confesses but when she tries to explain the circumstances, the matron interrupts and asks Miss Pringle the supervisor to take Maisie back to the house and to assemble the other children in the dining hall as she is determined to make an example of Maisie and her bad behaviour. All the children are gathered in the dining hall and the matron tells the children that there is one person among them guilty of “persistently causing trouble”. She accuses Maisie of making an unprovoked attack Terence. Terence watches the proceedings, one of his eyes black with bruising. Nevertheless he seems to be enjoying the moment. The matron insists that Maisie apologise to Terence for her bad behaviour before receiving punishment. Maisie approaches Terence and says defiantly “I won’t”. Maisie then lies face down on a small table and hangs onto the magic charm around her neck. The matron takes down from the wall a bunch of twigs fastened together at one end, known as a birch.  Miss Pringle whispers in Maisie’s ear to make as much noise as possible so that the matron will not be too severe with the punishment. The children watch Maisie being beaten but she does not cry out. Some of the children are visibly upset. Maisie gets off the table and says nothing. Matron beckons to Terence to come over to stand next to her and insists that Maisie apologises to Terence. Maisie looks at Miss Pringle and she nods to Maisie to proceed. Terence opens his hand and strokes a ball of fur or a rabbit’s foot, and Maisie immediately hits him and he falls to the ground. The other children laugh. Terence nurses a bloody nose as the matron looks after him. The matron tells Miss Pringle to “put her in the hole!” Before she’s taken away, matron spots the charm around Maisie’s neck and pulls it from her. Maisie protests but matron takes it away and crushes it with her foot. Maisie watches in tears. Matron turns on the rest of the children telling them she is appalled by their behaviour, and tells them that tea and supper will not be served and they are to go straight to bed. Paul lies awake in bed. He gets up and leaves his room. He tries to open a locked door. He whispers to Maisie through the keyhole. Maisie grieves at the destruction of her magic charm. Paul says he knows about it and then offers to get her something to eat. He makes his way in the dark down some stairs. He opens the door into the kitchen and finds some food and a pitcher full of liquid. He makes his way back to the room where Maisie is being held. He whispers to her that he has some food for her and passes it under the door, followed by a dish into which he pours milk from the pitcher. The empty dish is pushed back. Paul makes his way back to the kitchen, but he hears voices behind him and he finds a place to hide in the dark as two others enter the kitchen. It appears to be one of the maids and her boyfriend. The boyfriend spots some chocolate but his girlfriend warns him saying its cook’s laxative chocolate and its after affects can be severe. The girl hears a noise and they leave the kitchen quickly. Paul follows when it’s all clear grabbing the laxative chocolate off the table. However, as he tries to go back to his room, Miss Pringle apprehends him and makes sure he gets to bed. Terence and his cronies want to know where Paul has been. Terence finds the chocolate taken from the kitchen and takes it from Paul. The other two follow Terence insisting they get a share of the chocolate. Paul smiles to himself as he watches them go off. At breakfast Paul tucks into his porridge along with the other children. However three places are vacant at the table. Outside on the steps of the main entrance two girls play a game with some stones as Paul watches. Paul gets up and walks away and watches another two girls kneeling on the grass making a daisy chain. Paul stands next to an open ground floor window, which happens to be the matrons office and Paul hears her telling someone to move Maisie up to an attic room and only serve bread and water for meals. The film cuts to Paul looking out of a window in his dormitory as it rains outside. Miss Pringle arrives to make sure he gets into bed. He asks her when Maisie will be let out of the attic room. She tells him it won’t be long but she’s alright. The film cuts to the dilapidated attic room where rain seeps through the leaky roof and Maisie is on the floor huddled under some sacking. Next Paul is outside in a thoughtful mood sitting poking at some leaf litter with a stick surrounded by bracken. A girl runs past and Paul asks her what the matter is, and she says there are some gypsies chasing her. Paul reflects on what Maisie had said about her magic charm and he wonders if the king of the gypsies might help in getting Maisie out of the attic. He starts running towards the woodland where the girl had encountered the gypsies. He stops as he finds three of them gathering wood. He walks hesitantly towards them, the two girls and a boy stop what they are doing. Paul asks them where the king of the gypsies is, and one replies, somewhat amused at the question, that he’s in his palace. Paul insists that his question is important. He then notices that one of the girls is carrying a magic charm similar to Maisie’s. Paul asks the girl if she would give it to him, but the girl will only sell it to him. Paul says he has no money, and offers an item he has which the girl rejects. The girl says that there is one thing she is prepared to accept, and Paul is keen to provide it whatever it may be. Paul now on his own walks towards the camera and studies the magic charm he has just acquired. However he now has no shoes and is walking barefoot across the grass. Suddenly his way is blocked by Terence White and his friends. Paul tries to walk past them, but they push him over and Paul drops the magic charm. Two of the boys hold Paul down and Terence picks up the charm, looks at it then throws it away. The boys leave Paul on his own. However the charm has been caught in the branch of a tree. Paul quickly gets up and finds a long piece of wood. He runs towards a nearby river where the three boys stand together on the bank with their backs towards Paul. Paul rushes at them holding the wooden stake horizontally in front of him and pushes all three in the river. The boys scramble onto some nearby rocks, their clothing soaked through. Paul has spotted the charm hanging in a nearby tree and starts to climb, he works his way along a large branch, stands up and retrieves the magic charm, which he places around his neck. He prepares to get down from the tree but loses his balance and falls and lands with a thud. The screen goes black and then the view of a face comes into focus. It’s the doctor who brought him to the home. The doctor explains to Miss Pringle that Paul is lucky to be alive and no bones are broken. Paul feels for the charm around his neck as he lies on his bed. The doctor says it was lucky he was passing by on his way to the home to collect Maisie. As the doctor leaves he asks Miss Pringle to keep him in bed for a couple of days to recover. Miss Pringle asks Paul to change his clothes and get into bed and then leaves saying she’ll be back soon. Paul looks out of the dormitory window and sees the doctor opening the door of his trap. Maisie gets in carrying a cloth bundle. Paul is alarmed to see that she is about to leave. He rushes downstairs, pushing one of the maids aside on the staircase. The pony and trap is already heading down the gravel driveway. Paul rushes out of the door and into the arms of matron, who tries to stop him rushing after Maisie. He breaks free and runs down the drive, still with bare feet. He shouts after Maisie, but trips and falls on the grass verge. He shouts after her again, and she waves back, Paul lowers his head as his friend disappears from view. Paul shouts ‘Maisie’ again as the credits start to run. Title: Maisie Title: Maisie - The End Credit: Produced by Brian Dunckley