Volume II: Filmography

THE CONVICT

September 23, 1910 (Friday)

Length: 1,000 feet totally (split with A Husband's Jealous Wife at the end)

Character: Comedy

Cast: Marie Eline (the little girl)

Note: The issue of The Moving Picture World from which certain synopses and reviews of this time are taken bears the date of September 24, 1910 on the cover, which is correct, and the incorrect date of September 23, 1910 on the masthead page.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, September 24, 1910:

"You have no idea as to how marvelously a Thanhouser can twist a story until you see this gripping dra - well, perhaps, it isn't a drama at that - or a comedy even. We hate to tip you off as to WHAT it is. When you see the picture, with its totally unlooked-for climax, you'll know why!"

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, September 24, 1910:

"The convict is discovered stealing along a country road, glancing about for signs of danger. His stripes are discernible on that portion of his breast and on that portion of his trousers' leg not covered by the long coat he wears - which cannot conceal the stripes that tell all; hence his keen watch for passersby. Still, he does not spy a nearby farmer until too late; the cry 'prisoner loose' is raised, and a dozen rustics make after the unfortunate. Convict meets accomplice who is waiting with carriage; jumps in the carriage and the pair drives off. Baffled pursuers come up, sight a wagon, all pile within and resume pursuit. Convict jumps from carriage and drops behind boulder, accomplice driving straight on with the wagon hot after him; when the wagon has passed him by, convict comes from behind boulder, crosses road and disappears on other side - but has been seen crossing the road by a small girl who kept out of sight until the convict had disappeared, but who now rushes off to tell of her discovery. Put back on the trail by the little girl, pursuers follow their quarry to the waterside, where a second accomplice awaits the convict with a rowboat, and into which he jumps and pulls for the other side. Another rowboat sets out in pursuit. One of the pursuers telephones constables on the other side of the water to catch convict when he tries to land.

"Race of the rowboats. Nearing shore the convict finds himself hemmed in - pursuers on water and constables on land. Luckily for him, pursuers in their efforts to grab his boat overturn their own; he gets to shore, where accomplice is caught though he himself escapes. Constable and pursuer chase him to town road, where third accomplice awaits with auto; they speed off. An automobile too happens along, allows pursuers to use his auto to chase convict's, and all enter except constable who rushes off to 'phone town police of convict's coming. Receiving the message, chief of police leaves with coppers for town end of road, across which they stretch rope and await convict's auto. As the convict dashes down Main Street new pursuers spring up at every step. Yet when he reaches the opera house he calmly walks into the entrance and, facing his pursuers, takes a dignified stand beside the billboard on which is printed: 'Latest Moving Picture - Today's Feature - STUNG! or The Convict's Escape - A Roaring Comedy Now Showing.'"

REVIEW by Walton, The Moving Picture News, October 1, 1910:

"This film does what the novel and magazine writer does and the newspaper writer does not do. The climax comes at the last. In spite of the Thanhouser folk joining in the racket and the peculiar readiness of carriage and automobile and boat to help the gentleman in a costume, not used in this state for some two years, the audience did not 'catch on.' When the revelation came, at the door of the New Rochelle picture show, the theatre rang with laughter. We were all 'stung' and we enjoyed it."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, October 8, 1910:

"A burlesque picture which becomes more thrilling as it proceeds. The convict is supposed to have escaped and the way he is chased and surrounded bodes no good for him. But somehow he manages to elude the steadily increasing army of pursuers until they are gathered around him, when he calmly shows a motion picture announcement, and the reason for all this melee, in which the whole countryside took part, becomes apparent."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, September 28, 1910:

"The vaudeville advertiser who devised the convict deserves an immediate raise in his salary by his house. No doubt he got it - in the film. Perhaps, in real life, things might not happen so luckily for the convict unless the carriage, the boat and the automobile were previously arranged for him. Even then, Fate might conceivably have some disagreeable card up her sleeve. In the film, at any rate, everybody bit nicely. They pursued the escaped convict in increasing crowds until he led them to the theatre he was advertising. There they all obligingly bought tickets to the show and, no doubt, enjoyed it hugely. They did if it was as good as the film is. The least interesting sections of the film are the telephone messages exchanged by agitated police officials; but they set off the livelier adventures of the convict with agreeable contrast."

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