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Photograph: Silent Era image collection.
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Jack’s Burglar
(1912) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] Robert Goodman?
Cast: Richard Stanton [Jack], Evelyn Selbie [Jack’s mother], [?] Francis Ford?
G. Méliès production, distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Produced by Gaston Méliès. / Released 26 December 1912. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [From Méliès promotional materials] His father and mother avisiting, Jack is left in charge of the ranch. A beautiful girl arrives, a friend of his aunt’s, desiring to stay a few days. Jack, love smitten, knows she will not remain if she discovers the circumstances, so he presses the foreman and the cook into service to impersonate his parents. All would have gone swimmingly had she not accidentally discovered Jack’s trick and decided to turn the tables. She ingeniously relives him of his cash, and when the real mother arrives, there is a truly comical situation in which love triumphs. // [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Colonel Blake and his wife go visiting for the weekend and leave their son Jack in charge of the ranch. Bessie Miller arrives at the ranch with a letter from Jack’s aunt in Boston saying that the bearer is a dear friend of hers who is writing a book about the west and would like to stay on the ranch for a few days. Jack knows that Bessie will not stay if she finds his mother gone, so he arranges for Molly, the ranch cook, and Jim Hunt, the foreman, to impersonate his parents. Things are going nicely and Jack is making fine progress in his courtship, when Pedro, a Mexican cowpuncher, who is angry because he is forced to take Molly’s place as cook, tells Bessie of the trick. She accuses Jim and Molly. They confess, and both agree to help her get even with Jack. The next day Jack’s course of love runs anything but smooth. Bessie treats him as though he were a little boy, and he is forced to tag along behind her while he and his pseudo father make a tour of inspection of the ranch. Under Bessie’s direction Jim exercises his parental authority in a dozen different ways. Jack is paid for some cattle and puts the money in a tin cash box. Bessie seeing a further chance to get even, takes the money and hides it, and after leaving a note alongside of the empty box wherein Jack is thanked for leaving the money so handy, she goes for a long ride. Jack is heartbroken when he discovers the loss of the money. He determines to get the sheriff, but then, doubting in his heart that she is the thief, wavers, and gets a cowboy friend to impersonate the sheriff. He meets his father and mother on their way back home, and tells them of the stranger who he thinks rewarded his hospitality by stealing the money. His parents reach home and Bessie gets back from the ride. The joke is explained and they agree to continue it. When Jack returns with the would-be sheriff he walks into the room and finds the foreman holding Bessie roughly by the arm. His father asks him if this is the girl who stole the money, and then love triumphed over duty, and Jack says, “No, I took the money myself.” After the whole thing is cleared up, it is found that Bessie played better than she knew when she played burglar, for Mexican Pedro, tired of being a cook, had decamped, with the empty cash box, thinking it contained the money.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 25 May 2024.
References: Thompson-Star p. 232 : ClasIm-226 p. 55 : Website-IMDb.
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