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Accidents Will Happen
(1910) United States of America
B&W : Split-reel / 280 feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
Edison Manufacturing Company production; distributed by Edison Manufacturing Company. / © 13 May 1910 by Edison Manufacturing Company [H141613 (scene 1), H141614 (scene 2)]. Released 13 May 1910; in a split-reel with Carminella (1910). / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [The Film Index, 14 May 1910, page ?] This picture is not intended to advertise the merits of accident insurance nor to teach any great moral lesson, but it should serve the equally useful purpose of expanding the lungs and increasing the good health of a great many people by means of laughter’s tonic effects. Its hero is a young man who obtains a situation as a solicitor for an accident insurance company which offers a very attractive proposition for an exceedingly small premium. He is a good solicitor and fortune favors him, for he has scarcely left the office in his search for prospective clients when he lights upon a situation wherein three men are endangered, and it requires but little of his persuasive eloquence to get three signatures to three contracts his first day. This is a good beginning for a young business man, and his employer condescends to congratulate him and prophesy great things for his future. Our hero is so elated that he goes home and takes his mother out for dinner at a restaurant. To get to the restaurant they board a car, which is filled to overflowing with eccentric characters who caricature our American street car manners and customs with good comic effect. The young man’s mother is quite stout — in fact, unusually so — and when the car starts unexpectedly she, in company with several others, is thrown off her balance — and then a terrible thing occurs. Mother sits down forcibly on the laps of three gentlemen, and by one of these strange coincidences of fate these three gentlemen happen to be the three insured by our hero but a few short hours before. When mother is lifted to her feet again, all that is left of the three men is three silent flattened figures on the seat, surmounted by three very much disturbed faces. Our hero recognizes his three “risks” and so does the president of the insurance company, who happens to be riding with them. Of course the terrible fate of these three gentlemen is a great financial blow to the insurance company and our hero loses his job in consequence, but then — well, “Accidents Will Happen” even to the most careful of “strap-hangers.” The film, though short, contains several good laughs, as well as a forcible lesson in street-car etiquette, which will not fail of appreciation, especially by the female portion of any audience. The climax of the picture is very funny and cannot help but “bring down the house.”
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 28 May 1910, page ?] Familiar scenes on a street car, with the types which usually occupy those common vehicles of transportation. The picture is a laugh getter and will help out any program because of its familiar comedy features.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 24 August 2023.
References: LoC-MoPic-1 p. 1 : Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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