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The Adventuress
(1910) United States of America
B&W : Split-reel / 525 feet
Directed by Thomas Ricketts (Tom Ricketts)
Cast: J.H. Gilmour [an English gentleman], Martha Russell [Kate Morrison], [?] Adrienne Kroell? [the adventuress]
Essanay Film Manufacturing Company production; distributed by Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. / Released 5 January 1910; in a split-reel with How Hubby Made Good (1910). / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The story is founded on a real episode, a chapter from the life of an army officer. The scene of the story is in a compartment of an English railway train. The English railway carriage is differently constructed than the more capacious American car. The car is divided into several compartments, the exits through doors on the side, while the conductor or guard collects the tickets from the outside. Travel on English railways is perhaps not so comfortable as on the more elaborate American trains, but the distances are not so long. The afternoon train, leaving the Great Northern depot in London for Epsom Downs, a famous English race track, is about ready to leave. A fashionably dressed woman, followed by a boy carrying her handbag, enters a compartment in one of the carriages. She makes herself comfortable and begins cutting the leaves of a periodical. A moment later, a gentleman, tall and portly, enters and seats himself in a corner near the door. The guard collects the tickets. The gentleman, who is smoking a cigar, turns to the lady and politely asks her if the cigar smoke is offensive. “Not at all,” she answers and endeavors to continue the conversation by asking him to please open the ventilator. He does so, bows and returns to his paper. The woman, after some difficulty, starts a conversation. He is on his way to Epsom Downs to attend the afternoon’s races. He brings out his purse and shows her his racing ticket, at the same time exposing a pretentious roll of banknotes. The woman sees the money and immediately lays plans to separate him from it. He is dumbfounded when she unceremoniously demands him to hand over the money. “If you don’t,” she says, “I will call the guard and make it appear that you have attempted to assault me.” He laughs indifferently and enraged by his supreme self-confidence, pulls down her hair, tears her waist and running to the door, screams and pounds on it furiously. The gentleman remains immovable. The guard enters and finds the woman crouching on the floor, an accusing finger pointed at the gentleman. The guard whistles and a detective enters. The gentleman is questioned. He stoutly denies having touched the woman. The detective points out the woman’s torn tresses and generally disheveled appearance. The gentleman, who through the scene, had remained in quiet obliviousness behind his paper and his cigar, takes the weed from his mouth and holds it up for their inspection. The ashes of the half burned cigar have not been disturbed, convincing proof that he could not have left his seat. The detective nods his satisfaction and turns to the woman. He scrutinizes her face carefully, then draws a photograph from his pocket. “Kate Morrison!” he exclaims, comparing the face with the photograph, “London’s most famous confidence woman. Come, the police want you, milady!” A moment later the woman is dragged from the compartment and our friend of the cigar flips off the ashes and diffidently returns to his paper.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 7 January 1910, page ?] The story of the means taken by a pair of thieves to rob a rich ranchman, which was foiled by his secretary. The picture cannot claim any dramatic interest. It tells a common enough story, laying the scene in different surroundings, but after all, substantially the same. The photography in some places is weak, especially where an attempt has been made to produce brown tones. The night scenes are better, but are not worth bragging about. The farm scenes are not bad, the rounding up of the cattle and the scenes as the horsemen ride away are all reasonably good. There is a neat bit of acting where the secretary pieces the torn bits of the letter together, but to merely make marks across the paper does not create the appearance of torn places. // [The Moving Picture World, 15 January 1910, page ?] Perhaps the most entertaining feature of this picture is the clever way the gentleman convinces his accusers that he has committed no assault. He shows the ashes of his half-burned cigar still adhering to the partially burned stump, and the officers accept this as proof that he hasn’t even left his seat, much less committed an assault upon a woman in which she was generally used up. As a reminder of the way railroading is done abroad, this is interesting. It is not, aside from these two features, any above ordinary quality, however.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 15 February 2024.
References: Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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