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Caught by Wireless
(1908) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 969 feet
Directed by Wallace McCutcheon (Sr.)
Cast: Edward Dillon [the land agent], Lawrence Griffith (D.W. Griffith) [a policeman]
American Mutoscope & Biograph Company production; distributed by American Mutoscope & Biograph Company. / Scenario by James B. Cogan. Cinematography by G.W. Bitzer. / © 18 March 1908 by American Mutoscope & Biograph Company [H107672]. Released 21 March 1908. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Biograph production number 3394. The production was shot on 11 and 13 March 1908.
Drama: Crime.
Synopsis: [Biograph Bulletin, number 129, 21 March 1908, page ?] Routed out of the groove of conventionality, the Biograph Company presents a thrilling dramatic story, that is as novel as it is interesting, based on the egregious possibilities of wireless telegraphy. The opening scenes are laid in Ireland, the first showing the exterior of an Irish cabin, at which a despotic land agent calls to collect rent. Finding the husband absent, offers insult to the wife. The timely arrival of the husband results in the thrashing of the agent. The agent swears vengeance and returns later with two policemen, to arrest the husband, but the trio gets a warm reception, and in the skirmish, the husband escapes and is advised later by a friend to leave the country which he does, after a tearful adieu to the wife and children. He takes the first steamer to America. / The land agent proves himself an unconscionable villain, who not only casts aside his faithful wife, but two years later burglarizes his employer’s safe and flees unintercepted on a liner bound for New York. He would have made good his escape but for the mercurial celerity of the Marconi contrivance, with which the ship was provided. From Scotland Yard, London, a message for his apprehension is flashed to the steamer, which is in turn flashed to the New York police headquarters. / Fortuitously, on the same boat there are as passengers, the wife and children of the young Irishman, who having succeeded in getting appointed on the police force of New York, had sent for his dear ones to join him. The villain is recognized by the wife while on the ship, so of course his capture is an easy matter when the boat touched the dock at New York, where the happy reunited family have the satisfaction of seeing their persecutor run to earth. / The film is replete with stirring situations of a thrillingly sensational character, and the Marconi device, which is accurately reproduced, is most interesting and novel.
Survival status: Print exists in the Library of Congress film archive (paper print collection) [35mm paper positive].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Ireland - Irish - Landlords - Law: Enforcement: Police: Policemen
Listing updated: 4 February 2015.
References: Film viewing : Niver-First pp. 120-121; Usai-Griffith-1 pp. 19-20 : Website-AFI.
Home video: VHS.
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