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Melita’s Ruse
Also known as {Melita’s Rose}
(1912) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] Gaston Méliès and/or Robert Goodman?
Cast: William Clifford [Pedro], Mildred Bracken [Melita]
G. Méliès production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Produced by Gaston Méliès. / Released 22 February 1912. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Western.
Synopsis: [From Méliès promotional materials] In a saloon brawl Jose is shot, and Pedro, fearing he will be implicated, flees. The sheriff is soon on his trail. Pedro, meeting his sweetheart Melita, tells her of his predicament. Even then the approach of the posse can be heard. She hides Pedro in a barn, hastily dons his coat and hat, and rides furiously to mislead the pursuers. Meanwhile, Pedro’s attack on a woman who discovers him in the barn causes his arrest. Melita feigns jealousy, which again fools the sheriff, and by a clever and novel ruse contrives his thrilling escape out of prison to safety across the border line, where she joins him to be made one by the Padre. // [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? In a western saloon, Pedro and the boys are playing cards and drinking, when one cheats and there is a gunfight. It all happens so quickly that no one knows who to blame until Pedro, knowing that he shot at least one man, steals quickly from the place and rides furiously off. The others see him go and at once decide he started the fight and is responsible for the probable loss of life. They mount their horses and pursue him. Meanwhile Pedro has succeeded in reaching a spot not far distant. Here he meets his sweetheart, Melita. They both hear the approaching pursuers, and Melita, fearful for her lover, jumps on the same horse and they ride away. Reaching a barn, Melita changes clothes with Pedro, and after telling him to hide in the barn she rides away to mislead the pursuers. They follow her, thinking her Pedro, but at last find out their mistake when they overtake her. Forcing her to go with them, they search farther and find Pedro in the barn just after he has subdued a young girl and her mother who had entered to collect eggs. Pedro is imprisoned in the sheriff’s house as there is no jail in town. Melita frees him in a novel way and bids him fly to Mexico. The sheriff suspects Melita knows Pedro’s whereabouts, and she, offering to show them where Pedro lives, leads them there, knowing he is even now on his way to Mexico. Returning to town in disgust with Melita accompanying them, they are just in time to see, with the aid of a field glass, Pedro crossing the boundary in the valley below. A week later Melita receives a letter from Pedro asking her to join him that the Padre may make them one.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 28 July 2024.
References: Thompson-Star p. 231 : ClasIm-226 p. 55 : Website-IMDb.
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