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A Mutual Understanding
(1913) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by George Lessey
Cast: Richard Tucker [John Smith, the bank clerk], Bessie Learn [Miss Langdon, John’s sweetheart and Henry’s sister], Robert Brower [the first bank president], William West [the second bank president], May Abbey [the first bank president’s niece], Ben Wilson [Henry Langdon, the minister]
Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated, production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Scenario by J.H. Landau. / Released 25 August 1913. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
[?] Drama?
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? John Smith, while leaving his club, carelessly jostles a table at which two men are playing cards for high stakes. As he leaves the club, a bill, blown from the same table, falls at his feet. The bill is instantly missed and the man who jostled the table immediately suspected. Smith is found with the money in his hands and immediately rushed to the police station. He is tried and convicted. To Henry Langdon, a clergyman, who visits him in his cell, Smith protests his innocence. He gives Langdon a written statement of the true facts and begs him to help him in getting a new trial. Langdon, on the point of going west, is unable to help him, but wishes Smith every success in his attempt and leaves, profoundly struck by the prisoner’s odd handwriting. A little later Smith is given a new trial and exonerated. Wishing to avoid the notoriety attached to his arrest and imprisonment, he changes his name to Ward, and going west, becomes cashier of a bank in a growing western city. Soon after his arrival he discovers that Langdon is rector of a church in his new home. To Langdon, Smith seems vaguely familiar, but he is unable to place him. Admiring Smith immensely, the clergyman welcomes his attentions to the beautiful Miss Langdon, his sister, and finally marries the couple himself. When his new brother-in-law signs the marriage registry, Langdon immediately recognizes the peculiar handwriting. He is horrified for a moment, and then realizing that Smith has started life anew, decides to keep his discovery a secret. A few days afterwards the niece of the president visits the bank and hangs her parasol beside Smith as he is counting a number of bills. One of the bills falls from the desk into the parasol. The balance is taken to the bank, the loss is discovered, and once again Smith falls under grave suspicion. To Langdon, who enters at this time, there seems to be no doubt that the man must be guilty, but he keeps silent for his sister’s sake. Just as he is about to be dragged off to jail, the president’s niece opens her parasol and the mystery is explained. The happy Smith gives his no less joyful brother-in-law the printed record of his acquittal on the former charge, and everything ends as it should.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 6 September 1913, page ?] Two weaknesses keep this picture from having a “punch.” The fact that it refuses to go the whole way and be simply an out-and-out melodrama with all the impossibilities of such keeps it from getting anywhere; it doesn’t prove or rightfully end anything and so itself criticizes the situation it chose. Then it is hardly probable that a bank clerk who looked as intelligent as Richard Tucker would lose ten thousand dollars in so inexcusable a way; it criticizes nearly every character concerned in the plot. It is a very well staged offering and the chief players are all that could be desired. Bessie Learn has the romantic lead opposite to Richard Tucker. Robert Brower and William West play the friendly bank presidents. There is a bookkeeper in West’s bank who deserves mention, but we don’t know his name. May Abbey is a niece of President Brower and Benjamin Wilson is the minister. The script is by Dr. J.H. Landau and was produced by George Lessey.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 4 June 2024.
References: Spehr-American p. 4 : Website-IMDb.
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