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Science
(1911) United States of America
B&W : 229 metres
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: Mary Pickford [Mrs. Crawford], King Baggot [Doctor Crawford], Lassie the dog, Imp the dog
Independent Moving Pictures Company, Incorporated [IMP] production; distributed by Motion Picture Distributing & Sales Company. / From the short story “A Dog’s Tale” by Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). / Released 24 July 1911. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Dr. Crawford and his wife with their little daughter, Elsie, are at home amusing themselves with the Scotch collie puppy, Imp, when another doctor is announced and he is shown an article in a newspaper which describes the providential rescue from drowning of the doctor’s child by Lassie, the mother of Imp. Lassie comes in and is admires. Two more physician’s arrive and announce that they have come to try an experiment with a newly discovered anesthetic. Dr. Crawford has a guinea pig, on which the experiment is to be tried, but it is discovered the animal has died, and the men of medicine are in a quandary. It is finally decided to use Imp, the puppy, for the experiment, against the mild protest of Elsie. The puppy is placed on the operating table in the laboratory, with the mother dog in an adjoining room, apprehensive. She begs piteously for them to release her offspring. The puppy dies under the experiment and Lassie is admitted to the laboratory. The mother wails dolefully. Elsie comes on the scene and her grief over the loss of the puppy is inconsolable. The doctors are saddened, Dr. Crawford and his wife endeavoring to comfort the child. The gardener digs a grave and the sorrowing procession goes out to bury the dog. Lassie sees the grave dug, following the gardener about in a way that is almost human. She goes to the laboratory and then to the garden. She sees the clods placed over the body of her puppy and returns with the saddened physicians and the inconsolable child and then trots sorrowfully to the grave and approaches it mournfully, places her paws on it in an attitude of prayer, alone with her dead, her grief being pitiful to witness.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 5 August 1911, page ?] The purpose of this picture seems to be to give more light on the question of vivisection. It is a truthful, sincere statement, dramatically presented, of a chosen incident and pictures the accidental death of a pretty puppy under an anesthetic and the consequent distress of the mother dog. Every tragedy is a picture of suffering, but every tragedy suggests in some measure a human escape from suffering. It is humanely educational. The principal of this tragedy is one of the dumb brutes, the poor mother dog. She has nothing to do with the causes of her sorrow and perhaps learns nothing from it. Her part in the picture is not without its pain and apprehension and to a certain extent the makers of this picture placed themselves in the same position with the vivisecting scientists. Of course the puppy wasn’t killed, but the mother acted as though she was very much afraid something fearful was about to happen. The picture is dramatically effective up to the point of the puppy’s supposed death. It’s a very unusual picture and very well acted.
Survival status: The film is presumed lost.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Animals: Dogs - Authors: Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835-1910)
Listing updated: 11 June 2024.
References: Edmonds-BigU p. 28; Eyman-Pickford p. 326 : Website-IMDb.
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