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An Unsigned Agreement
(1914) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by Francis Ford
Cast: Francis Ford [Harry], Grace Cunard [Nell], Harry Schumm, May Granville
The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated [Gold Seal]. / Scenario by Grace Cunard, from a screen story by [?] J.G. Hawks and/or Grace Cunard? / Released 10 January 1914. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The story opens when a labor agitator makes advances to Nell, an innocent girl whose life has been spent in the factory and whose love has been won by Harry, the profligate mill-owner’s son. Following the girl’s repulse of the agitator, Harry warns him to keep away from her. Thus the agitator has personal reasons to force labor troubles upon the mill-owner. In a saloon brawl Harry strikes the agitator over the head with a chair and leaves him for dead. Believing that he would be arrested for murder, Harry joins the army and is sent to Cuba. Nell is left in a delicate condition. The father, grief-stricken on hearing of it, marries the girl himself. The agitator, recovered, uses his utmost efforts to effect a strike. By deception he leads the workmen to believe that the factory owner has refused their demands and they are aroused until they decide to destroy the factory. In the large factory ignite and there it a terrific is overturned and a fire begins. The militia is called and with other citizens they fight the strikers. At the height of the battle Harry, the son, returns, but in the melee he is killed. Explosives in the large factory ignite and there is a terrific explosion. Even after this the owner is willing to forgive his employees and he contemplates presenting each with two weeks’ salary as a Christmas gift, until he learns of his son’s death. All the sympathy in him freezes and he refuses to befriend all and any.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 24 January 1914, page ?] Francis Ford and Grace Cunard, one as an old mill owner and the other as the daughter of a poor millhand, play to very good effect in this two-reel drama which, while the story is not always as clear as it might be, portrays some mob violence, including the blowing up of the mill, which is praiseworthy, and the acting is commendable. The son of the mill owner, skipping the country because he thinks he has committed murder, leaves behind him a sweetheart, who is about to become a mother. This is the beginning of the drama and it moves to a satisfactory ending.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 15 November 2022.
References: Braff-Universal n. 8629 : ClasIm-224 p. 42 : Website-IMDb.
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