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1914PrincessOne reelComedy

A Bum Mistake

Also released as A Bad Mistake

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“Mills, a vaudeville tramp, and his companion, September Morn, receive a telegram from the Royal Order of Crows to perform at their banquet. They are unconsciously forestalled, however, by a regular hobo, who arrives at the depot, and after stealing Doom the drummer’s satchel, is seized and borne off by the delegates of the Royal Order to the banquet hall. A little later the actor tramp and his actress partner reach the depot, where they are grabbed by the constable summoned by Doom. On investigating the satchel Mills carries, however, they fail to find anything therein save September Morn’s little union suit. The vaudeville tramp and his companion arrive at the hall just in time to see the hobo being presented with the loving cup. They expose the impostor, who is driven from the hall. Then the Royal Order showers its money and flowers upon the delighted comedian.”

Summary from Reel Life · 21 November 1914

What the papers said

1 review

“A wildly farcical extravaganza of the grotesque knockabout type. Such plot as the film possesses hangs upon a confusion in the identities of a real tramp and a music-hall artist who sets out to attend a banquet in his stage attire as a tramp comedian. Rapid action and quite humorous.”

The Bioscope · 4 March 1915

Have you seen this film, or a print of it?

Prints of films thought lost still turn up in attics, private collections and archives. A record like this one is how the next one gets found.

Tell us about a print

Cast and crew

Cast
Boyd Marshall as Doom, the drummer
Clifford Saum as Mills, the tramp comedian
John Reinhard as the real tramp
Mayre Hall as September Morn

Every name opens that person's page, with each film they appear in and which of them you can watch.

Watch instead

Films you can watch from the same company

Matched by cast, director and kind
A frame from The Decoy. A frame from The Decoy (1914), from the Thanhouser restoration on Vimeo.16:08
1914 · Same leadThe Decoy
A frame from The Marvelous Marathoner13:12
1915 · Same leadThe Marvelous Marathoner
A frame from The Tell-Tale Scar12:09
1914 · Same castThe Tell-Tale Scar

More about this film

Bowers’ notes
  1. The surname of Clifford Saum is erroneously spelled “Saums” in some publicity. 2. The character name September Morn was taken from a controversial painting of the same name, which showed a side view of a nude girl standing in a pool on a misty morning. The image, which was widely reproduced, offended many and delighted many others. 3. The title was listed as A Bad Mistake in The New York Dramatic Mirror, November 11, 1911 and in several November 1914 issues of The Moving Picture World. This may have been a working title or an alternate title. 4. This film was far short of the average reel length of about 1,000 feet.

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1914 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “A Bum Mistake”. thanhouser.org/films/a-bum-mistake/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known