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1914PrincessOne reelDrama

A Circumstantial Nurse

Also released as Circumstantial Evidence

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

“Tom, jailed for another’s crime, is discharged because of his excellent record among the prisoners. He returns home, with no money, to find his daughter, Mary, sick. He appeals to a doctor—but in vain. Desperate, he plans to rob his former employer’s house to get money for medicine for Mary. That night he breaks into the house—finding it empty except for little Helen, as the family has gone to the theatre, and the servant has slipped off for an hour with her sweetheart. The baby wakes crying with pain. Tom realizes that the youngster is sick, and he stays with her. There Helen’s father and mother find him on their return. Their gratitude wins his confidence, and he confesses his plight. When they have heard Tom’s story, the wealthy superintendent and his wife gladly give him money and help for Mary.”

Summary from Reel Life · 3 January 1914

What the papers said

2 reviews

“Muriel Ostriche makes a charming wife of a young mechanic. In fact a much more charming one than is found in very many laborer’s homes. Tom, her husband, is Boyd Marshall. Tom was discharged by his employer simply because he learned that he had once been in jail. His little girl is ill, and he has no money to buy …

Read in full · 1 min

“Muriel Ostriche makes a charming wife of a young mechanic. In fact a much more charming one than is found in very many laborer’s homes. Tom, her husband, is Boyd Marshall. Tom was discharged by his employer simply because he learned that he had once been in jail. His little girl is ill, and he has no money to buy food or pay the doctor. In desperation he goes to rob his former employer’s home. He finds the man’s little girl alone in the house and in great danger from croup. Giving up his plan to steal he saves the little child’s life by home methods. When her parents return they find him with the task just completed and the baby well. After hearing his story his employer gives him back his job, together with some money to meet immediate needs. A specialist is employed, and the life of Tom’s baby is saved.”

The Morning Telegraph · 11 January 1914

“This picture is based on several old and improbable situations, one of them being where the burglar replaces a roll of old bills to attend to the sick baby. Yet with the aid of good photography and capable acting this gets hold of the interest and proves acceptable.”

The Moving Picture World · 17 January 1914

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Cast and crew

Director
Carl Louis Gregory
Cast
Boyd Marshall as Tom
Catherine Webb as his wife
Dorothy Benham as his child
Marie Eline
Morgan Jones as superintendent
Muriel Ostriche as Mary, his daughter
Writer
John William Kellette
Photographed by
Carl Louis Gregory

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

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A frame from The Vicar of Wakefield1:29:30
1917 · Same leadThe Vicar of Wakefield

More about this film

Bowers’ notes

Despite Charles Hite’s statement in late 1913 that Marie Eline would no longer be known as “The Thanhouser Kid,” the advertisement for this film in the January 3, 1914 issue of Reel Life billed her as “The most famous of the ‘kids.’” Similarly, the advertisement in the same publication, issue of January 24, 1914, for a subsequent film, The Purse and the Girl, carried the same billing for Marie Eline.

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 Circumstantial Nurse”. thanhouser.org/films/a-circumstantial-nurse/

Where a print is held

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