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1914Thanhouser CompanyOne reelComedy

Harry’s Waterloo

Also released as The Protean Play

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

“In this photoplay Harry Benham plays four roles. When he commences his attentions to May, the young woman’s father calls in Sherlock Sleuth to trail the young man. The sleuth after many humorous adventures discovers that Harry is a spendthrift and reports to May’s father that the young man has had seven ice cream sodas in one day. May’s father accepts this fact as the worst sort of evidence against a prospective son-in-law, and May reluctantly breaks her engagement. At the end of the photoplay Harry Benham is shown in a close-up as May. Then he bows to his audience, takes off his wig and appears as Harry. He then quickly adjusts side whiskers and becomes May’s father and a moment later assumes the disguise of the sleuth, finally appearing as himself and laughing at the joke he has played on his audience.”

Summary from Reel Life · 18 July 1914

What the papers said

2 reviews · 1 article · 2 advertisements

“Harry Benham in a quadruple role. When Harry begins paying attention to May that young woman’s father calls in Sherlock Sleuth. He reports that Harry is a spendthrift—he has had seven sodas in one day. Father makes Mary break her engagement.”

The Morning Telegraph · 19 July 1914

“A picture in which the same player takes part of all the characters, and there are nine of them. This entails double exposures aplenty, and they are simply perfect. It is a tour de force for the cameraman rather than for the actor; for playing different roles is his business. An offering that will interest especially the spectator who realizes …

Read in full · 1 min

“A picture in which the same player takes part of all the characters, and there are nine of them. This entails double exposures aplenty, and they are simply perfect. It is a tour de force for the cameraman rather than for the actor; for playing different roles is his business. An offering that will interest especially the spectator who realizes that the roles are played by the same man, and we think that most will. That some may not, is due to the actor (Harry Benham), who is competent.”

The Moving Picture World · 1 August 1914

Article

29 August 1914The New Rochelle Pioneer1 min

“Harry Benham, in Harry’s Waterloo, recently took all the scenes in the script, 13 in number, appearing as often as four times in scenes, impersonating the character of a woman in several of them. It is the first time a protean script of this magnitude was produced.”

Advertisements2 · 25 July 1914

25 July 1914The Moving Picture World1 min

“A side-splitting comedy in which Harry Benham plays all the parts.”

25 July 1914Reel Life1 min

“A protean comedy of unique character in which Harry Benham plays the part of a lover, a sweetheart, a detective, and a father.”

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
Harry Benham
Writer
Lloyd F. Lonergan

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 Children’s Hour12:30
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More about this film

Bowers’ notes

This film was apparently the production referred to in later years by Benham, who was especially proud of his multiple performances, as The Protean Play. See, for example, the Motion Picture News Studio Directory, 1916 and 1918 editions.

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, “Harry’s Waterloo”. thanhouser.org/films/harry-s-waterloo/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known