Lost1913Thanhouser CompanyOne reelComedy

His Last Bet

Name: His Last Bet
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1913-09-07

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

“He was only a young clerk on a two weeks’ vacation, but at the summer resort hotel he was regarded as a man of wealth. Then a real millionaire, one who owned a yacht, came along, and the stock of the clerk fell below par. The new arrival had plenty of money and delighted in showing it. He soon became celebrated by the way he wagered on anything and everything, and the sight of his bank roll filled the clerk with envy, for he himself was getting down to his last nickel. While yachting with the millionaire one day the clerk discovered what he thought was a way to make some easy money. He boldly offered to bet his host $1,000 that, clad only in a bathing suit, he could travel from the seashore to Newark, New Jersey, in 24 hours, solemnly promising that he would neither beg, borrow, nor steal clothing or money. The millionaire promptly disputed this and accepted the wager, putting up $1,000 in bills against the clerk’s check. The clerk thought he was betting on a sure thing. He had read in the paper about an unknown man who had killed three persons in Newark, and then had made his escape. His plan was to swim ashore, give himself up to a constable and make the trip to Newark as a prisoner. He swam ashore, found the constable, was taken to Newark, but he did not win the wager. The clerk never knew that there was a Newark, New York, but it is on the map, and it was there that he was taken. He was turned out so many miles from Newark, New Jersey that there was no hope for him, and he did not dare to return to the yacht for his check was worthless, and he wanted to get as far as possible before the bank rejected it. So he hastened away in his bathing suit, cursing his sporting blood, and vowing that never again would he bet, even on a ‘sure thing.’”

Summary from The Moving Picture World · 20 September 1913

What the papers said

2 reviews · 1 article · 1 advertisement

“A good comedy number, in which a poor clerk masquerades as a rich young man at a summer resort. He makes a bet that he can reach Newark, New Jersey in 24 hours without money. He gives himself up to the constable, who takes him to Newark, New Jersey. His flight down the road was very laughable.” …

Read in full · 1 min

Note: The reviewer mixed up his Newarks, and the second one should have been Newark, New York—the entire point of the comedy.

The Moving Picture World · 13 September 1913

Read in full · 1 min

“A clerk on his vacation meets a millionaire who is a very reckless bettor. The clerk, to make himself popular, bets the millionaire he’ll jump off the latter’s yacht and arrive at Newark, New Jersey in 24 hours, the entire journey to be made in a bathing suit. He is taken up at once, and a party follows him to see that he does all in good faith. He surrenders himself to a local constable as a criminal wanted in Newark. The constable takes him on the train, and away they go. But, lo! When they arrive on the scene of the crime, it is Newark, New York and not Newark, New Jersey. He is released upon explanation, and speedily makes himself scarce for fear he will be called to pay up. A comedy with no particular finish that would be a deal more to the point if the spectator knew where the young man was when he started. Well acted and photographed.”

The New York Dramatic Mirror · 24 September 1913

Article

6 September 1913Reel Life1 min

“His Last Bet dramatizes the holiday lark of four adventurous young men who meet at a Jersey shore resort. A fake millionaire and a real one, a magnificent wager and a bogus check are the stuff the fun is made of, which is kept going at a livelier rate from start to finish. The millionaire pretender boldly bets the real millionaire a thousand dollars that he can go from the shore resort to Newark, New Jersey, in 24 hours, airily attired in only his bathing suit. He solemnly swears that he will not beg, borrow or steal clothes of any description. The real millionaire promptly disputes the proposition and accepts the wager, to the great delight of the other, who is only a penniless clerk and is congratulating himself on having hit upon so easy and vastly entertaining a way to earn a thousand dollars.

“Recently three murders have been committed in Newark, supposedly by the same person, and searchers are out for the criminal. The young clerk’s scheme is to swim from the millionaire’s yacht ashore and yield himself up; then the law will give him a free ride to Newark. The young man gets to Newark all right—only it isn’t Newark, New Jersey—and, closely pursued by the other three, the last we see of him he is pelting off down the road, in his bathing suit, running away as fast as he can go from the worthless check he has put off on the millionaire.

“So nobody gets any money but everybody gets a barrelful of fun. We would like to suggest that Mr. Lonergan give us a sequel, for we are naturally anxious to know what becomes of the venturesome clerk. Tearing wildly through the country in so brief a costume, does he get captured for a lunatic? Or does Anthony Comstock take him up? Or otherwise, how endeth the vacation adventures of this young sport, beside whom the millionaire isn’t in it?”

13 September 1913The Moving Picture World1 min

“One of the best of our entire output to date of Sunday comedies. And the wonderful thing is, it is an all-men’s comedy. You never thought it was possible to ‘put over’ a funny film without some GIRLS in it, did you, now?”