The story
“Filmy, an operator at a picture palace, visits his sweetheart, proposes to her, but is rejected by her father on the plea that his position is too humble, and his salary of two guineas [Ed. note: equivalent to slightly more than $10] is not enough to support Stella. Filmy is decidedly absent-minded on account of this, with the result that he puts a feature film on the screen backward, for which he gets the ‘bounce.’ He then gets a job as a cameraman with a local producer, but instead of taking a local flower show, he takes a policeman spooning with a servant maid; then some lovers in the park, and finally wanders into Lord Montgomery’s grounds and takes his lordship spooning with the cook. ‘I will give you 5,000 pounds [Ed note: about $24,000] to destroy that film. If my wife sees it, I am ruined,’ said the lord. Filmy accepts and Stella’s pa willingly accepts Filmy as a son-in-law with his newly acquired wealth.”
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 1 November 1913
Another synopsis, from Reel Life · 25 October 19131 min
“Filmy won his sweetheart just by being so desperately and so romantically absent-minded, that he blundered into a fortune. Lots of good things in life seem to come to us in about that way—not by any conscious virtue of our own, but purely by a happy accident. The play is a delicious piece of absurdity—and yet quite like life, after all. Filmy is an operator in a ‘Picture Palace’ (which stamps the comedy as English at once). He has long been attentive to Stella, and one evening he proposes—only to be rejected by her father—who refuses to see in a two-guinea picture operator a desirable match for his daughter. Filmy is so upset that he puts a film on the screen backwards—and loses his job. He is lucky enough, however, to get another place, as camera man with a local producer, and is sent out to photograph the Flower Show. Instead, he comes back with pictures of a policeman spooning with a servant maid, two lovers in a shady recess in the park—and a scene in the grounds of Lord Montgomery, in which his lordship appears in a romantic scene with his cook. Montgomery gets wind of the film, offering Filmy 5,000 pounds to destroy it. The camera man joyfully accepts—and rushing to Stella’s pa with his newly acquired wealth, is promptly accepted. For a good laugh, and plenty of English local color (which, someway, always tickles the American sense of humor) the play is unique among the new offerings.”
