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1911Thanhouser Company500 feetComedy

Prompt Payment

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

“Jack wanted to practice law, he was eager to plead in court; but all the pleading he was able to do consisted of pleading with stony-hearted men to whom he owed money. And it must be confessed that his arguments were almost invariably overruled. Matters reached a crisis when the creditors called in a body to demand what they called their rights. Jack was in the inside office when they appeared, but did not care to come out. Also they objected to going away. But Jack, like most lawyers, was resourceful. His creditors, to while away the time, began a game of cards, and that gave Jack an idea. For with the cards he was an expert. If legal preferment were based on ability as a poker player, Jack would be the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

“So Jack departed by way of the fire escape, and through the aid of a friendly costumer, returned looking like a perfectly unhappy creditor. And he sat in on that poker game, and won a surprising amount of money to the sorrow of the others. Then Jack excused himself, slipped out to return in this short time in his own garments. And he greeted his creditors affectionately, and paid each man in full, whereat they rejoiced. For Jack was an honest lawyer, even if he did have to hold a full house to prove it.”

Summary from The Moving Picture World · 28 January 1911

What the papers said

3 reviews

“Here is an ingenuous film, one that is bound to take and elicit applause. A young businessman has his office filled with creditors, who while waiting until he comes decides to play poker. Seeing an opportunity the young debtor escapes by way of the fire stairs, disguises himself, and, assuming the role of a collector, joins in the game with …

Read in full · 1 min

“Here is an ingenuous film, one that is bound to take and elicit applause. A young businessman has his office filled with creditors, who while waiting until he comes decides to play poker. Seeing an opportunity the young debtor escapes by way of the fire stairs, disguises himself, and, assuming the role of a collector, joins in the game with marvelous success, winning plenty of money with which to meet his debts. This is a good kind of comedy and is bound to be appreciated. The photography is well up to the Thanhouser standards.”

REVIEW by Walton, The Moving Picture News, February 25, 1911:

“Broad farce. A penniless businessman is besieged by creditors, who sit down to play poker in the outer office until he returns. Meanwhile he is in his private office; with the help of his secretary he escapes by the window. Then he goes to a costumer and is fitted up with a disguise; he returns to his office as another creditor; joins them at the game and skins the quartet to the last cent. Then he returns his costume and goes back himself to the office, where he pays the creditors with their own money. A rollicking film full of laughs.”

The Billboard · 28 January 1911

“A comedy detailing the adventures of an impecunious lawyer in devising a means to secure money to pay his debts. The clever way in which he performs his highly interesting operation, through the medium of a game of poker with his creditors, is one scarcely to be commended. It is amusing to see him pay them their own money.”

The Moving Picture World · 11 February 1911

More reviews

1 February 1911The New York Dramatic Mirror1 min

“This is capital farce, and it is most effectively presented. A young businessman goes broke, and is beset by his creditors, who accumulate in the outer office while he remains in his private office, the stenographer having told the callers that her employer is out. While waiting, the creditors play poker, and this gives the young debtor an idea. He departs by the fire escape, rents a disguise from a costumer, and enters his own office as a pretended Hebrew with another bill to collect. They let him into the game with his half-dollar and, as should be after an exhibition of nerve like this, he wins all their money, returning later to pay them off.”

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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.

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Cast and crew

No cast or crew is credited in the surviving sources for this film. Bowers records the title and the release; the names did not come with them.

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More about this film

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1911 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “Prompt Payment”. thanhouser.org/films/prompt-payment/

Where a print is held

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