Lost1911Thanhouser Company1,000 feetComedy

The Honeymooners

Name: The Honeymooners
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1911-09-22

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

“A celebrated man who was married five times said on one occasion, ‘the most trying thing about getting married is the fool tricks ones fool friends play.’ And he knew what he was talking about. A young couple found to their horror that their kind acquaintances, not content with the usual rice and old juice, captured their wedding coach and decorated it so that everyone would be ‘wise’ to the newlyweds. So the young couple decided to foil them. While the groom chatted with the guests, the bride cautiously made her escape by the back door and rolled off to the station in an auto, her husband having agreed to meet her there. And the wedding guests were surprised when the groom rushed out alone, and they saw the laugh was on them and not on the young couple.

“But fate sometimes plays unexpected tricks. The bride was on the platform when the train pulled in, but the bridegroom tarried. His taxi broke down and he had to sprint all the way to the station. He arrived in time to motion his bride to get on the train. He did so, but he turned a graceful somersault and when he regained his feet the train had pulled out. The bride, carried away, finds her woes increasing. She has no money, no tickets, nothing but sorrow. The conductor listens to her gravely, then puts her off at the next station. Knowing that her husband will undoubtedly take the next train, the bride tramps over the ties, hoping somehow and someway to reach the city and join him. In the meantime the unhappy bridegroom finds that the next train will not come along for hours. There is nothing to do except wait. And he does so. Then when the train is a few miles out it is held up by a freight wreck, and the young man decides that a honeymoon is sometimes worse than a nightmare.

“The wreck was cleared away in time and the train continued along. The husband in the car was telling a sympathetic acquaintance of his unhappy lot. Suddenly he looked out of the window and saw a little woman crouched by the side of the track, tear stained and miserable. He recognized her as his bride that he had vowed to love and cherish. Under the circumstances there was only one thing he could do, and he did it. He pulled the bell rope and stopped the train regardless of the indignation and horror of the crew. Then rushing madly down the track, he picked up his bride and they vowed they would go through life hand in hand, because when they are not together, something awful was more than likely to happen.”

Summary from The Moving Picture World · 16 September 1911

What the papers said

3 reviews · 1 advertisement

Read in full · 1 min

“Did you ever feel yourself greatly enthusing over a film? Then you may know how we felt after seeing this exceptionally well done and thoroughly amusing comedy. To have played it any better would have been well nigh impossible, and to have presented it with any more realism would have been almost as much so. In only one of the railroad scenes, when the cyclorama drop is used to give the effect of motion, this caught a couple of times and jerked along, but only slightly so. The views of the real railroad wreck (perhaps the recent one at Bridgeport) give the finest sort of reality to the cause for delay. The station, track walking, real train and similar practical effects are deserving of naught save the highest praise. The scenario is delightfully smooth, the action entirely devoid of inconsiderate discrepancies, and the work of the players most pleasing throughout.

“A bride and groom start on their honeymoon, but to avoid the prank planning guests, take separate conveyances to the station. She arrives first, his taxi having broken down. She boards the arriving train, which he just misses. Having neither ticket nor money, she is put off by an inconsiderate conductor and begins a tie-walking march. He gets the next train, is delayed by a wreck, starts on again, and from his car window sees her seated on the grass, dishevelled and full of weeps. He pulls the bell rope, stops the train and rushes back to her, when they join in blissful disregard of the entire world and recommence their honeymoon, he carrying everything from her fallen false hair to the grip, umbrellas and what-not. See it by all means! It will prove one of the biggest successes of a comedy nature you have ever had.”

The Morning Telegraph · 24 September 1911

“The bride and groom were able to fool the wedding party. They were not bothered by showers of rice nor old shoes, but they managed to get into much perplexity of another kind. It is a picture that is sure to please. It is well arranged, delightfully acted and is photographed in pretty scenes. It is not absolutely perfect, but it is a good, desirable film. It will surely be very popular.”

The Moving Picture World · 7 October 1911

More reviews

27 September 1911The New York Dramatic Mirror1 min

“A decidedly clever and humorous conception is this novel little comedy that is well put together and produced. It manages in the course of events to exhibit the wreck of an engine and its raising. Its manipulation of trains and the effect of a moving train are noteworthy features. Its evolutions are laughable and plausible—though the tie walking of the bride is perhaps hardly conceivable. After the wedding they separate to elude the guests in an interesting and novel manner. The groom arrives at the station just in time to beckon the bride to enter the train. He slips and falls and the train goes off without him. With no tickets, the bride is obliged to get off and proceeds to walk back. In the meantime the excited groom in pursuit is further annoyed by a wreck in front of his train. Started again, he at length sees his bride sitting in an exhausted state by the side of the track. Unmindful of consequences, he rings the bell that stops the train and is at her side. They journey back on a hand car.”

16 September 1911The Moving Picture World1 min

“Maybe you’ve already been there yourself—and perhaps not. At any rate, your most throbbing reminiscences of honeymoon excitement can never present to you such a picture as that of this couple. Their friends are not what might be termed cruel—just delightfully wicked and what they forgot to perpetrate on the newlyweds was not worthwhile. Oh—one thing we almost forgot; the couple used brains too, and made things more lively, but nonetheless interesting by their clever scheme to avoid the maelstrom of joyful nuisance. So its wits against wits, and the sum total is a bunch of fun.”