Lost1910Thanhouser Company1,000 feetComedy

The Latchkey

Name: The Latchkey
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1910-08-26

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

“Will and John are prosperous young businessmen and close friends. Will has an apartment in the city, while John lives in the suburbs. When Will goes to the country on his vacation he leaves the latchkey of his apartment with his chum, telling him to make himself at home. The landlady in the house in which Will lives is seized with a bright idea that she can sublet his apartment during his absence. May and Belle, two pretty girls who are in business, decide to try their hand at housekeeping. They rent Will’s apartment and settle down in their new quarters.

“John decides to take advantage of his friend’s invitation and make use of his rooms. He lets himself in with the latchkey, and is amazed to find the two girls sound asleep. Believing him to be a burglar the girls threaten him with annihilation. John thinks the joke too good to spoil, so does not try to square himself, but pleads for mercy. May secures his promise that he will never ‘burgle’ again, and allows him to escape. Unknown to John, May has been engaged by his partner as a typist, and when she enters the office the following morning and finds John opening the safe, she decides that once again her burglar has been caught red-handed. She calls for help, and is greatly chagrined when her supposed burglar is introduced as her employer. Amid explanations, the ‘burglar’ and the lady shake hands and become good friends.”

Summary from The Bioscope · 10 November 1910

What the papers said

2 reviews · 1 advertisement

“A little domestic mix-up which supplies entertainment without taxing one’s mental capacity to a simile. The best part of is the chagrin of the stenographer when she discovers her appalling mistake. The story ends there without a suspicion of anybody falling in love with anybody else, a restraint which will be duly appreciated.”

The Moving Picture World · 10 September 1910

Read in full · 1 min

“A room left vacant by its occupant while he is taking his vacation precipitates the complication here. The occupant gave his latchkey to his friend, while the landlady rented the room to two young women, one of them being the new stenographer in the friend’s office. The stenographer holds him up with a pipe that masquerades as a revolver, and the next morning repeats the performance when she finds him opening the office safe. The senior partner who employed her explains matters. The plot is good and the acting more than satisfactory. Not only are the leading roles well portrayed, but the minor parts are quite well done in the picture—the dismissed stenographer and the old landlady actually look and act their parts. There is a pleasing, symmetrical competence in the whole cast.”

The New York Dramatic Mirror · 3 September 1910

27 August 1910The Moving Picture World1 min

“This is real comedy. It’s based on an idea that’s actually funny. It’s a ‘Thanhouser funnyfilm’ with a vengeance! Imagine the feelings of a young man when he enters an apartment where he has a perfect right and finds a pair of young women who haven’t a perfect right there but only think they have—and think, besides, that the young man hasn’t. How’s that for a situation? Rich, rich, rich! Don’t miss the picture.”