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1914PrincessOne reelDrama

When Vice Shuddered

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

“John Gale, president of the National City Bank, is a victim of gambling. His debts accumulate until he is led one night to rob the safe. As he is making his escape he is pursued by the janitor, who has returned to the bank for a bottle of medicine for his sick wife which he has forgotten there. Meanwhile two crooks cut the burglar alarm wires and enter the bank. The police see them and give the alarm. Gale and the janitor are struggling at the railway station. The latter is trying to convince the president that he must not flee the town, but should return the money and go home to his wife and children. At last Gale turns back with his advisor to the bank. The crooks, running out of an alley, with the police in hot pursuit, run into Gale. The bag of money falls, and before the crooks can escape, the police have them. Then one of the officers picks up the bag, and handing it to the president, says that the burglars have just emptied the safe. The money is put back. Gale’s reputation is saved. And the young janitor goes home with the medicine to his sick wife, happy in the realization that the has saved his employer’s honor.”

Summary from Reel Life · 31 October 1914

What the papers said

2 reviews

“A conventional but effective little drama, which is well acted and is, indeed, quite good in every way, without containing any feature of exceptional brilliance. The plot tells how a bank cashier, who has determined to rob his employers in order to pay his gambling debts, is deterred just in time by the caretaker.”

The Bioscope · 11 February 1915

“The janitor saves the bank cashier from looting the bank vault. The fact that convenient burglars had been there helps cover the tracks of the cashier’s embezzlement and he apparently goes scot free. The story is not strong and there is not much convincing realism in the scenes; but there is much prettiness in the picture and the players are pleasing.”

The Moving Picture World · 21 November 1914

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Cast and crew

Director
Arthur Ellery
Cast
Bill Sullivan
Boyd Marshall
Charles Mather
Ethel Stevens as Gale’s wife
Gordon Hollingshead
John Reinhard as John Gale, bank president
Kenneth Clarendon
Mayre Hall
R. Abrahams
Samuel Niblack

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Watch instead

Films you can watch from the same company

Matched by cast, director and kind
A frame from The Decoy. A frame from The Decoy (1914), from the Thanhouser restoration on Vimeo.16:08
1914 · Same castThe Decoy
A frame from The Tell-Tale Scar12:09
1914 · Same castThe Tell-Tale Scar
A frame from Crossed Wires30:58
1915 · Same castCrossed Wires

More about this film

Bowers’ notes
  1. The title of this film was listed erroneously as When Vice Shatters in schedules in The Moving Picture World, October 31 and November 7, 1914, and The New York Dramatic Mirror, October 28, 1914. Perhaps this was the working title for the film, or perhaps Thanhouser’s publicity director (Jay Cairns) furnished trade papers with an incorrect title. 2. In addition to the Princess subject for this date, a Thanhouser film, The Chasm, was originally scheduled for release on November 6, 1914. However, the release date was moved forward a week to November 13th. 3. Production of this film began on October 19, 1914.

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1914 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “When Vice Shuddered”. thanhouser.org/films/when-vice-shuddered/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known