Volume II: Filmography

WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE

April 21, 1911 (Friday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Cast: Frank H. Crane (banker), Julia M. Taylor (daughter)

Note: Another Thanhouser film with the same title was released on August 13, 1915.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, April 15, 1911:

"A great spectacular reel that we're glad to stick our trademark onto, for its supreme merit will read down to that trademark's credit. Still it may harm us by making you look for a run of like subjects, and it's difficult to do a Weighed in the Balance every week. Likely its our best effort in the spectacular line since Governor's Daughter. While we can't guarantee a weekly prototype, we can say that 1911 will see many more pictures as good as this, and a few even better."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, April 22, 1911:

"To carry out his experiments with high explosives, an old chemist spends all his money and finally mortgages his home, his sole remaining asset. The chemist, like most scientists of ability, is a poor businessman, and when his debt falls due is unable to meet it. His creditor, a hardheaded banker, refuses any extension of time, and the scientist decides to seek the refuge of the weak, suicide. He plans to blow himself up with a bomb he has constructed, and hopes that his fate will be regarded as an accident. Fortunately for him, his daughter, the widower's only child, discovers his plan in time to save him, and to excuse himself in her eyes, he cheerfully tells her of his troubles. The girl decides to make another appeal to the creditor, and calls upon him, accompanied by her father. He offers them aid, but the condition horrifies the girl, for help will be accorded the father only on the condition that the daughter marry the creditor.

"The girl is engaged to the man of her choice. But she must either break his heart, she thinks, or condemn her father to death - for she knows he will not survive if separated from his beloved laboratory. She chooses, and agrees to marry a man she hates. On the wedding day, the rejected suitor makes his appearance unannounced. He confronts the bride, who is in her wedding dress and on her way to the altar. He shows her a revolver, and tells her that when the minister pronounces her the wife of the other man, the pistol shot that ends his life will mingle with the congratulations of her wedding guests. The girl tears the revolver from his grasp. He then tells her that in her father's laboratory he will find other means of death, that it is appropriate that her family shall supply the weapon that ends the life of the man they have ruined. Then he dashes out.

"In her wedding dress, the bride to be follows. By this time she is half crazed herself. They meet in the laboratory, and she brings forward the bomb that her father has constructed. She tells the young man that as they cannot live together they will die together, lights the fuse and awaits the end. The suitor is one of those men who is more interested in the theory of suicide than in the practice of it. His course fails as he sees death, marked by the burning fuse, creeping slowly toward him. In a panic he runs away, leaving the girl to die alone. She is so weak and faint that she cannot follow if she would. The rejected suitor, while running away, meets the bridegroom. He babbles out the story, and tells him that the girl's death is only a matter of seconds. The other man is not deterred by this; he runs into the laboratory, and throws the bomb from the window in the nick of time. The girl now has the chance to compare her two suitors. She sees that the man she thought she loved is a weak, pitiful creature unworthy of any good woman's respect, while the man she scorned has the strong, manly traits that compel admiration. He offers her freedom, but she does not want it. She tells them that love has come into her heart, unexpectedly, and joyfully they go to the altar."

REVIEW, The Billboard, April 22, 1911:

"A splendid little story, very well staged, excellently photographed, and with a very different ending from the conventional. A chemist's daughter is in love. The chemist is compelled to mortgage his home and laboratory and some few years later he faces financial ruin without any funds to take in the mortgage. He decides on dropping a bomb in his laboratory, but is prevented from doing so by his daughter, who enters at the opportune moment. The banker has a proposition. He will cancel the mortgage if awarded the daughter's hand in marriage. She, to save her father the disgrace of bankruptcy, consents, much to the displeasure of her lover. The wedding ceremony is about to start, when the lover rushes in and tells the girl that he will kill himself if she marries the banker. They both go to the laboratory and consent to die together, but the lover, losing heart, runs away, leaving the girl in the room where a bomb is about to explode. The banker rushes in and saves the girl. He releases her from her promises to marry him, but she now loves him, and the incident ends happily."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, April 23, 1911: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, May 6, 1911: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, April 26, 1911:

"The fine acting and directing together with the general management save this melodramatic and mechanical story from drifting into the commonplace. It is well presented and shows fine characterization, which makes the story more plausible. The old chemist, to further carry out his experiments in explosives, is obliged to mortgage his home. Unable to meet the obligation he decides to blow himself up in his laboratory in such a way that his daughter will never know. The daughter enters in time to prevent the bomb from going off. The creditor, on being appealed to again, makes the offer to annul the debt if the daughter will marry him. Thinking of her father, the girl relinquishes her old sweetheart. On the hour of her wedding this young man appears and threatens to kill himself the minute she is married. She takes the revolver from him, but he goes away threatening. She follows him to her father's laboratory, and there after she has agreed to meet death with him, he lights the bomb and flees. She, however, is saved by her intended husband, who has followed and who throws the bomb out the window, causing the side of the building to cave in. He relinquishes her, but she, realizing his true worth, will not consent to the annulment."

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