Volume II: Filmography

BILLY'S RUSE

(Princess)

March 13, 1914 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel (761 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: John W. Kellette

Cast: Muriel Ostriche (as Muriel), Boyd Marshall (as Boyd, Muriel's sweetheart), Fan Bourke (as Fanny), Catherine Webb (Mrs. Warren, a neighbor), Charles Emerson, Eugene Redding, Billy Noel (Billy, Fanny's husband)

Note: The release date of this film was erroneously listed as March 6, 1914 in a synopsis in Reel Life, March 7, 1914. However, a Mutual Program schedule printed in the same issue has the release date correctly as March 13, 1914.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, March 7, 1914:

"Billy is busy showing Muriel how to do the tango on the ice, with Boyd, Muriel's sweetheart, who cannot skate, helplessly looking on, when Fanny, Billy's wife discovers her husband with his arm rather tightly embracing a strange young woman. Billy breaks away reluctantly from his fair escort and attempts to flee. Fanny is determined to make an example of her husband for other wives to gaze upon, and finally she pursues Billy so closely that he is obliged to jump through a fisherman's hole in the ice. He swims under the ice to another fisherman's hole and from that coign of vantage watches with amusement his wife's despair at having driven him into an early and unmarked grave. The reconciliation between Fanny and her shivering husband is a particularly affecting scene."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, March 8, 1914:

"There is nothing that appeals to the sense of humor quite as much as the sight of some one learning to skate, and in this very amusing comedy the fact has made that the excuse for a great deal of fun. Muriel wants her sweetheart to take her skating. He can't skate, but promises to do his best. His best isn't much, and when Billy escapes his wife and asks her to try it with him she is only too glad to do so. But wifey sees them and follows. Billy swims under the ice to get away, and at sight of him all wet and dripping her heart is softened, she takes him home, gives him hot coffee and forgives him for all his indiscretions. A very good comedy with Muriel Ostriche as the girlish temptress and Boyd Marshall as the mistreated sweetheart."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, March 28, 1914:

"An ice pond farce with some novices on skates furnishing fun. It is very laughable, for the author has kept the situation cleverly developing into freshly astonishing forms, and it is brightly acted. A good number for fun."

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