Volume II: Filmography

A SIX-CYLINDER ELOPEMENT

October 6, 1912 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Comedy-drama

Cast: Riley Chamberlin (the father, ex-congressman Gray), Mignon Anderson (girl who elopes), William Garwood (John Henderson, her sweetheart)

Note: The title was inspired by A Six-Cylinder Courtship, a popular novel of the day.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, October 5, 1912:

"A boy, a girl, and a 'red devil' are speeding features of this mile-a-minute comedy."

SYNOPSIS, The Bioscope, February 20, 1913:

"A young man defeats his prospective father-in-law at the election, and father cancels the engagement. He sends his daughter to a boarding school, but the young man tracks her and arranges an elopement. The school teacher foils it with the aid of father, but the young man wins his bride in the end."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, October 5, 1912:

"The old man had political ambitions and a beautiful daughter. He uttered no protest when a bright young lawyer captured the latter, but when the same individual landed the congressional nomination upon which the other had confidently counted, there was trouble. Enraged at his defeat, the old man summarily broke the engagement and sent his daughter back to a boarding school. The congressman-to-be was resourceful. He located the school and smuggled in a note, informing the girl that he would be waiting on the other side of the wall during supper hour, and that she should slip out then and join him. The schoolteacher was as cunning as the young man was resourceful. She learned the details of the plot, notified the father by phone, and laughed maliciously when he told her of a plan that popped into his head. At the appointed time the girl was in the garden and saw the rope slide over the garden wall. By its aid she clamored to the top, and to her horror discovered that her father, not her sweetheart, was waiting for her. The old man put her into his auto and drove off triumphantly. The resourceful congressman-to-be arrived with his rope, but all he found at the end of it, when he pulled it up, was the schoolteacher. Then he departed.

"Perhaps the old man didn't have the right kind of an auto, or perhaps Cupid tampered with the engine. Anyhow, there was a breakdown on the road and the father, with many lamentations, did what many auto owners have done - crawled under the machine to try and find why the wheels would not go around. The resourceful young man drove up to them at this moment. Softly he signaled to the girl, drove along side, and she hopped from one tonneau into the other. Then they proceeded on their way, and when the old man reappeared, covered with mud and oil, they were gaily spinning down the road. He gave chase, vowing he would follow them everywhere. Perhaps he would have done so, had it not been that the younger man had another card to play. Noticing a constable asleep by the roadside, he aroused him and directed his attention to the approaching auto. 'Exceeding the speed limit,' the young man gravely said. 'Thank you,' replied the constable gratefully. 'I am paid by fees.' Then he waited and nabbed the angry father. As the happy young couple were entering a wayside church, father drove by in his auto. He would have stopped but the constable urged him on and led him to the presence of the representative of the law he had defied. He was still there when his new son-in-law arrived, and remarked that he had called 'to pay father's fine.' He did, and the old man was too crushed to upbraid him. Furthermore, he feared that if he struggled longer, he might be worsted in a more humiliating way."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, October 13, 1912:

"It is the delightful manner in which this story is told which makes it so entertaining. It is merely an elopement tale between a school girl and her young lover, with the incidental attempts on the part of the girl's father to break off the match and to prevent the marriage. The business of the rope over the wall is amusing. The pursuit is funny when the auto carrying the father and his daughter breaks down. This is the climax and it is well worked up."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, October 5, 1912:

"Good comedy, Riley Chamberlin has the part of the daddy who interrupts the elopement, only to be beaten out in an ingenious situation."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, October 9, 1912:

"After the fashion of all well-to-do 20th century couples, the one in this story elopes in a high-powered automobile and is pursued by the girl's irate father in another speedy machine, but the familiar tale is given new twists that make it a first-rate comedy. For instance, ex-congressman Gray takes kindly to the idea of Henderson as his son-in-law until he is informed through a newspaper that the young man probably will be nominated for Congress, thereby blasting his own hopes. Henderson is summarily dismissed from the house, and the girl is dispatched to Miss Simkins' Seminary. Henderson follows and succeeds in getting a note into the hands of his sweetheart, saying that he will wait for her that night outside the grounds, the exact spot to be designated by a rope thrown over the wall. Word of the plan reaches Miss Simkins, who telephones the girl's father, and it is into his arms that she falls when dragged over the wall. Soon Henderson arrives, and gives chase in his six-cylinder car. Fortune favors him, for Gray's machine breaks down, and while the ex-congressman and his chauffeur are under the car looking for the trouble, the girl jumps into Henderson's machine, and the two make good their escape. Gray follows close behind, but is arrested for speeding, and is taken to the police station, while his daughter and Henderson are being married. The young man pays the father-in-law's fine, and all is forgiven. Amusing situations provide several good laughs in this picture. In the cast are Mignon Anderson, William Garwood, and Riley Chamberlin."

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