Volume II: Filmography

THE AMATEUR DETECTIVE

December 6, 1914 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (990 feet)

Character: Comedy-drama; "A laughable parody on Sherlock Holmes"

Director: Carroll Fleming

Cast: Carey L. Hastings (Jane), Ernest C. Warde (Pat), J.S. Murray (Mr. Wise), Muriel Ostriche (Betty, Wise's daughter), Harris Gordon (Jack, Betty's sweetheart)

Notes: 1. In a review in The Moving Picture World, December 19, 1914, the title was listed erroneously in the plural: The Amateur Detectives. 2. This film was produced in mid October 1914.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, November 28, 1914:

"Jane and Pat, her policeman admirer, whom she has taught to believe himself a second Sherlock Holmes, think that they have discovered a blackhand plot against Mr. Wise, Jane's employer. In reality the mysterious signs they have seen on the back fence are Jack's secret language to Betty, his sweetheart, whom Father Wise considers too young to have beaux. Betty and Jack find out that Jane has mistaken their innocent hieroglyphics for blackhand signals, so they scheme to get father worried, to have Jack masquerade as a detective, subdue a bogus blackhand gang, and then, throwing off his disguise, claim Betty as his reward. Pat precipitates matters, however, by arresting the young hero prematurely. Jack is obliged to unmask. But Mr. Wise, seeing the joke, gives Betty to Jack."

REVIEW, The Bioscope, March 25, 1915:

"A young couple's ingenious scheme to obtain an unwilling father's consent to their marriage by intimidating him with 'Black Hand' threats is interwoven with a comic servant's love affair with a policeman. It is fairly amusing, but should have been taken somewhat faster."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, December 6, 1914:

"Jane, the cook, has persuaded Pat, her policeman lover, that he is a second Sherlock Holmes. Jack and Betty have a secret code in which they address each other on the back fence. Jane and Pat think the hieroglyphics are Black Hand signs. Pat arrests Jack, but Pa Wise sees the joke, gives Betty to him and all ends well."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, December 19, 1914:

"Another of the familiar black hand comedies, in which the girl and hero alarmed the household with mystic symbols and then turned detectives and earned the reward. The plot is only a trifle, and the cast is pleasing and the photography good."

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