Volume II: Filmography

THE SOMNAMBULIST

May 17, 1914 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (994 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: John William Kellette

Cast: Cyril Chadwick (Algernon, the sleepwalker), Florence LaBadie (Marianne, his wife), Sidney Bracy (Tom, a hotel transient), N.S. Woods (Jack, the day clerk), Arthur Bauer (Frank, the night clerk), Peggy Burke

Notes: 1. In the synopsis in Reel Life, the sleepwalker is named Algernon and his wife is named Marianne; in The Moving Picture World synopsis the two characters are named Bill and May. 2. In a review of this film in The Moving Picture World, May 23, 1914, the release date is given erroneously as May 15, 1914. 3. It is believed that this film represented Peggy Burke's first motion picture role with Thanhouser.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, May 16, 1914:

"Algernon tries the patience of his gentle wife by wandering in his sleep. In the wee small hours of the morning he travels the roofs of the neighboring apartment houses, and rambles the streets. Marianne sews his name and address on the back of his pajamas, and leaves the rest to Providence. One night, prowling in his sleep, he descends a fire escape and enters a hotel room where Tom is peacefully slumbering. He climbs into bed, but soon wakes. Seeing Tom there, but no trace of Marianne, he leaps to the conclusion that this intruder has made away with his wife. He summons help, and as the night clerk does not know Tom, and Algernon's story sounds plausible enough, he gets a policeman, and Tom is carried, protesting violently, downstairs. Here, however, the bellboy recognizes him as a transient arrived that day. Algernon, meanwhile, perceives that he is not in his own house and that he is likely to get himself into serious trouble. Marianne has already discovered his absence and has gone to notify the police. On her return, she finds her lost husband asleep in bed. In desperation, she ties a rope to a staple on the wall where he cannot reach it, knotting the noose around his neck. And across the fire escape, Tom is rigging up an automatic window-releasing attachment, fatal to sleepwalkers."

Note: The ending seemingly is incomplete.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, May 23, 1914: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, May 20, 1914:

"An entertaining comedy based on the sleepwalking habit of an otherwise well-behaved husband. Fearing he may get hopelessly lost, his wife sews his name and address on his pajamas. The next time hubby wanders away for a nocturnal ramble, he ends up in a hotel room occupied by another man, and is the cause of considerable unpleasantness. Back under the care of his wife, a noose is slipped around the somnambulist's neck, and he is safely tied to the bed. Flo LaBadie and other Thanhouser players give very acceptable performances in this carefully produced film."

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