Volume II: Filmography

AT THE FOOT OF THE LADDER

September 22, 1912 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Comedy-drama

Cast: Mignon Anderson (debutante), Carey L. Hastings (her mother), Riley Chamberlin (her father), Harry Chamberlin (the reporter), William Garwood (society leader)

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, September 21, 1912:

"This is the most sizzling love story that ever left our studio griddle. It is all action. You follow Betty and her lovers with all the interest at your command. You hope with her that she'll fall finally into the right man's arms. You find yourself all stirred up over her love-fate. It is sure one gripping yarn right through."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, September 21, 1912:

"She was a sweet, charming girl, and always obeyed her dear papa and her mama. But finally a crisis arose, and what could the poor girl do? Here is the problem she had to solve: Dear papa told her that he wanted her to marry his junior partner, a 'perfectly delightful' lawyer. Mama at the same time trotted out a candidate who was a member of one of our first families, and could lead a cotillion beautifully. Mama said that Pa's candidate was 'an old fogey.' Pa called the society man 'a dude with one half the brain of a mud hen.' If she married either one she was sure to mortally offend one of her parents, so she went out on the front steps and wept bitterly. In the midst of her grief, a young newspaperman she knew happened along, and being a good newspaperman, inquired the particulars. She confided in him, and he told her how to solve the problem. 'Don't marry either of them,' he said, 'marry me. Then each of your parents will be so pleased that the other was fooled that they will forgive you.' The girl, in the meantime had agreed to elope with both the other men, to oblige Pa in one case, to make Ma happy in the other. The reporter convinced her that his suggestion was best, but she did not know how to get rid of her other suitors, who were due to help her down a ladder that night. The reporter solved the puzzle. He called in a policeman pal, and had the suitors arrested as burglar suspects. Then he eloped with the girl quietly, and visited her parents, calmly, and was forgiven without any fuss whatsoever, just as he had expected."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, September 29, 1912:

"On her return from school a debutante's father announces his desire that she marry his business partner. Her mother announces her desire that the girl marry a society man. At her coming out party she meets a newspaper reporter, who later woos and wins her from both rivals. He cleverly plots against both parents, playing one against the other by suggesting to each through the girl that it would be a good plan for her to elope with the man each parent picked out. When the night of the elopement arrives he elopes with her, and as the rivals appear under the ladder he had raised to her window he has them arrested as burglars. The next day the parents forgive the bride and groom. The reporter should have appeared at the reception in evening clothes if he is intended to be a society reporter. Interiors are well put on and exteriors are well chosen. The acting is capable."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, September 28, 1912:

"Good comedy. Father desires daughter to marry his partner, mother desires daughter to marry a society young man, daughter desires to marry a reporter; daughter wins out."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, September 25, 1912:

"Here is an excellent comedy, well told, and, furthermore, a moral is attached. During the first scene the spectator gets a clear understanding of the relative position of the characters and a meager inkling of the complications that are to follow, which engages his interest. As each scene is flashed upon the screen the plot accumulates, and never slows down until the finish, when the little heroine rests securely in the arms of the man she decided to marry. The girl, played by Mignon Anderson, had just made her debut into society, and her father and mother assumed the task of picking out a suitable husband for her. Mother is decided to see her daughter married to a society leader, and father to his junior partner. The girl meets, at her coming out party, the man she decides to marry. The father plans an elopement for his child thinking to appeal to her romantic side, and so does mother, and the girl, discovering their plot, plans an elopement of her own with the young newspaperman of her fancy. She agrees separately with the parents to elope with the man at the foot of the ladder at twelve o'clock. Through the newspaper youth, the society leader and the partner are arrested as burglars, he carries the girl off to be married, and the girl on returning explains that she did as they told her and married the man waiting at the foot of the ladder. Harry Chamberlin is cast in the role of the reporter, Carey L. Hastings as the mother, and Riley Chamberlin as the father."

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