Volume II: Filmography

THE WRECKED TAXI

August 16, 1912 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Cast: Riley Chamberlin, Harry Benham, Florence LaBadie (the wife), Ethyle Cooke, Dorothy Benham

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture News, August 3, 1912:

"The Wrecked Taxi shows a real taxi wreck, and then some thrilling court scenes in which a woman confesses, thereby almost loses her standing in society and the love of her husband - but she sends a guiltless man free and feels best for the accomplishment."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, August 10, 1912:

"The girl had two devoted suitors, and when she made her choice the rejected man remained her devoted friend. In her married life the girl was not as happy as she had expected to be, and she and her husband frequently quarreled. It was not surprising, therefore, that her thoughts turned towards the 'other man,' and in the course of time she believed that she would be far happier with him. After a particularly bitter quarrel with her husband one night, the wife, yielding to impulse, determined to run away and join the other man. She found him in his rooms, but he wouldn't let her remain. He talked to her of her baby, and finally induced her to return home. The man called a taxi cab, and with the woman started for her residence. On the way, the taxi was wrecked, the chauffeur killed, but the occupants were picked up by another auto party and taken in the direction they desired to go. The couple reached the house unobserved and it appeared as though the woman's impulsive fault would never be revealed to the world. Just before they left the man's rooms, however, a dissolute friend of his called, much under the influence of liquor, and had been left in the house by them. Wandering about the place in a half-dazed state, he found his host's revolver, thought of his own financial troubles and ended his life. No one saw the man the moment he entered the house. No one saw the man return. The first it was known that it was a suicide was when the tenant called for help and the policemen and others who knew him found the lifeless victim.

"A doctor who examined the body said the man had been dead for several hours. The suspect could have easily proven his innocence by telling that at the time indicated he was in a taxi wreck, some miles away. But the truth would have ruined a woman's reputation, and he kept silent. At the time of the accident, when questioned by the police, he and the woman had given fictitious names, and there were no others to prove that the facts were true. The woman also did not speak until the man was on trial for his life. Then remorse overcame her and she made a full confession, clearing the man, but so angering her husband that he drove her from him, refusing to listen to any explanation she and the man might make. Five years later the husband, lonely and unhappy, was convinced that he had been unjust. He waited for a chance to make amends with his wife, and the chance came. He found that her heart was wrapped up in their child, and while she might have been foolish, yet she had not sinned and heartily repented of her past conduct. Furthermore, he saw that he had been much to blame himself, and vowed to make amends in the future. And so they took up life together again."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, August 18, 1912: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture News, August 10, 1912:

"An excellent production, but it lacks the merits of Big Sister. It has a few hurried spots, and one or two inconsistencies."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, August 24, 1912:

"There is one scene in this drama which will make a whole lot of fun - and that is a youngster in a bathtub enjoying his daily bath. However, there is plenty of good straight stuff to hold attention and interest all the way. There is good photography and also some pretty park views, in one of which there is a children's May party."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 14, 1912:

"The events in this story come thick and fast, but the plot is not always as clear as one might wish, and the sequence of events is not entirely logical and probable. But in general the acting is passable, and the production smooth enough. A woman who has two lovers makes her choice, but later regrets it, and is told by the disappointed one that if she ever needs a friend she must come to him. After an especially harsh quarrel with her husband she decides to go to Harry, but while in his apartment a drunken friend of his comes in. Harry makes the woman see her mistake and she agrees to go back, so they enter a taxi, which is wrecked on the way, but from which they escape without revealing their identity. When Harry returns to his rooms he finds that the drunken friend has shot himself, but the police accuse Harry of murder. At the trial he refuses to establish an alibi, and the woman does it for him. This makes the husband very jealous and the couple part. Later they meet at a May festival, where the little daughter, whom the father has taken possession of, has been crowned queen, and the husband and wife reunited again. It is probable that a man being tried for murder would risk explaining a matter which was not so compromising after all."

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