Volume II: Filmography

A PERPLEXING PICKLE PUZZLE

(Falstaff)

September 30, 1915 (Thursday)

Length: 1 reel (1,020 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Arthur Cunningham, Claude Cooper, Leland Benham (Heine Schmulz)

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, October 9, 1915:

"Raphael Rembrandt was a painter, but unlike the great masters he did not confine himself to any one branch of work, as he proudly announced in his sign he painted 'Portraits, Houses, Black Eyes and Fences.' To this he added another side line, that of expert detective work in all its phases. One of the first persons to whom Rembrandt displayed his credentials was Lena, a comely widow who conducted a prosperous delicatessen store, and the artist hoped that some day she would change her name to Lena Rembrandt.

"When he told her of his new distinction she decided to confide in him, now that he was a detective. She explained that during a number of weeks past many pickles had mysteriously disappeared from her store. The artist took up the case with energy. There were no fingerprints on the remaining pickles. There was really nothing that could be regarded as a clue. The first night the detective remained in the delicatessen store. During the first half of the night he slept with one eye open, during the other half he slumbered with the other eye open, but in the morning more pickles had vanished. When he explained the matter to the widow she was frankly suspicious, saying, 'It may be that you like pickles a good deal yourself,' but her suspicion vanished before the detective's anger, and she urged him to go on with the case, which he did.

"The following evening the detective heard a suspicious noise in the cellar and went to investigate. Suspended from the ceiling immediately under the spot where the pickle barrel was, he perceived a rude swing. Access to it could be gained by a ladder which was in place beside it. The detective ascended the ladder, shoved his hand through the hole in the ceiling, and withdrew a pickle! He took the pickle upstairs to examine it more closely. He bit off a piece of it and decided it was a pickle. Then the wrathful widow pounced in upon him and more explanations were needed.

"Lena finally retired and the detective laid a trap for the thieves. He rolled the barrel away, put an empty one in that space, and hid in the barrel to await developments. They came. Somebody bored a hole through the barrel and the detective climbed out to investigate. In the cellar he again climbed the ladder and peered through the opening to the floor above. A moment later the ladder fell leaving the investigator helpless in midair. Lena heard cries coming from the store and rushed in to find her only son, a boy of nine. He called to her excitedly, 'Burglars are in the cellar eating pickles,' and full of anger she rushed down to investigate. While arguing with the helpless detective a stream of water descended upon them from above, drenching them thoroughly. The perplexing pickle puzzle was never satisfactorily elucidated by either the delicatessen store proprietress or the painter-detective, but a boyish chum of Lena's son was heard to say, 'I wish I was Heine Schmulz. His mother has a delicatessen store, and she fills his pockets with pickles every day.'"

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, October 9, 1915:

"The woman in the grocery store misses a great number of pickles from her barrel and employs a detective to trace the thief. The latter turns out to be her son, who has tapped the barrel through the floor. The settings and types are good; the plot is only fairly strong."

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