Volume II: Filmography Volume II: Filmography
May 26, 1911 (Friday)
Length: 1,000 feet
Character: Drama
Cast: William Russell (bunco artist), William Garwood (the husband), Marguerite Snow (the wife), Marie Eline (the daughter of the poor widow)
Note: The Utopia Mining Company, also known as the Utopia Investment Corporation, figured in the scenario of this film. An outfit named the Utopia Mining Company was also a part of The Tramp, a Thanhouser film released on March 24, 1911.
ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, May 20, 1911:
"A new kind of bunco story - Get Rich Quick is the story of a poverty-stricken man and his wife, who after they had gotten the riches, concluded they were better off poor. How this realization came to them is just what makes the story the dramatic gem it is. The human interest in it will enthrall you - hold you captive until the reel works out to its wonderful conclusion. The picture achieves a distinct mission in teaching that gold is not all and that it is useless, after all, to gain it the way that so many of our 'best people' do nowadays."
SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, May 20, 1911:
"A young working man, with a steady job, good health and the wife he loves devotedly is thoroughly happy, but the woman is not. She hates her shabby clothes and her narrow surroundings and is constantly hoping and praying that good fortune will knock at their door. One of Jack's friends is a shifty individual, who lives by his wits. With another acquaintance he evolves a 'get rich quick' scheme that promises great returns - to the promoters. The two crooks want the working man with them, figuring that his good reputation and the confidence of his fellow workers reposing him will be a valuable asset. The young man refuses, but his wife insists. She tells him that the world owes him a living, and that she wants to be somebody, not a nobody. And to fulfill her dreams he consents.
"Like other propositions of its kind, this is a swindle from the start. The crooks regard everything that comes in as theirs, and prevent money going out by false statements of wonderful profits. Jack takes his share of the loot, and his wife finds that she can dress as she wishes, eat what she wants, and meets the people she desires to know. Therefore she is happy. But the full nature of his crime is brought home to Jack when a poor widow calls to tell him that his partners have vanished and that every cent that the old woman has in the world is swept away. She is friendless, too old to work, and also has a tiny grandchild dependent upon her. Jack, realizing that he is responsible for blasted lives and ruined homes, is convinced that he has paid too large a price for the jewels and gowns of his wife. Remorseful, he decides to die. His wife reaches his side just in time to save his life. She demands an explanation, and he tells her. She tears off her gems, expresses sorrow for her selfishness, and tells him they will face the world together. Jack makes restitution to his dupes as far as he is able, and through the intercession of the old widow, they agree to give him a fresh start. And he returns to his former life, both he and his wife realizing that there is sorrow and seldom happiness in money made dishonestly."
REVIEW, The Billboard, May 27, 1911:
"The acting on the part of the wife in this playlet is about the most natural we have ever seen in a moving picture. The story is excellent, possessing a high moral tone, the parts besides the wife are finely played. The play is well staged also and is very splendidly photographed. The wife induces her husband to enter a get-rich-quick scheme in order to alleviate the miserably poor condition in which they are living. They are young people and long for better things. He enters a scheme in which many poor people invest their savings, and becomes rich. One evening his partners announce the firm's failure, and, taking all the cash on hand, skip. On that very evening the wife is holding a gay reception for her friends, not until after the last guest is gone does the husband discover the newspaper article announcing the failure of the firm, although a distracted woman has called earlier to explain her loss in the firm. He is disconsolate and about to shoot himself when his wife arrives and prevents a tragedy. He goes the next morning to the office where he pays out to the company's creditors all the savings he has, and assures them that given time he will repay all. The handsome new home in which they had bought upon their success and which so pleased the wife, was sold and the couple returned to a simple home but are happy in the thought that they are again square with mankind."
REVIEW, Motography, June 1911:
"The first few scenes of this drama are logical and well motivated. After the change in fortune, however, the action, no less than the setting, becomes decidedly artificial, reaching a climax in the trashy and very conventional attempt at suicide, and the wife's theatrical repentance. The last scene or two, being in spirit more sincere and natural, helps considerably to restore artistic equilibrium. It is fundamentally and interesting drama, with a good moral, and Thanhouser might easily have scored a hit by handling the middle section in better taste. The settings are average, adequate in most cases, although the 'wealthy' interiors had a shabby insubstantiality that not even the get-rich-quick atmosphere can explain or refuse. It would seem that the final scene should have been more carefully differentiated from the opening scene; the setting was identical and the actors wore the self-same costumes. In view of the fact that period a of several months and a radical change of fortune had intervened, this detailed resemblance is improbable and looks like carelessness. The dissolving picture appearing through the newspaper headlines was a clever and novel stroke."
REVIEW in "Film Charts," The Moving Picture News, May 27, 1911:
"Start: Rebellion
"Finish: Remorse
"Moral: Pearls made from tears cannot bring happiness
"Reception: Big
"Biggest moment: When the money-crazed see the vice and vanity of it'"
REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, June 10, 1911:
"This film pictures a young married couple, poor and discontented, then rich with ill gotten gains, which they give back, become poor again and in poverty find the happiness they sought for. It teaches a healthy lesson, but it is like some old style Sunday school story books - and is far from convincing. The Thanhouser company has skillful players and they did remarkably well with this story. The poor widow is pictured very well indeed, except in the scene where the hero dreams he sees her out in the cold. It was meant to be a piteous picture, but, perhaps because the actress was thinking of 'The Two Orphans,' she looked as though she wanted to smile. It was affecting to the hero, for he pulled open the drawer of a table and there was a pistol. His wife keeps him from killing himself for shame of his deed and he decides to give the money back to the poor people whom he has legally robbed. Skillful acting makes this play, just as it is, acceptable, but it might have been a great deal better."
REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, May 31, 1911:
"An admirable story of dramatic strength and ingenuity is unfolded upon this film. It is well rendered by the characters involved, and the transition from poverty to wealth is well drawn, both in acting and setting, the latter exhibiting the poor taste and cheapness of the newly rich. The little wife was much discontented in her small unadorned flat, and persuaded her husband to become associated with a crooked deal of a fake mining company. His only pleasure was her keen enjoyment of her new life. At length, the other men involved left with their gains. He learned of their fraud in the midst of a superficial dinner party and became conscience-stricken. He persuaded his wife of her mistaken views and surrendered what money he had in payment of the company's debt."
# # #
Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.