Volume II: Filmography

UNA'S USEFUL UNCLE

Advertisement from Reel Life, December 25, 1915. (F-872)

(Falstaff)

December 27, 1915 (Monday)

Length: 1 reel (1,030 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Charles Emerson (Una), Winifred Lane (Una's wife), Riley Chamberlin (Uncle Dan)

Notes: 1. In a listing in Reel Life, Riley Chamberlin was listed last among the players in this film, and yet in the same issue (December 27, 1915), the film is described as "Starring Riley Chamberlin." 2. Una is typically considered to be a woman's name, but not in this film.

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, December 25, 1915:

"Riley Chamberlin will make everybody say 'Uncle.'"

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, December 25, 1915:

"Una and his wife are struggling to earn a living from their small farm and pay off the mortgage. But relatives descend upon them and devour their substance. The wife's mother at last departs. They are again plunged into despair, however, by the arrival of Una's uncle. Uncle Dan pretends to help Una gather the apples, but most of the time he is indulging in naps in shady places. The farmer pays his next interest to the miserly money-lender. On his way home he drops the receipt. The miser finds it. He demands payment again. Una and his wife can produce no proof of having handed in the money. Uncle Dan intervenes. At a dance that night he appears before the committee of arrangements with some samples of the celebrated 'Usquebaugh Apple.' Everybody who tastes the apple wants another. Uncle Dan is receiving big orders for the 'Usquebaugh' when the miserly money-lender steps in and makes an offer for Una's farm. The miser is told that he must pay cash. He cheerfully does so. Uncle Dan and the young farmer take the midnight train to New York. But not before Uncle has handed to the money-lender a sealed envelope which, he says, contains the formula. 'For definition of 'Usquebaugh' look in the dictionary,' reads the document. The miser looks. 'Usquebaugh is the old Irish word for whiskey,' says the book."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, December 25, 1915:

"Riley Chamberlin plays the role of Uncle in this amusing comedy. Uncle proves useful in spite of his addiction to the bottle, for when the mortgage on the farm comes due and the hard-hearted mortgagor tries to play a mean trick on the young couple, Uncle gets even by doctoring some apples with whiskey. The result is that the villain of the play discounts the mortgage, and pays Uncle $5,000 for the formula of the growing of such apples. Something after the order of The New Adventures of J. Rufus Wallingford."

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