Volume II: Filmography

A RURAL FREE DELIVERY ROMANCE

a.k.a. A ROMANCE OF THE RURAL ROUTE

(Princess)

January 2, 1914 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel (1,012 feet)

Character: Comedy

Director: Carl Louis Gregory

Assistant director: Claude Seixas

Cameraman: Carl Louis Gregory

Cast: Boyd Marshall (Fred, a rural mail driver), Muriel Ostriche (Ruth, his sweetheart), Morgan Jones (Post Office inspector), Claude Seixas (mail driver)

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, December 27, 1913:

"Ruth lives with her miserly uncle, whose grocer threatens him with a lawsuit for failure to pay a bill of long standing. The uncle, Herman Long, has been thwarting the love affair between Ruth and the rural letter carrier - and he determines to use Fred in escaping his obligations to the grocer, and to break off any attachment between him and his niece, forever. He summons two witnesses and shows them an envelope addressed to the grocer, containing the sum demanded. Then, by a clever ruse, he exchanges this envelope for an empty one, which he gives to Fred for registration. When the grocer receives the empty envelope, and the thing is made public, evidence is against Fred - especially as it is known that he has recently bought an expensive ring. Ruth finds the duplicate envelope in her uncle's wastepaperbasket - and, suspecting treachery, carries it to the Post Office. One of the witnesses recognizes this as the original envelope by a tobacco stain on it - the miser is cornered, and Fred is vindicated."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, January 4, 1914:

"Muriel Ostriche plays the role of a rural mail carrier's sweetheart, and she makes a more attractive one than many such persons are fortunate enough to have. Boyd Marshall is the mail carrier. Ruth's miserly uncle is trying to prevent her marriage to Fred. He is also trying to dodge a large grocery bill. He works up a plan to accomplish both designs at once. In the presence of two witnesses he places money sufficient to pay the bill in an envelope and has Fred register it. He cleverly substitutes an empty envelope for the one containing the money, and as a result Fred is accused of stealing the amount. Ruth fortunately finds the other envelope, and with the aid of a post office inspector shows up her uncle's villainy."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, January 17, 1914:

"The miserly uncle puts up a job on the young mail carrier, who wants to marry his niece. In the end the uncle's scheme is exposed. A light subject of about average interest."

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