Volume II: Filmography

THE POACHER

Advertisement from the Moving Picture World, March 7, 1912. (F-320)

March 15, 1912 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Director: Lucius Henderson

Cameraman: Carl L. Gregory

Cast: Charles Van Houten, Harry Benham (leading man), Marie Eline (the little boy), Harry Marks, Jack Noble (game warden), David H. Thompson (game warden)

Note: In Great Britain this film was advertised as The Poachers.

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture News, March 2, 1912:

"A rich old man owned an estate in the Adirondacks, where he spent most of his time. Having nothing of real importance to occupy his time, he devoted all his energies to hunting down poachers who would sometimes stealthily visit his estate. The theft of a rabbit would drive the old man into a frightful rage, while for an outsider to kill a deer he regarded on the plane of high treason. Therefore, it was with feelings of great joy that he greeted two keepers who had captured a man shooting game on the magnate's estate. The rich man was a magistrate, partially because he enjoyed sending persons to jail, and in this particular case he signed the commitment papers with great personal satisfaction. It was a flimsy old country jail, and the prisoner managed to break out. Then he started through the woods, hoping to keep out of the way of his enemy.

"There was only one person the magnate really loved, his little grandson. The boy had been present when the poacher had been arraigned, and had expressed sympathy for him. This child was accustomed to having his own way, and impressed by what he had heard, decided to be a poacher himself. With his sturdy toy gun, he started out for an expedition in the woods all alone. He was lost, but finally found refuge in a cabin, where he sank exhausted, unable to go further. There was no one in the shack to help him, as it was deserted and falling into decay, and the child would undoubtedly have perished of the cold had it not been for the arrival of the fugitive poacher. The man was in a quandary. If he left the boy, the child would certainly perish from exposure. He needed care and medicine, and needed it at once. The nearest place of refuge was the home of the magnate, but to take him there meant that the poacher would be recaptured. In fact, his only chance to escape was to cover the greatest possible amount of ground in the shortest possible space of time.

"It was a choice of liberty or humanity, and the poacher decided to sacrifice himself for the boy. He carried him through the woods, intending to leave him at the door of his home, and then escape if possible, but he was pounced upon and captured just as he wearily toiled up the steps with his burden. The keepers triumphantly produced him before the magnate and waited for words of praise, but the boy revived in time to make it clear that he owed his life to the man who was fleeing from the law. The magnate marked 'Complaint Dismissed' across the warrant, in the case where he was both accuser and judge, and told the prisoner that he would see that he had a fair chance to succeed in life. 'And I never thought I would place a poacher at the top of my list of friends,' he added, 'but I have.'"

SYNOPSIS, The Morning Telegraph, March 3, 1912:

"The poacher is taken up by the Thanhouser producers in a story of the Adirondacks issued Friday, March 15. It is called The Poacher and it is not all tragedy, as some might suspect, but solely a human interest story that is very pretty and very comforting right through, and that is mainly light and sunshine. The particular poacher wasn't a half bad fellow at all, and was largely driven to his deed by hard circumstances; unfortunately he was apprehended on the estate of a man who was the borough magistrate - and a hard one. He immediately consigned the poacher to jail. The place was flimsily constructed, as country jails are, and the poacher succeeded in getting out. Fleeing, he finds a hut, and in it a little boy who is dying, almost, from the cold. The fugitive wraps the child in his own tattered coat and thereby saves his life. And learning that the boy is the stern magistrate's son, our poacher even ventures to carry him to his father's [sic; synopsis suggests grandfather's] door. The reader may guess the rest - how the magistrate did not decide to send the poacher to a stronger jail, but, rather, gave him help and saved him from the commission of further transgressions."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, March 17, 1912:

"The Thanhouser Kid is featured in this offering, and the little girl does admirable work in the role of the boy, adding one more creditable portrayal to her long list. The youngster is the son [sic] of a rich landholder who sends his game wardens out to capture a poacher. The man is caught and locked in an improvised jail. He escapes and finds shelter in an old hut. Meantime the child wanders from the big house and gets lost. Wolves are heard, and the boy runs on until he, too, enters the hut. Here he is found by the poacher, who bundles the cold little chap in his own coat and carries him to the mansion. In the interim searchers find the boy's gun and muffler beside an ice hole in a lake and think him drowned. On his return the poacher is forgiven and the reunion is a happy one. The realism of the wolves, the icy lake, the snow covered forest and the escape from the jail are all portions that linger in the memory."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, March 23, 1912:

"A very pretty picture set supposedly on a big English estate. The plot is very slight. The magistrate has committed a poacher, but this man had broken from the county jail. The magistrate's little boy (the Thanhouser Kid) wanders away and becomes lost. It is in the depth of winter. The poacher risks his liberty to bring the boy back to his father, and is forgiven. The picture stands by its pretty snow scenes and by the Thanhouser Kid's acting, which is very popular. The photographs are very good. It will make a desirable filler."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, March 20, 1912:

"Taken amidst some excellent snow scenes and acted and told with the usual Thanhouser care in detail that adds so much to quality and distinction of their films, this picture proves an interesting one, however one may disagree with its logic. At the urgent demand of the magistrate the poacher is captured and brought before him and sentenced in spite of the appeals of the magistrate's young grandson. This young grandson wanders down to the river and into the woods, is lost and seeks shelter in a cabin. Here he is found by the poacher, who has escaped from his crude jail by breaking through the roof. He brings the child back to its grandfather, and thus wins that gentleman's gratitude and pardon. Whether it was wise to permit the spectator to believe that the young grandson was drowned in the hole of the ice is perhaps a question. No doubt it was done to make the spectator share the grandfather's fear. Regular dramatic procedure, however, would certainly have aroused the sympathies and saved the spectator the resentment one naturally feels when he finds that he has been treated somewhat like a child and fooled."

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