| Credited cast: | |||
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William Garwood | ... |
The Broker
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Marie Eline | ... |
Messenger Boy
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Riley Chamberlin | ... |
Clerk
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| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Florence La Badie | ... |
Sister of Little Boy
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A messenger boy is wrongfully accused of stealing bonds worth $20,000.
This is one of seven films that are included on a DVD entitled "The Thanhouser Collection"--early films by the Thanhouser Company--a rival of Biograph and the Edison companies. This is a film that is rather obvious when seen today, but for 1913, it's entertaining and audiences would have enjoyed it without the nitpicking we'd see with the plot today (it's awfully contrived).
A dishonest stock broker is concerned. If he doesn't return $20,000 to an investor immediately, he'll go to jail. So he cooks up an idea to find a scapegoat. So, he fills an envelop with pages from a newspaper and seals it. Then, in front of his employees, he does the same thing but puts $20,000 in it and calls for a messenger boy. The "boy" is actually tiny Marie Eline--star of many films for Thanhauser. On the way to the rich lady's house, the evil broker "accidentally" bumps into the kid and switches envelopes. Now here's the impossible to believe part. All this occurs in the middle of an outdoor shoot for some film company and the transaction is accidentally recorded on film! But, in the meantime, the child is jailed for theft and the broker thinks he's gotten away with it. Later, however, when the film is viewed, it clearly shows what had occurred and the broker is jailed and the child released.
Entertaining and certainly one of the earliest sex-change films!!