The Thirteenth Man

I love when this happens. In case you don't know, I've watched a lot of old silent films over the years. Inevitably, when dealing with such obscure relics, one finds connections to which they haven't seen anyone else (re)discover yet (which isn't to say someone(s) hasn't). Anyways, here's one, a surviving fragment (five minutes pushed to eight with the addition of explanatory title cards based on its description in the "Moving Picture World") of an Essanay one-reeler starring would-be 1910s matinee idol Francis X. Bushman, "The Thirteenth Man," as seen on the new Flicker Alley Blu-ray. My discovery being that even in its fragmentary form today, it struck me as reminiscent of another rarely-seen silent short that I'd seen before. Turns out it was an Alice Guy Solax production, "The Thief," released the same year, 1913, as this title. How ironic, then, that these films are about a small jewel being believed to be stolen. Turns out nothing was stolen in the films, but that's the happy ending of the flickers for you, because, indeed, something was stolen: the scenario itself.

The other and sad irony is that time and neglect have stolen footage from this sole known print of "The Thirteenth Man." A truly unlucky number, it turns out, although most silent films now no longer exist at all.

As for the search for the scenario thief, though, that's seemingly easy enough to figure out, but, first, let's examine the pictures. When I saw Guy's film months ago, when completing during Women's History Month my viewing of all her available films I could find (mostly via home video from Kino Lorber), I wasn't impressed enough to even write a review for "The Thief," as the world's first female filmmaker made many better films than it (here's my list of some of them), but her more complete version is better than this one. In it, the scenario springs from two old men looking through a yearbook and with their nostalgic remembrances superimposed above them, whereas "The Thirteen Man" skips a year during its plot in lieu of a vision flashback. Additionally, the sets are more ornate, there's some trick photography for a lighting change (when the jewel is lost), some crosscutting between scenes if not shots, as well as an insert close-up, as in the Essanay version, when the jewel is found.

In both pictures, though, a group of rich guys get together for a reunion dinner, except one of the invitees has since fallen on hard times (Bushman's role here)--living in poverty with a wife and child. The jewel goes missing during the dinner, and the poor man is humiliated in the subsequent search, which he refuses of his self, for the suspected stolen item. The rich guy follows the poor man home to discover that the only items he stole were food from the dinner to provide for his hungry family. Rich guy makes amends, the end.

As to who stole who's scenario, Essanay or Solax, checking the release dates would seemingly provide the answer. "The Thirteenth Man" premiered on January 21st, whereas the aptly-titled "The Thief" didn't do likewise until February 14th. Aha!, you may say--even though an earlier release date doesn't necessarily indicate which scenario was the original, especially when the release dates and, thus, presumably the productions were so close. Regardless, in a classic twist, I decided to check back on the entries for "The Thirteenth Man" in the "Moving Picture World" magazine. Beyond the scenario description, I found a contemporary review:

"This very same story was produced by the Imp company a year ago and more, and, if we remember rightly, it did it more skillfully. It is not a very strong picture" (Jan-Mar 1913, vol. 15, p. 571).

Ouch, although the brief review does end by claiming, "The photography is good." So, they're both thieves and, perhaps, this unknown Imp film is the true victim! Perhaps. Even if I could find this Imp, however, it may, too, have been itself--I'll just say it--impish. As Guy biographer Allison McMahan (author of the book "Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema") says:

"The plot of 'The Thief' was a common one, and many of the other film companies produced films with very similar themes at the time, although more often than not the person suspected of thievery was an innocent young working woman" (p. 130).

So true--I seem to faintly recall having seen a few of those, although I don't remember any with the blatantly cribbed scenarios of these culprits. And, I don't mean to harp too much on incriminating Solax or Essanay, the latter for which the Museum today of dedicated to the silent film studio helped in restoring this film, among other wonderful things. Indeed, just about every studio back then ripped off scenarios from other studios, albeit some (ahem, Lubin) more prolifically than others. Guy, for one, had her scenarios stolen frequently, particularly by Pathé when she ran Gaumont, and, in turn, she started out reworking Lumière films. And, as for those so-called inventors of film--although the history of the invention of movies is more complicated than that, but whatever, the point is--Edison and Lumière remade others' scenarios, too. From the beginning, Edison seems to have cribbed the Zoetrope motion picture sketches of Ottomar Anschütz (such as for the early barbershop scene) and long before the Edison studio routinely ripped off rival AM&B and everything from England and France, and Lumière included a remake of an Edison film (the blacksmith scene) in its famous first public projections. The history of cinema surely is a den of thieves.