A Troublesome Satchel (1909) User Reviews

Has the rare fault that it is too short

[deickemeyer · 24 August 2014]

A Biograph comedy in which a gentleman buys a satchel at an express package sale. Upon opening it he discovers that it contains burglars' tools. His attempts to get rid of it are very amusing. Every time he leaves it someone appears to tell him that he has left his satchel behind. And he dare not leave it because of the articles it contains. After a time he is held up by two highwaymen, who, when they open the satchel, assume that he is one of them and return all his property. He leaves the satchel on a pile of stone and gets away without difficulty. It is a good bit of comedy and has the rare fault that it is too short. - The Moving Picture World, April 24, 1909

A Yardstick

[Single-Black-Male · 14 February 2004]

This short film is a measurement of what it meant to be an all-American at that time. Each week the 34 year old D.W. Griffith would define the nation through his short films, preparing his audiences for his major epic to come in 1915.