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The Romance of an Umbrella
(1909) United States of America
B&W : Split-reel / 450 feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: Maurice Costello [Jimmie Conyers]
The Vitagraph Company of America production; distributed by The Vitagraph Company of America. / © 28 September 1909 by The Vitagraph Company of America [J132451]. Released 28 September 1909; in a split-reel with Onawanda; or, An Indian’s Devotion (1909). / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Jimmie Conyers works in a big New York office building, where even air and light are precious, and the air shafts are narrow and deep. Just across the shaft on which his window opens, Bess Fairkirk presides over the typewriter in a lawyer’s office. She is not acquainted with Jimmie, but that does not prevent her from appreciating the fact that he is manly and handsome and, well, appreciative of her own good points. They leave the office about the same hour and Jimmie follows Bess into a quick lunch place, where she has a cup of tea to take the place of the lunch omitted because of the pressure of work. When she goes out, she takes Jimmie’s umbrella instead of her own, and Jimmie welcomes the chance to speak to her. He jumps up to follow her, but before he can rush out, the watchful cashier calls to her aid a couple of the waitresses and Jimmie has to pay his check. With this handicap he is barely able to board the same elevated train that she takes. As she leaves the station, it commences to rain. Jimmie claims his property, but offers her a share of the umbrella’s protection. This she refuses, but it rains harder than ever and she takes shelter in a doorway. Jimmie induces her to share his covering and it leads to an acquaintance that ends in her promise to share his home and fortune, even though both are as small as his heart is big. This is a charming and delightful little romance of New York with the action actually placed in the streets of that city. A novelty is the taking of the rain scene during an actual shower. The raindrops spatter upon the pavement in a manner that convinces the most skeptical that this is no trick effect. It adds vastly to the realism of the picture.
Reviews: [The Motion Picture World, 9 October 1909, page ?] A Vitagraph comedy which centers around an umbrella that leads a couple together. The story is nothing unusual, but the novelty of a rain scene is indeed worth considering. Here is a picture made while the rain was actually failing in the streets of New York, and the way the drops spatter as they fall on the sidewalk is convincing evidence that no trick has been worked to make this possible. The picture is notable for this achievement, though as a story it is no better than many others of the same general type of love stories
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 21 May 2024.
References: Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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