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A Son’s Devotion
(1913) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: Alec B. Francis [Eugene Hope], Charles E. Davenport [Robert Hope, Hope’s son], Clara Horton [Eugene Hope’s daughter], Bert Starkey [the tout]
Eclair Film Company of America production; distributed by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated. / Released 26 November 1913. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Eugene Hope, working in the same office with his son Robert, is an inveterate gambler, both in stocks and on the ponies. Crowded by his brokers for more margin, he in desperation steals $1,000 from the firm and plunges on “Peggy Ann,” a tip given him by a gambler who is running a crooked poolroom. The faithful son has tried to dissuade him from entering the poolroom, but to no use. The father discovers he has been robbed and attacks the gambler. The son breaks into the place just in time to prevent his father from being beaten by the gambler’s friends. The loss at the bank is soon discovered and the Hopes are called on the carpet. The son shoulders the blame and is rushed off to prison. The father keeps the news from his wife, mortgages his house and secretly returns the lost money. The son is released; there is a joyous reunion and both return to work. Days pass and the old temptation returns to Hope. He dabbles in stocks, loses again. Worried and pressed on all sides and prevented from entering the poolrooms by his son, the father attempts to commit suicide. His little girl attempts to wrest the pistol from him and he is shot in the struggle. An officer is called and the son, believing that his mother has fired the shot, again shoulders the blame. While on the road to the station he tries to escape and is shot. He is recaptured in his own home and is again about to be taken away when the father, recovering consciousness, explains the situation. The shock is sufficient to bring a complete reformation to the father.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 29 November 1913, page ?] The first reel of this story gives an unusually graphic picture of the trouble a man can get into by playing the races on money appropriated from his firm. Alec Francis, portrays the part of the erring father, whose son assumes the blame. The first scene in the second reel practically completes the original story, which might better have been confined to one reel; the following scenes are padded and so improbable as to bring laughter where it was not intended.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 27 November 2022.
References: ClasIm-221 p. 53 : Website-IMDb.
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