|
When Hungry Hamlet Fled
(1915) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: Claude Cooper [Hungry Hamlet], Frances Keyes [Hungry Hamlet’s mother], Lorraine Huling [Margy, the leading lady], Harry Benham [Johnny Jenkins], Winifred Lane [Ruby, the villainess], Eleanor Spaulding (Nellie Parker Spaulding)
Thanhouser Film Corporation production; distributed by Mutual Film Corporation. / Released 17 August 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
[?] Comedy?
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The Booth and Barrett Dramatic Club of Cedarville was just as bad as one would imagine. It put on the worst possible plays in the most impossible manner, but Cedarville pretended to enjoy it, because the talent was “home folks.” Yet the day came when the populace rose in its wrath, but the only one who suffered was “Hungry Hamlet.” Hungry Hamlet was not really his name. His press clippings described him as Lancelot Fortesque. When he first appeared in Cedarville, he was headed for Broadway, plodding along the railroad tracks, carrying his own baggage. Johnnie Jenkins christened him “Hungry Hamlet.” It must be admitted that Johnnie was jealous, for “Hamlet” landed a job as professional coach of the B. & B. Dramatic Club, and also essayed the hero role, a part that had belonged to Johnnie by right, because he was really in love with the leading lady. But Hamlet sneered at Jenkins, and when casting the play told Johnnie he could either be the front legs of the horse or the hind legs, whereas Johnnie retired from dramatic life. The vehicle selected for the edification of Cedarville, “The Jealousy of Envy.” It had as its hero a brave country lad, who enlisted to fight the battles of his country, leaving his poor old mother in their cottage with the mortgage. There were also two girls he left behind him, one the sweet belle of the village, to whom he had plighted his troth, while the other was a scheming adventuress. During the horrors of war the adventuress sought to take his life, being aided by a captain of the enemy’s forces, while the heroine was always showing up in time to aid him. The jealous Johnnie Jenkins could see that his rival would score heavily less something happened. At the first performance the beauty and chivalry of Cedarville was assembled in the Town Hall. The first scene opened outside the home of the hero. He bade his weeping, gum-chewing mother farewell. In the second act the hero is led a captive into a fort of the enemy. He escapes sliding down a rope. Unexpectedly the rope broke, and the audience laughed instead of being thrilled. His enemies seized him, and bound him to a railroad track, just as the “midnight express” came tooting along. At the performance the train did not toot, somebody having plugged up the property man’s whistle. The train came along, the property man walking back of the smoke stack with a smoke pot, to give the illusion. Suddenly the man slipped, the train progressed on its way, leaving the “smoke” and “whistle” behind it. Then the hero leaped into the ocean, and the “waves” collapsed, showing him floundering about on a mattress. In the final act the walls of the fort fell down, revealing to the audience that the “soldiers” who were marching there were simply a few men with pitchforks upon which were helmets and bayonets, but the show collapsed when the prop horse broke in half, the front end running off the stage, while the rear part became tangled with the hero. This was the cue for “Hungry Hamlet,” and he fled, bombarded with eggs and vegetables supplied to the audience by the vengeful Jenkins. Then the latter comforted the leading lady, and was soon in her good graces again. The cause of the theatrical fiasco can be attributed to the revengeful Johnnie, who tampered with the props so that everything would go wrong as he had planned.
Survival status: Print exists.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 3 July 2025.
References: Website-IMDb.
Home video: DVD.
|
