User Reviews

Since there doesn't seem to be any way to write about this movie coherently without revealing the ending, I'll note right at the top that this review will contain "spoilers." Viewers who wish to fully savor the impact of the twist ending should read no further!

All right then. Our subject is The Evidence of the Film, a recently rediscovered one-reel drama made in New Rochelle, New York, under the auspices of the Thanhauser Studio. The plot concerns a Dishonest Broker (as he is helpfully identified by a title card) who plots to steal bonds worth $20,000 and blame his act on a messenger boy. This broker-- who looks like an Edward Gory drawing of a Well-born Gentleman Gone Bad, and whose villainy is amusingly transparent from the beginning --sends off the boy with the genuine bonds, but then contrives to bump into him on a public street. After 'accidentally' knocking the boy to the ground he helps him up, meanwhile switching envelopes, substituting one full of paper scraps for the real bonds, which he pockets. Subsequently, the innocent lad is accused of theft!

Alas, the broker's dastardly plan comes off without a hitch, and the kid, who looks about six years old (and is actually played by a girl), lands in jail. However, there's another surprise in store, this time a distinctly "modern" one: the broker hadn't allowed for the presence of a crew of movie-makers working on location, coincidentally shooting a scene on the very sidewalk where the collision occurs-- happily, within range of the camera. In the opening scene we learn that the messenger boy's sister works as a film-cutter; and, just when things look truly bleak for the lad, we find that she works for the very studio whose crew captured the crime on celluloid. In a scene anticipating David Hemmings' dark room investigation in Antonioni's Blow-Up by more than half a century, we watch as the boy's sister examines the location footage, recognizes her brother, and realizes what actually occurred on that sidewalk. Thus, justice triumphs, thanks to the miraculous new technology of the motion picture!

This movie is a fascinating treat for film buffs, but, as my tone may suggest, it's amusing on a level the filmmakers probably didn't intend. Despite a plot twist made possible by brand new 20th century technology, the atmosphere is redolent of Victorian melodrama; the messenger boy's outfit even suggests David Copperfield. Viewers may well chuckle as the film-within-a-film unfolds in the climactic scene: the Dishonest Broker looks so corrupt, his envelope maneuver is so clumsily performed, and he so obviously commits his crime in full view of the camera, how can we help but laugh? The camera is not hidden, mind you, it's grinding away in plain sight on a public street, and you'd think that in 1913 this spectacle would draw even more attention than it might today, when we're so accustomed to seeing video crews taping commercials or news segments, or whatever. The Dishonest Broker is not only dastardly, he's a bit thick.

Oh well. Despite aspects which look silly now, this movie must have represented an imaginative leap forward in its time. Film itself serves as a pivotal plot element, which must have been a surprising, creative twist for contemporary viewers. The Evidence of the Film also provides an interesting sociological note: the studio cutting room where the boy's sister works is staffed entirely by women. This points up the fact that, in the movies' early days, women were employed in greater numbers in all areas of the film industry than would be the case later on, after the big studios consolidated operations in the 1920s.

A title card identifies Henry Watson as a crooked broker. His client wants $20,000 returned to him or else he will initiate criminal proceedings. Watson craftily puts $20,000 in an envelope and seals it in front of two office employees. Secretly he has also stuffed another envelope with newspaper and keeps it in his pocket. When a messenger boy arrives he gives the valuable envelope to him for delivery. Watson hurries outside and intercepts the messenger boy, purposely bumping into him. While the boy is distracted, the broker switches envelopes. The messenger boy continues on his delivery route and inadvertently delivers the dummy envelope to the client. When the latter opens it he is infuriated and calls the police, who take in the boy for questioning and hold him. In court the broker has an alibi so only the boy is detained. Expressing no remorse for the innocent boy, the broker is convinced that he got away with the crime.

Coincidentally a moving picture company is shooting directly across the street from where the bumping occurred. The crooked broker never noticed the film crew even though it operated in the open. Meanwhile, and coincidentally, the boy's older sister works in a film editing studio. Again coincidentally, the studio happens to process the same company's film that unintentionally caught the "bump and switch" action of Watson. Spotting the criminal act on film, the sister notifies the judge. Then the evidence is shown to detectives. Watson, after being summoned and shown his guilty action, is appropriately arrested while the boy is freed. It is hard to believe that an eleven-year old would be held in some kind of jail or holding center. But it is 1913, one hundred years ago as of this writing, and there was even child labor then.

The one-reel film, shot in New Rochelle, NY by Thanhouser Film Corporation, has a conventional plot for the period. Bad guy (1) does wicked deed, (2) initially evades discovery, but (3) gets punished in the end. Note that the messenger boy is played by a girl, Marie Eline, who appears younger than eleven. Her (his) attractive older sister was played by Florence La Badie, who was Thanhouser's star actress for six years. She died at age 29 in 1917 because of injuries sustained in a car accident in which she was a passenger. La Badie was thus the first female film star to die by auto mishap. "The Evidence of the Film" has been added to the National Film Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress.

"The Evidence of the Film" is a conceptually interesting early self-referential short film. It involves a film-within-a-film, and it examines the nature of film as a recorder of events (in the story, a film clip becomes evidence in serving justice). There's also a glimpse of the movie-making process, as the evidence was of a crime occurring in front of a camera filming a movie, and there's a behind-the-scenes look at an editing room. As fellow commenter wmorrow59 pointed out, the discovery of "truth" (in this film, unambiguous truth) in photography in this film reminds one of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 self-reflexive classic "Blowup".

First, the crime is shown from a somewhat obscure angle from behind the characters--filmed by the invisible, unacknowledged camera, which gives us the outer film. We see the acknowledged camera's viewpoint, from a clear vantage point in front of the characters, later when it's projected as evidence. There's an obvious goof in the staging of the actors playing actors, though, as they appear right next to the main characters in the first perspective and farther off in the background in the second scene despite the two shots supposedly having happened simultaneously. Regardless, the film-within-the-film scene--the camera's POV superimposed--is great. A scene of an audience (our surrogates) watching a film dates back to Robert W. Paul's "The Countryman the Cinematograph" (1901), and D.W. Griffith made a similar scene in "Those Awful Hats" (1909), but the multiple-exposure effect in this film is especially convincing, and the emphasis on the POV of the camera is especially innovative. Interestingly (and rather contradictory to the theme of film as honest recorder), the footage shown twice on the negative within the film is from the first, unacknowledged camera's POV, rather than the film-within-the-film.

The notion of film as a recorder of events, fictional or actual, is a bit limited and narrow view of the medium, though. It's apparent the filmmakers weren't trying to explore the depths of cinema too much. I suppose they believed they were making an ordinary crime drama. Compare this to another self-referential film from 1912, "The Cameraman's Revenge" (Mest kinematograficheskogo operatora), which is also about recording "real" events and then incriminating the players with the projection of the film later. Aside from the fact that Wladyslaw Starewicz used replica insects for his film rather than people, his film also differs from "The Evidence of the Film" in that its filmic perspectives are more elaborate and it probes the medium's illusionary capabilities. Anyhow, "Evidence of the Film" is an interesting early self-referential film worth watching.

This is one of seven films that are included on a DVD entitled "The Thanhouser Collection"--early films by the Thanhouser Company--a rival of Biograph and the Edison companies. This is a film that is rather obvious when seen today, but for 1913, it's entertaining and audiences would have enjoyed it without the nitpicking we'd see with the plot today (it's awfully contrived).

A dishonest stock broker is concerned. If he doesn't return $20,000 to an investor immediately, he'll go to jail. So he cooks up an idea to find a scapegoat. So, he fills an envelop with pages from a newspaper and seals it. Then, in front of his employees, he does the same thing but puts $20,000 in it and calls for a messenger boy. The "boy" is actually tiny Marie Eline--star of many films for Thanhauser. On the way to the rich lady's house, the evil broker "accidentally" bumps into the kid and switches envelopes. Now here's the impossible to believe part. All this occurs in the middle of an outdoor shoot for some film company and the transaction is accidentally recorded on film! But, in the meantime, the child is jailed for theft and the broker thinks he's gotten away with it. Later, however, when the film is viewed, it clearly shows what had occurred and the broker is jailed and the child released.

Entertaining and certainly one of the earliest sex-change films!!

"The Evidence of the Film" is a more than 100-year-old 15-minute black-and-white silent film. I have to say I am not familiar with any of the cast or filmmakers here, but that did not keep this little movie from making it into the National Film Registry. Still it is not very well-known today compared to the works that the silent greats made during that time, maybe because their brand was comedy and this one here is a (crime) drama. Yet it was never dramatic or interesting enough to keep me on the edge of my seat. The story is okay, but even at 15 minutes it sometimes drags a bit I must say and without the use of intertitles, it is even sometimes difficult to understand what exactly is going on. You cannot really blame the actors for that though. They are doing an okay job. Overall, I would not recommend checking this one out. Thumbs down.

All early studios had their bevy of child actors and Thanhouser was no exception. Marie Eline was the Thanhouser Kid, as distinct from the Thanhouser Kidlet and even the Thanhouser Twins. I don't know whether the story was particularly "old hat" in 1912 but how they went about catching the crook was novel and Thanhouser, who was always ready to publicize themselves, provided an interesting glimpse into it's editing department. Fascinating to see the cameraman at the beginning - made it a sort of film within a film!!!

Crooked broker (boo, hiss!!) - has two envelopes made up, one is the old "paper folded up in an envelope so it looks like money" trick, the other has $20,000 in it which is given to a little messenger boy (Marie Eline) to deliver to a family who has threatened legal action unless their investment is returned. Eline stops to watch a motion picture being filmed, is jostled and drops the package which is given back to her by a seemingly kindly stranger. When the package is delivered and the fraud is discovered, it seems no one wants to believe the little messenger's tearful claims of innocence!!

Never mind - Florence La Badie is head of the editing department and she makes a startling discovery - as long as she can get to the courthouse in time!! Do you doubt that she will!!