|
Ce bon docteur
Also known as The Good Doctor in the USA
(1909) France
B&W : Short film
Directed by Georges Monca
Cast: Mistinguett, Paul Landrin, Albens
Compagnie Genérale des Établissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes production; distributed by Compagnie Genérale des Établissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes. / Scenario by [?] Edgar Favart? / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The film was released in the USA as The Good Doctor by Pathé Frères on 25 December 1909; in a split-reel with The Happy Widower (1909). /
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Marie, the doctor’s daughter, after setting the clock forward, makes her poor old father believe that it is his bedtime and sees him safely on his way to bed. She then jumps up on a chair and with a long pole, kept for that purpose, raps three times on the ceiling to let her lover know that papa is out of the way and he can come down and visit her for a while. The lover, quick to respond to the summons, is soon on the scene and the two are billing and cooing together, happy at the thought that there is no danger of being disturbed by a straitlaced and unsympathetic papa. The latter, however, upstairs in his comfortable big bed, finds it impossible to go to sleep and wonders why, little dreaming that it is far from being his usual hour for retiring. Thinking he will go down to the library and read a while, he almost catches the two lovers, but his daughter’s presence of mind saves them. Shoving her lover into the fireplace, she hastens to greet papa. The latter on entering finds it somewhat chilly so insists upon lighting the logs in the fireplace. An invisible hand, however, snatches the match from him each time he tries to light the wood. He finally succeeds, however, and the poor lover has to climb right up the chimney in an effort to get away from the flames and smoke. We get a good view of him as he makes his perilous ascent crawling along like a monkey with his poor face covered with soot. The daughter is at her wits’ end, but finally decides to give papa a narcotic. Papa does not feel thirsty, however, so her plans are all upset. She then writes a letter and signing it with the name of the doctor’s oldest patients, rings the door bell and answering it herself brings her father the note. The latter hurries off and Marie looks up the chimney in an agony of fear. Her lover comes bounding out and suffering agonies from the heat rushes over and drains the glass containing the narcotic. Before long he falls into a deep sleep and the terrified young girl finally succeeds in getting him out in the hall in an attempt to take him back to his own apartment. Just as she is pulling and tugging away at his limp body she hears her father and rushes back to her own rooms. The doctor, seeing the man lying helpless, quickly tries to revive him, and failing to do this picks him up and takes him into his own apartment, where the application of electricity soon restores him to consciousness. The lover is so grateful to the kind doctor that he writes to his sweetheart saying that in honor they can no longer deceive the poor old man who has saved his life, and unless she promises to tell her father all he can no longer visit her.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 8 January 1910, page 17] A pretty love story, which introduces the novelty of a lover actually chased up a chimney by the flames and smoke from the fireplace. Aside from this the film carried nothing especially new, and scarcely needs extended description or criticism. It may be said, however, that technically the picture is well worth while and the work is done with careful attention to working out the details.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: (unknown) [France]; Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 22 January 2025.
References: MovPicWorld-19100108 p. 17 : Website-IMDb.
|
