A growing source of silent era film information. This listing is from The Progressive Silent Film List by Carl Bennett. Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

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The Life of an American Policeman
Also known as River Tragedy and Desperate Encounter Between Burglar and Police in the USA
(1905) United States of America
B&W : [?] One reel / 1000? feet
Directed by Edwin S. Porter [?] and Wallace McCutcheon?

Cast: Jennie Bartlett [the drowning girl], Bert Conneally [a patrolman; and the rescue swimmer]

Edison Manufacturing Company production; distributed by Edison Manufacturing Company. / Cinematography by Edwin S. Porter. / © 6 December 1905 by Thomas A. Edison [H69527, H69528, H69529, H69530, H69531, H69532, H69533, H69534, H69535, H69536, H69537, H69538, H69539, H69540, H69541, H69542, H69543, H69544]. Released 5 December 1905. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The film was also released in the USA by Edison Manufacturing Company in shorter versions, including River Tragedy (no. 6223) and Desperate Encounter Between Burglar and Police (no. 6223A).

Drama.

Survival status: Print exists.

Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].

Keywords: Law: Enforcement: Police: Policemen

Listing updated: 22 December 2024.

References: Bohn-Light p. 17; Everson-American pp. 37-40, 53, 239, 254; Musser-Before p. 10 : Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.

Home video: DVD.