|
The Narrow Road
(1912) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by D.W. Griffith
Cast: Elmer Booth [Jim Holcomb, an exconvict], Mary Pickford [Holcomb’s wife], Charles Mill Mailes [another exconvict, a counterfeiter], Alfred Paget [a police detective], Charles Gorman [a police detective], [?] W. Christy Cabanne (William Christy Cabanne)? [the tall tramp], [?] Max Davidson? [the short tramp], [?] J. Jiquel Lanoe? [a prisoner; and the foreman], [?] Frank Evans? [a prison guard], [?] W.C. Robinson? [a prison guard], [?] J. Waltham? [a prison guard], [?] Joseph McDermott? [a policeman], [?] Adolph Lestina? [the bartender], [?] Grace Henderson?, [?] Harry Hyde?, [?] Jack Pickford?
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / From a screen story by George Hennessy. Cinematography by G.W. Bitzer. / Released 1 August 1912. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Crime.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Jim Holcomb was a good fellow at heart, but having been thrown into evil associations he became perverted. He and a pal were arrested as counterfeiters and sent to the penitentiary. The story opens as their time of sentence is drawing to an end. Jim’s faithful wife toils and patiently waits for his release, feeling that a brighter future is in store for them. The day of release arrives and when Jim meets his little wife he tells his erstwhile pal that it is the straight road for him in the future. The pal goes back to his old life, as he reasons it is easier to make counterfeit money than to earn real money. He is soon recognized and chased from his shack, where he is molding the “spurious.” In his flight he runs into the apartment in which Jim and his wife live, and persuades them to hide his kit of tools. This rash act nearly costs them dear, for the detectives enter almost immediately. The cause of their escape and the guilty man’s apprehension is too unique to describe here.
Survival status: Print exists in the Library of Congress film archive (paper print collection) [35mm paper positive].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 28 January 2025.
References: Film credits, film viewing : Barry-Griffith p. 43; Eyman-Pickford p. 327; Spehr-American p. 3 : Website-IMDb.
Home video: DVD.
|
