A Mutual Understanding (1913)
John Smith, while leaving his club, carelessly jostles a table at which two men are playing cards for high stakes. As he leaves the club, a bill, blown from the same table, falls at his feet. The bill is instantly missed and the man who jostled the table immediately suspected. Smith is found with the money in his hands and immediately rushed to the police station. He is tried and convicted. To Henry Langdon, a clergyman, who visits him in his cell, Smith protests his innocence. He gives Langdon a written statement of the true facts and begs him to help him in getting a new trial. Langdon, on the point of going west, is unable to help him, but wishes Smith every success in his attempt and leaves, profoundly struck by the prisoner's odd handwriting. A little later Smith is given a new trial and exonerated. Wishing to avoid the notoriety attached to his arrest and imprisonment, he changes his name to Ward, and going west, becomes cashier of a bank in a growing western city. Soon after his arrival he discovers that Langdon is rector of a church in his new home. To Langdon, Smith seems vaguely familiar, but he is unable to place him. Admiring Smith immensely, the clergyman welcomes his attentions to the beautiful Miss Langdon, his sister, and finally marries the couple himself. When his new brother-in-law signs the marriage registry, Langdon immediately recognizes the peculiar handwriting. He is horrified for a moment, and then realizing that Smith has started life anew, decides to keep his discovery a secret. A few days afterwards the niece of the president visits the bank and hangs her parasol beside Smith as he is counting a number of bills. One of the bills falls from the desk into the parasol. The balance is taken to the bank, the loss is discovered, and once again Smith falls under grave suspicion. To Langdon, who enters at this time, there seems to be no doubt that the man must be guilty, but he keeps silent for his sister's sake. Just as he is about to be dragged off to jail, the president's niece opens her parasol and the mystery is explained. The happy Smith gives his no less joyful brother-in-law the printed record of his acquittal on the former charge, and everything ends as it should.
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Domestic
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International
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Worldwide
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GenresDrama
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| George Lessey | Director |
| J.H. Landau | Writer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| Richard Tucker | |
| Bessie Learn | |
| Robert Brower | |
| William West |
