The Reward (1915)
The Café Bon Vivant is a notorious place from coast to coast. Downstairs is the café, where people of every class and station in life congregate to revel long after all other places have closed their doors for the night. Upstairs, the tables, roulette wheel and other forms of chance games entice and amuse, in open defiance of the law. Here, in the café, Jack Hutchinson rules as a sort of manager and overseer. There are very few who realize Big Jim Davis is other than an habitué like themselves. He is in reality the owner of the café. Big Jim Davis is, in private, Jasper Smythe, retired banker and broker, a man highly respected and well liked by all of his acquaintances in the quiet little world in which he and his family, a son, Egbert, and a daughter, Claudia live. One evening, when Claudia Smythe, with three young men of her acquaintance and two young girls, like herself, are quietly enjoying a game of cards in the big Smythe mansion, one of the boys daringly suggests a slumming party. They drive out into the country, just past the city limits, where the Café holds sway. They are immediately spotted as newcomers and given a great deal of attention. Jack Hutchinson protects Claudia from her intoxicated escort and wins her gratitude. Hutchinson can't get the image of the little society girl out of his mind, and Claudia goes home to dream of him. Rhoda Dunbar, a habitué of the café, has fallen in love with Jack. In one of his visits to the home of Rhoda, she observes, with sorrow, his manifest indifference, and accuses him of being in love with someone else. He admits that he is. Jack meets Claudia one day in the park and she invites him to her home. He is shocked at seeing a large painting of Big Jim in her home, and asks Claudia who it is. Jack is amazed when he is told it is Jasper Smythe, her father. Rhoda employs a detective to find out who the girl is that Jack loves, the detective gets into the house and discovers that Claudia is Big Jim's daughter. He brings this information to Rhoda. That night, at the café, Rhoda flirts with Big Jim boldly, and when she playfully calls him "Jasper Smythe" he is dumfounded. Then she tells him her story of his daughter and young Hutchinson, what she has seen herself, and what she surmises. Big Jim asks Jack to confirm the story. He tells the old man it is true, and Jack is "fired." Jack visits Claudia that night and finds her brother taking a large amount of money from his father's safe. He remonstrates with the lad, who rushes away. Jack, in turning, steps on a burglar alarm. Instantly the house is roused. Jack, with the money in his hands, is arrested as he will not betray the boy. Claudia promises never to see Jack again and so he is released. In the meantime, conscience-stricken, the boy confesses all to his father, who sends for Jack and makes peace with him. A few days later Smythe brings home an old friend from out of town, and Jack proves to be the son of this man, who had run away from home a few years before, after a quarrel with his father over cards. Father and son are reconciled and the way is open for the development of the romance between Jack and Claudia.
All Releases
Domestic
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International
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Worldwide
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GenresCrime
Drama
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Henry MacRae | Director |
| Mildred Considine | Writer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| King Baggot | |
| Frank Smith | |
| Lettie Ford | |
| Robert Fisher |
