Father's Bluff (1912)
We see one of those families in which everybody works but father, and then we are soon made acquainted with the way father voices his protests against any insubordination or thwarting of his selfishness, by a threat to end his life. A young sewing machine agent comes to fix the machine and incidentally to make love to father's daughter. As father is afraid that this will take one of his laboring serfs away from him, he objects to the flirtation and orders the young man from the house. The young man drives up a day or so later in his buggy and unloads a keg of gunpowder, a bottle of poison, a rope, a knife and other murderous-looking weapons which he proceeds to deposit in the woodshed. He then wins the girl and her mother to his way of thinking and they decide to call father's bluff. The next time that he makes some outrageous demand upon them they are to rebel. The time is not long in coming and the young man promptly appears upon the scene. Father seizes a long pair of shears and lifts them high above his head with the announced determination of ending his own life. But contrary to the usual custom, nobody stops him. There is an embarrassing pause while father does not know exactly what to do. The shears do not descend and he makes a second attempt. This time the young man takes him gently but firmly by the wrist and leads him to the woodshed. There father finds everything prepared for his easy and quick dispatch and the family bidding him a fond farewell, leave him to his fate. Then he begins to understand his situation. He must either make good or lay down his hand. When he suddenly discovers that the fuse to the gunpowder keg on which he is sitting has been lighted by the young man, he makes a very quick decision and the cure is instantaneous. Consequently when the young lovers come from the house again they find papa industriously sawing wood, an exercise which he has long denied himself, and he shamefacedly apologizes for his bad behavior.
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GenresComedy
Short
IMDbPro
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| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Bannister Merwin | Director |
| Bannister Merwin | Writer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| William Wadsworth | |
| Margery Bonney Erskine | |
| Gertrude McCoy | |
| Frank Sylvester |
