In the Gambler's Web (1914)
Anna Gerard and Gaston Reyo maintain an apartment which is in reality a gambling den. Reyo meets John Dixon, a young businessman, engaged to Edith Graham, and takes him to visit Anna, who poses as his sister. Cards are produced and John, of course, loses. As Anna, pretending sympathy, stands behind John, she manages to let Reyo know just what cards the stranger holds. John comes once more and then, tiring of the whole affair, vows never to visit Reyo again. Anna writes him a note, pleading that she wants to see him on a little affair of business. John calls, but when she clings to him, pleading her love, he grasps his overcoat and hastily rushes away. As he does so he drops his wallet. Anna picks it up and when Reyo comes in, he finds her counting the money. They plan to get away at once, but in the dividing of the spoils a quarrel arises, during which Anna is killed. John misses his wallet and returns for it. He bends over the dead woman and tries vainly to awaken her, when her maid enters. The girl's screams bring all the people of the house into the room and John is taken into custody. Reyo, who pretends to have been asleep, is found in the next room. During his trial Edith alone stands by her lover. He is sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. Edith still believes in his innocence and while John is in jail she plans and plots with his old servant, trying to find some way to aid his escape. John manages to escape from prison, and Edith waits for him at the edge of the woods with a motor far. In the limousine he effects a change of clothes. Then they go on toward the city, filled with hopes that they can find Reyo, whom they feel is guilty of Anna's murder. John, disguised, haunts all the cheaper cafés in the lower part of town and finally runs across Reyo, now an absinthe fiend. He then rents Anna's old apartment and sets to work with Edith's help to make the place look as much as possible like it did in Anna's time. Reyo often sees the young stranger banging about the back rooms of the saloons. One day John invites Reyo to drink with him and suggests they have a game of cards. Reyo is an easy winner, just as John had intended. When the game is at its height. John must go, but suggests Reyo meet him at his apartment that night. Dixon hands him a card and the well-remembered address of Anna's old home startles Reyo. John gives him a key and bids him to go right in if he happens to get there first. That night, Reyo, key in hand, passes the house, wondering if he dare go in. His need of money gets the best of him and with shaking fingers he lets himself into the old house. As he staggers into the dimly lighted place, he pauses at the table to strike a match. He looks down to see the body of a woman dead, across the table. It is "Anna!" He shrinks away. As he lifts her arm it falls back heavily, but not before he has seen the wallet clasped tightly in her fingers. He cannot awaken her; she is dead, just as he remembered her, with a bullet hole in her white forehead. Falling to his knees he shrieks out his guilt, protesting that he had not meant to kill her. At this two detectives come out from behind the portieres and take him into custody. He is led away, screaming and shuddering in terror. The carefully thought out plot has been successful. John is congratulated by and congratulates the actress he had hired to play "Anna." The next day the papers are filled with Reyo's confession and John Dixon, his name cleared, is free to claim the girl he loves.
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Domestic
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GenresDrama
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Edgar Jones | Director |
| Maie B. Havey | Writer |
| Siegmund Lubin | Producer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| Edgar Jones | |
| Louise Huff | |
| Brinsley Shaw | |
| Josephine Longworth |
