A Clever Ruse (1910)
Miles Darragh and Matthew Daly are two old cronies who have reached that stage of life where, having plenty of money, they decide to take things easy and enjoy themselves. Darragh has a daughter named Maud and Daly has a son called King. King and Maud are engaged to be married, much to the joy of their fathers who see in the union of the two families the culmination of their fondest dreams. One day, while the two old gentlemen are peacefully playing cards in the Darragh library, King and Maud have a violent lovers' quarrel in the drawing-room, over King's refusal to give up cigarettes. The quarrel finally reaches such proportions as to attract the attention of the two fathers, who stop playing and rush to the door of the room just in time to see King leaving the house "forever." The two old friends, fearing the end of all their dreams, hold a brief conference and decide upon a ruse to draw the young lovers together again. Hastily drinking a glass of wine apiece, they pretend they have been poisoned and soon arouse the house by their pitiful cries and groans. Maud, frightened out of her fit of anger by the noise, rushes into the room, and learning the cause of the trouble, becomes terribly alarmed and dashes for the telephone for aid, and to whom should she call in her hour of need but to her faithful King? Learning the dreadful news, he runs for a doctor. In the meantime, the old gentlemen have enjoyed listening to Maud's end of the telephone conversation, but when she returns to the library with a maid, the old schemers are again writhing about in apparently mortal agony. Taken to a bedroom by the two girls, they fall helplessly on the bed and continue to call madly for help. King soon arrives with a physician, who is escorted to the bedside of the sufferers and after a brief glance at the old men he orders the young couple from the room and begins his examination. Being soon convinced that his patients are merely "faking," he proceeds to frighten the truth from them by a liberal display of deadly looking surgical instruments. His artifice proves entirely successful, for they immediately leap from the bed and confess their duplicity and the cause of it, but, nothing daunted, secure his assistance by presenting him with a liberal fee. The doctor then visits the young folks, whom he finds clinging lovingly and sorrowfully to each other, their recent quarrel completely forgotten. Telling them that they may have one last look at their fathers before the end comes, the two follow him, and entering the room, gather sadly about the seeming deathbed. The two old reprobates then ask the children to promise they will never quarrel again. As the young people fondly embrace and solemnly promise to love and cherish each other as long as life shall last, the old gentlemen leap from their bed of suffering and boisterously disclose their clever ruse.
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Domestic
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Worldwide
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GenresComedy
Romance
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Carl Laemmle | Producer |
