A Good Sport (1913)
The Sphinx Motion Picture Company needed an actor, and needed him very badly. For some time the Sphinx Company had devoted itself to the so-called "Western" picture. The fifteen hard-riding cowboys who composed their staff served admirably for this purpose. Most Sphinx pictures consisted of a series of views of the above-mentioned cowboys galloping at full tilt after one of their number who was variously cast as a horse thief, a train robber, or a murderer. Suddenly the Sphinx management decided that the public wanted a "polo" picture. The stage directors were in despair. Their men could ride well enough to be sure, but even the widest stretch of imagination on the part of a long suffering public would hardly be sufficient to make them look English. They must have a typical Englishman to play the leading role. So hoping against hope, they put an advertisement in all the papers of the Western city in which they were located. The Honorable Reginald Devenham read this peculiar advertisement asking for an English polo player with considerable interest. The Honorable Reginald was, to be brutally frank, "on his uppers." He had come to America because a girl had told him that she wanted to see him make something of himself. So far, Devenham had done little toward making anything of himself. He had spent all of the last installment of his 2,000 pounds a year. Devenham went to the motion picture studio, and the management fell upon his neck. He was just what they were looking for. Before the startled Englishman had time to turn around he had signed a contract to act in their pictures at the princely salary of five dollars a day. The acting amused Devenham immensely; it seemed so typically American. He balked a hit when they insisted on his kissing the heroine of the play, but since she was an unusually attractive girl, soon got over his early nervousness. Some weeks later, the girl in England went to a Cinematograph theater and saw Devenham kiss the girl in America. The next day, the girl in England cabled for Devenham to return. The situation at the end of the picture in which the Englishman's true feelings toward the two girls are expressed, is handled in a masterly fashion.
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Worldwide
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GenresComedy
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| C.J. Williams | Director |
| Charles E. van Loan | Writer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| Herbert Prior | |
| Mabel Trunnelle | |
| Bigelow Cooper | |
| Gertrude McCoy |
