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An Unwilling Thief
(1915) United States of America
B&W : Three reels
Directed by Langdon West
Cast: Herbert Prior [James Harrison], Marie Sasse [Mrs. Harrison], Loel Steuart [Bab Harrison, as a child], Leonie Flugrath (Shirley Mason) [Bab Harrison, at 16 years], Harry Eytinge (Harry B. Eytinge) [Jubal], Lillian Devere [Mammy Liza], George Romaine (George Romain) [‘Black’ Ferber], Marjorie Ellison [Meg Ferber], Yale Benner [Cooley], Lawrence White [David Clay], James J. Gerson [George Barber]
Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated, production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / From a story by Mary Imlay Taylor. / Released [?] October? 1915. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Edison production number 7982.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? While running along a carriage drive in her father’s grounds, little Bab, the child of millionaire James Harrison, falls and cuts her wrist on a piece of broken glass. The doctor assures the mother and father that it is not serious, but that the child will bear a scar for life. A few days later, while waiting outside the gates of her home for the servant, Bab is snatched up by a woman who passes in an automobile, and carried away in it. One of the servants sees the incident and tells Bab’s father. Realizing that the child has been kidnapped, Mr. Harrison at once communicates with the police, but after many days’ careful search, no traces of Bab are found. The mother dies soon afterward. Bab has been stolen by two men and a woman, who, instead of demanding a ransom, decide to start the child on a life of crime, compelling her to steal and otherwise aid them in their nefarious enterprises. Meanwhile, after his wife’s death, Harrison has brought his nephew, George Barber, into his home to take the place, as much as possible, of his lost daughter. George turns out to be an absolutely worthless youth. George is gotten out of many scrapes by David Clay, a rising young lawyer. Twelve years have passed when Meg Ferber, the woman who stole Bab, dies, leaving her to the tender mercies of the two men. Before she dies, Meg confesses to Bab the story of her kidnapping, and gives her the clothes and a necklace which she wore on the day she was taken from her home. After Meg’s death, Bab determines to run away and leave the life of crime forever, and at the first opportunity she does so. She finally obtains a position in an apartment house, assisting the janitor. But even here she is not free from persecution, for Ferber and the other crook have tracked her, and Ferber tells her to steal everything of value or suffer the consequences. Terrified, Bab agrees. As she is going through the drawers of a desk in the apartment of one of the tenants, the young man walks in and surprises her. He proves to be David Clay, and feeling that Bab is not naturally a thief, he gets her to tell her story. When she shows him the clothes and the necklace given to her by Meg, he declares that they are just as described by her father in his account of the stealing of his daughter. He takes Bab to Harrison’s home and tells the story that Bab has told him. This, with the scar on Bab’s right wrist is sufficient to convince Harrison that his daughter has been restored to him. Later, after Harrison tells good-for-nothing nephew Barber that he must shift for himself thereafter, Clay gains Harrison’s consent to make Bab his wife.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 5 October 2023.
References: Tarbox-Lost p. 237 : Website-IMDb.
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