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A Winter’s Tale
(1909) United States of America
B&W : Split-reel / [?] 250 or 265? feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
Edison Manufacturing Company production; distributed by Edison Manufacturing Company. / © 16 November 1909 by Edison Manufacturing Company [J134996, J134997, J134998, J134999]. Released 16 November 1909; in a split-reel with The Imp of the Bottle (1909). / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / This is not a Shakespearean film.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Jack Frost certainly did play havoc with the Smiths one cold Winter’s day. and the little icicled elf is not in the habit of doing things lightly when once he sets out to play pranks. At such times he is sure to leave a trail of trouble behind him, of which the Smiths certainly got their full share and a great deal besides. It all started in the kitchen. No one knew just when or how, but it started there. Now, food is a very essential thing for man, and the Smiths are no exception to the rest of the human family who generally wake up pretty hungry for breakfast. Nine o’clock is a very respectable hour for breakfast, too, but Mr. Smith and Mrs. Smith and the two miniature Smiths, seated at the family table, waited in vain for it to materialize. As she paid no heed to their frantic ringing of the bell, shouting and whistling, they decided that the cook was neglecting her duties. So the entire Smith family started to investigate the cause or delay. They were in a particular hurry that day, too, for the Browns were coming to dinner at four, and they could not understand why cook had not risen to the spirit of the occasion. The law of cause and effect was very evident upon their arrival at the altar of good things, the kitchen. They discovered Mary Ann afloat in a washtub, with a miniature Atlantic Ocean around her, holding her symbol of work, the broom, tightly against the water boiler, which Jack Frost had tapped lightly during the night and from which was now gushing a veritable geyser of ice water. Then the Smith’s troubles began. One thing after another followed quickly to add to the woes of the wet, hungry and shivering family. After what seemed to be hours of telephoning and waiting, during which interval they made frantic but ineffectual efforts to stem the flood that was threatening the inundation of the entire house, the plumber and a particularly tired assistant arrived on the scene. The philosophical way in which they surveyed the situation and the calm, deliberate manner in which they set about to relieve it were aggravating enough, but the limit of endurance was reached when they tore out half the side of the house and exposed the almost frozen family to a ten-below-zero temperature. That isn’t half what they did, either; nor have we even attempted to recount the many comicalities that added to the Smiths’ discomfiture on that memorable day. We’ll let the film do that, with the assurance on our part that this “Winter’s Tale” is full of more genuinely funny and more varied situations than are generally to be found in a short comedy film.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 13 September 2023.
References: Ball-Shakespeare pp. 66, 316, 391 : Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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