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A Grip of Gold
(1916) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by Walter V. Coyle
Cast: Claire McDowell [Kate Wiggin], José Ruben [Ned Summers], Ivan Christy [Slick Freeman], W.C. Robinson [Reddy], Charles Hill Mailes
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Released 14 March 1916. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Kate Wiggin, a young woman, through illness loses her position, and being unable to secure another place finds herself at the end of her resources. Her landlady orders her to pay up or leave the house. That night, as she sits despairing Slick Freeman, a burglar, rushes into her room with a hand satchel containing several thousand dollars. He tells her that he and a pal have just broken into and robbed a bank, and being pursued by the police, separated to throw them off the trail. The burglar decides to leave the loot in her possession until he calls for it the next day. Slick, returning to his room, finds it empty. Red has been wounded and taken to the police station, where, at this moment, he is confessing the crime. The police make their way to Slick’s room, but through a clever trick he manages to make good his escape. The next morning Kate is still in possession of the money left in her charge, when the landlady appears and demands that she either pay what she owes, or get out at once. It is sheer desperation that prompts her to take a bill from the satchel, stating to the landlady that she had received a remittance. After six weeks have elapsed. Kate leaves the city, taking the money with her. Six months later Kate is employed as a stenographer in a wealthy stockbroker’s office. The son of her employer has grown very fond of Kate, and she of him but the thought of her charge forces her to mildly but firmly reject his proffered attentions. One day her employer receives a letter containing a hundred dollar bill, stating that it was conscience money which a dishonest employee begged to return as restitution for what he had taken. This gives her an idea, and she asks her employer whether should a business house or a bank be robbed of a sum and that sum returned intact there would be an investigation. Her employer states that the bank would be very glad and consider itself lucky to get the money. She goes to the express office and ships the money to the bank president. The only receipt she sets is a notice in the newspaper to the effect that the money had been returned from an unknown source. Her mind now free of torment, she accepts her employer’s son when he next proposes, and they are married. Some time later, while on a shopping tour, she is recognized by Slick Freeman, who secures the license number of the machine. Armed with this, he goes up to the Automobile License Bureau and gets the name and address of the owner. The next day he calls on her to get the money he left in her keeping. He does not believe her story of its return, until she shows him proof published in the newspaper, which she bad retained. At the dinner table her husband reads an article to the effect that Slick Freeman, the noted bank robber, was wounded in a saloon brawl and had confessed to his part of the robbery, stating that he had given the money in charge of a woman, but dying before he mentioned her name.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 8 January 2025.
References: Spehr-American p. 2 : Website-IMDb.
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