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The Convict’s Parole
(1912) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by Edwin S. Porter
Cast: Marc McDermott [the governor], Charles Ogle [the prison warden], Robert Brower [the prison labor contractor], John Sturgeon [the warden’s stool pigeon], Mary Fuller [Maud, a parolee], Augustus Phillips [George Clayton, a parolee], Harold M. Shaw [a parolee]
Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated, production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Scenario by Bannister Merwin, from a story by Melvin G. Winstock. / Released 17 May 1912. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? The governor of one of the western states, has inaugurated a new system for handling the convicts. Instead of leasing them on contract to private corporations for private gain, he proposes to release them on parole and give them employment in all cases where they show possibilities of reform. The warden of the penitentiary has a business interest in the old system and with his colleague decides to make an attempt to discredit the governor’s plan. Our interest centers next in three convicts, two men and a woman, who have been released and given employment at a theater. The two men are friends and one of them is in love with the girl. The warden sends an emissary to tempt the younger with the promise of a big haul in a well-planned burglary. A meeting place is appointed in a room back of a saloon. Having gotten the younger man there with some other criminals, the stool-pigeon produces a set of burglar tools. Meanwhile his friend has followed and the girl has gone to the governor with her story of the possible plot. The result is that she and the governor’s secretary are looking through a window and see who produces the burglar tools. But they also see the friend enter and plead with the convicts and the younger man to honor their parole, and the general arrest of everybody concerned, except the warden and the stool-pigeon. The next morning there is a hearing before the governor. The convicts are allowed to tell their story and the warden strongly intimates that their word is hardly to be taken in a matter of his kind against his. Even the girl’s story he considers unreliable, but when the governor invites his secretary to step forward and tell what he saw, the warden understands that the game is up. The governor hands him his dismissal and congratulates the faithful among the convicts, and the story ends with honor triumphant and the grafter turned out.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 15 April 2024.
References: Website-IMDb.
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