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Le manuel du parfait gentleman
(The Manual of a Perfect Gentleman)
Also known as [Text Book of a Perfect Gentleman]
(1908) France
B&W : Short film
Directed by Georges Monca
Cast: André Deed, Jacques Vandenne
Compagnie Genérale des Établissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes production; distributed by Compagnie Genérale des Établissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The film was released in the USA on 22 August 1908.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? In this picture we see a young fellow leaving home carrying a book containing rules of etiquette. While seated on a bench in the park an occasion presents itself to practice some of its precepts, for a nursemaid comes along with a baby in her arms and sits beside him, and while she does some work he volunteers to mind the youngster. He does not keep it long, however, for it sets up such a squeal that he is glad to return it to the maid and hasten away. Next he meets a pretty young woman who is having some difficulty buttoning her shoe, and he very gallantly volunteers to assist her, but she, misunderstanding his desire to be kind, considers his conduct impertinent when he raises her ruffles a trifle high, and she gives him a slap and hastens indignantly away, leaving him sprawling on the ground. He next comes upon a beggar and gives the unfortunate a few pennies, but when the impostor sights the wallet he compels the generous young man to give him every cent at the point of a gun. We next see him as he passes a river into which two men have just thrown a dummy, and he, thinking that it is a man in distress, dives in and drags the thing to shore, much to the amusement of the spectators. When he realizes that the joke is on him he becomes hardened, and vows to go his way through life always bearing in mind the axiom, “Self-preservation is the first law of nature.”
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: (unknown) [France]; Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 11 October 2023.
References: Montgomery-Comedy p. ? : Website-IMDb.
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