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Wanted — A Wife
(1912) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] Gaston Méliès and/or Robert Goodman?
Cast: Francis Ford [Tom, the lonesome cowboy], [?] ? [Mary Smith], [?] ? [the homely cook]
G. Méliès production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Produced by Gaston Méliès. / Released 11 April 1912. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Comedy: Western.
Synopsis: [From Méliès promotional materials] Tom, tired of bachelor life, advertises for a pretty wife and is deluged with hundreds of answers. He selects that of an orphaned girl twenty-two years old and arranges to meet her at the station. Other cowboys learning of his secret intent resolve to play a joke on Tom, and on the arrival of the train, smuggle the pretty bride-to-be away and substitute a homely cook. The complications that arise amuse all but Tom, until in a most unexpected manner, he learns the truth. Then he “puts one over” on the boys that turns the joke on them. // [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Tired of leading the lonely bachelor life, Tom resolves to dispose of himself in wedlock, and, having no particular girl of his dreams, advertises for “a pretty wife.” Of more than a hundred responses from willing girls, old maids, grass-widows and otherwise, Tom chooses that of an orphan girl, twenty-two years old, signing herself “Mary Smith,” and arranges to meet her on the arrival of the express in Range Town. A striped parasol is to be the mark of identification. Unfortunately for Tom, his suddenly voluminous mail arouses the suspicion of the cowboys to the extent that they investigate and discover his secret intent. A dozen heads plot to play a joke on him. They hire an ugly cook to play the part of Mary Smith. Tom engages a bridal suite at the hotel, and in his Sunday best, goes to meet his bride-to-be. His heart beats faster at sight of the striped parasol, but great expectations are quashed on discovery of the ugliness beneath it. Meanwhile the boys have smuggled the real, pretty Mary Smith to the home of one of their married number and left her in care of the wife while they follow the fate of Tom. But Tom has already had enough of his supposed intended and makes his get-away at the first opportunity. Riding in the woods he meets with the real Mary, who, out for a walk, has sprained her ankle. He carries her to the house and learns the true story. Love is instantaneous and mutual, and the boys return to find the joke turned on themselves.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 27 April 1912, page ?] A farce comedy that gets over enough to make many hearty laughs. It seemed to please a good sized audience very much. The same situation was treated a few weeks ago by an Independent maker, if we remember; but this is a more good-natured and more truly romantic picture, and we enjoyed seeing it again. It doesn’t drag and has nothing coarse in it, although the cowboy is, almost excusably, rough for just one moment. The cowboy is lonesome and advertises in the matrimonial column. The right kind of a girl comes forward; but the boys, finding what is up, get the cook at the hotel to claim Tom’s love and protection, while they hide the right girl, with the help of the good-natured foreman’s wife. Tom is disgusted, to put it lightly, and he doesn’t mind whether the cook knows it or not. The final meeting between Tom and the right girl is one on the jokes. The photographs merely serve; they are not artistic.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 22 May 2024.
References: Thompson-Star p. 231 : ClasIm-226 p. 55 : Website-IMDb.
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