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The Old Cobbler
(1914) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by Murdock MacQuarrie
Cast: Murdock MacQuarrie [Nathan, the cobbler], Richard Rosson [Dick, the cobbler’s son], Agnes Vernon [Jess], Lon Chaney [Wild Bill], May Bensen [Nathan’s wife]
New York Motion Picture Corporation production; distributed by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated [101-Bison]. / Released 27 June 1914. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Old Nathan stumbles upon Dick, his son, while the latter is going through his purse, robbing his father. He remonstrates, but instead of being touched, Dick becomes insolent. Nathan turns him out of the house with the hope that the world will remedy what the father cannot. Nathan’s wife is now all that is left to him. He goes upstairs to commiserate with her. He finds her dead. After the funeral Nathan goes west and settles in a mining camp. Despite his troubles, he still radiates charity and kindness. One day Wild Bill, a “give-take-and-be-damned” sort of fellow, visits Nathan and throws down a damaged boot for repairs. This is the first and last time that he bullies the old cobbler. Nathan kicks him out of the shop. Bill comes to respect the old cobbler, and when Jess, Bill’s sweetheart, and a dancer in a resort, must have one of her slippers repaired, it is taken to Nathan. He places a note in the repaired slipper. That touch of kindness is the saving of Jess. She casts aside her gaudy clothes. Nathan and Bill become good friends and the cobbler shows his friend Dick’s picture and gives his history. One day the stage is held up. Bill captures the highwayman and recognizes him as Nathan’s son. He takes Dick back to his father and when he displays the bags of gold to the miners, he explains, “He must have heard me coming, for he vacated in a hell of a hurry and left this.” Nathan goes on spreading sunshine, making people happy, marrying and preaching sermons to the end of his days.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 17 June 1914, page ?] A two-reel offering by Seymour Hastings, with M.J. MacQuarrie, Agnes Vernon and Lon Chaney in the cast. The work of Mr. MacQuarrie as the old cobbler with a religious bent is unusually good. He works wonders with the character of the gambler, who repays the kindness by saving the old fellow’s wild son from imprisonment after he has turned holdup. This makes a good Western offering and has the merit of exceptional character work.
Survival status: The film is presumed lost.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 22 May 2024.
References: Spehr-American p. 100; Weaver-Twenty p. 76 : Website-IMDb.
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