A Cry for Help
A Cry for Help

Movie spotlight

A Cry for Help

1912
Movie
17 min
English

Knocked down by an automobile, the intoxicated tramp is taken to the doctor's house, received and treated to a square meal. The husband of a patient has just died, calls on the doctor, intending to kill him. The grief-crazed man is foiled several times by the return of the tramp, whom the maid at last pushes out of the house. She hears the doctor struggling with his assailant and faints. The tramp hears the doctor's cry for help and enters by a rear window, despite the objections of a policeman, in time to save his benefactor.

Insights

Director: UnknownGenres: Drama, Short

Plot Summary

This silent short film, released in 1912, likely depicted a dramatic scenario, as suggested by its title. Without available specific plot details, it can be inferred that the narrative centered on a situation invoking distress or a plea for assistance, characteristic of early dramatic shorts aiming to evoke strong emotional responses from the audience.

Critical Reception

As a silent film from 1912, specific critical reception data is largely unavailable. Films of this era were often reviewed in newspapers and journals, but comprehensive archives for such early shorts are rare. Public reception would have been gauged by box office performance and word-of-mouth, which are not systematically documented for this particular film.

What Reviewers Say

  • Early silent dramas often relied on melodrama to engage audiences.

  • The short format of the time necessitated a focused and impactful narrative.

  • Limited surviving information makes detailed analysis challenging.

Google audience: No specific audience reviews are available for this film due to its age and obscurity. Early cinema audiences would have experienced films in a very different context, often as part of vaudeville shows or as brief novelties.

Fun Fact

Films from 1912, like 'A Cry for Help,' were typically distributed on nitrate film stock, which is highly flammable and prone to decomposition, making the preservation of many early cinematic works extremely difficult.

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