A Suffragette in Spite of Himself

1912 Comedy Directed by Bannister Merwin

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About A Suffragette in Spite of Himself

A British householder reads of smashed windows and suffragettes chained to railings and storms out. Two boys pull a Votes for Women bill off a tree and pin it to his back. He bumps an anti-suffrage group, breaks a shop window with his umbrella, and London police grab him. Marching suffragettes see the bill and haul him off as one of their own. At home he reaches for the whiskey and finds a suffrage banner in the decanter.

Cast & crew

More about A Suffragette in Spite of Himself

Ashley Miller directed. Bannister Merwin wrote the scenario. Thomas A. Edison, Inc. produced it, and General Film Company released it on October 30, 1912, on a split reel with Copper Mines at Bingham, Utah. The action is set in London.

Themes

  • A bill pinned to a man's back
  • Police and a shop window
  • Suffragettes who claim the wrong champion
  • A banner in the whiskey
  • suffrage
  • Votes for Women
  • London
  • practical joke
  • Edison

Preservation

A print survives.

Notes

  • Marc McDermott plays the gentleman, Miriam Nesbitt the lady, and Ethel Browning the maid. Browning was Miller's wife.
  • The Kinetogram of October 15, 1912, printed a synopsis of the same joke.
  • A print survives.

Scenes

  • The boys pin the suffrage bill to his coat while he argues.
  • He lifts the decanter and finds a suffrage banner.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (silent-a-suffragette-in-spite-of-himself)

Quotes

Votes for Women