An Unexpected Guest
About An Unexpected Guest
A young man plans to marry a serving girl. His father objects, forces her to write that he is free, and cuts from the letter her plea to see him once more, and the news of a baby. Two years later he is about to marry an heiress. She gets a letter, goes to the first woman, and finds her dying after the birth of his son.
More about An Unexpected Guest
Lubin produced and released it on 12 August 1909 and copyrighted it the same day, J132277. Silent Era lists one reel, 880 or 890 feet, and does not name the director or the players. The Lubin bell trademark is on the set. A paper print is at the Library of Congress. It is not a Biograph film.
Themes
Making
Lubin played the whole story on interior sets marked with the company bell, including the letter, the second wedding, and the deathbed.
Preservation
A paper print survives at the Library of Congress, with a 16mm reference reduction. Public domain in the United States.
Notes
- Silent Era's one-line synopsis: the father alters a letter from the fiancée about a newborn and nearly wrecks the marriage.
- Also titled The Unexpected Guest.
- A paper positive and a 16mm reference print are in the Library of Congress paper-print collection.
- The intertitle that jumps two years still shows the child as a baby, which viewers of the print have noted.
- Public domain in the United States.
Scenes
- The father snips the last plea, and the line about the baby, out of her letter.
- The heiress finds the first woman dying with the child.