Captain Jinks, the Cobbler
About Captain Jinks, the Cobbler
In a Central European town, an army officer tells the cobbler Jinks to repair his gear. Nagged by his wife, Jinks puts on the officer's uniform and walks through town. The burgomaster believes him and pays him the officer's bonus. When the impersonation is found out, the court offers Jinks two years in jail or life at home with his wife. The film ends with Jinks weighing the two.
Cast & crew
More about Captain Jinks, the Cobbler
Van Dyke Brooke directed the one-reel comedy. The General Film Company released it on 25 December 1916, one of two Jinks comedies Vitagraph put out for Christmas. The U.S. copyright filing calls it suggested by the incident of the Shoemaker of Köpenick. Frank Daniels plays Jinks. Mildred Manning is credited as the girl.
Themes
Background
Voigt's Köpenick imposture was ten years old when Vitagraph turned the cobbler into Captain Jinks for a Christmas one-reeler.
Making
The nitrate came from the New Zealand Film Archive. The Library of Congress preserved a 35mm print from that material. The National Film Preservation Foundation notes the copy is incomplete.
Music
Silent. The preserved copy runs with no music.
Preservation
An incomplete 35mm print is at the Library of Congress, from a black-and-white nitrate found at the New Zealand Film Archive. Colorlab completed the preservation in 2013.
Notes
- It is the first American film of the 1906 Köpenick case. Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt, a shoemaker, posed as a Prussian officer and took money from the town treasury.
- Silent Era lists the wife and the burgomaster as uncredited, separate from Mildred Manning's part as the girl.
- The same listing asks whether this is the same film as Captain Jinks' Getaway, also dated 25 December 1916.
- Daniels had signed an exclusive Vitagraph contract in December 1915, after a run of Mr. Jack comedies.
- The surviving print was copied at 18 frames per second and runs 12 minutes with no music.
- Colorlab finished the preservation work in 2013, paid for by a Save America's Treasures grant through the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Scenes
- Jinks puts on the officer's uniform and the burgomaster hands him the bonus.
- The court offers two years in jail or a return home to his wife, and Jinks stops to think.
Influenced by
- The 1906 Köpenick imposture of Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Captain Jinks the Cobbler (1916).webm)
- National Film Preservation Foundation
