Getting Evidence
About Getting Evidence
A jealous husband hires the private detective Hawkshaw to photograph his wife with another man. Hawkshaw tails her and never gets the picture. He is scooped up by a wheelbarrow, run down by an automobile, thrown, sprayed with seltzer, hit by a golf ball, dumped in a lake, burned by his own flash powder, and, at the beach, chased, beaten, and dunked by angry bathers. The longer title is Getting Evidence, Showing the Trials and Tribulations of a Private Detective.
Cast & crew
More about Getting Evidence
Edwin S. Porter directed and photographed it. Silent Era also credits Wallace McCutcheon as co-director. Edison shot it on 20–24 September 1906 and released it in October 1906. Thomas A. Edison copyrighted it on 8 October 1906, numbers H83561 through H83572. The AFI Catalog gives 930 feet and 14.5 minutes. Paul Panzer plays the detective. A Museum of Modern Art 35mm positive survives.
Themes
Making
Porter and McCutcheon string the same failed photograph through a week of location gags, shot in five days in September 1906. Panzer is the detective who keeps the camera and loses every picture.
Look
Porter photographed the chase himself, moving from the office to a golf course, a lake, and a beach.
Preservation
The Museum of Modern Art holds a 35mm positive. The film is public domain in the United States. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The office door reads "Hawkshaw Private Detective" on the inside of the glass, where customers in the hall could not see it. The AFI history note records that placement.
- Silent Era's keyword list includes a wheelbarrow, an automobile, seltzer, golf, a lake, flash powder, and a beach.
- The film is public domain in the United States.
- A file is on Wikimedia Commons.
- Alternate titles include Getting Evidence, or the Trials and Tribulations of a Private Detective.
Scenes
- A wheelbarrow picks Hawkshaw up from behind.
- His own flash powder goes off in his face.
- Bathers at the beach chase him into the ocean.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Getting Evidence (1906).webm)
