The Copper Beeches
About The Copper Beeches
Jephro Rucastle will not let his daughter marry William, and he tries to make her sign away her inheritance. She refuses. He locks her in a shed and hires Violet Hunter, who looks like her, to stand at the window and draw William into a shotgun. Hunter finds the locked shed, is stopped by Rucastle, and goes to Sherlock Holmes. Holmes goes with her to the house. The daughter is freed and Rucastle is handed to the police. Watson is not in the film.
Cast & crew
More about The Copper Beeches
Adrien Caillard directed. Georges Tréville plays Holmes. Éclair and the Franco-British Film Company made it in England from Conan Doyle's story. It is the last of eight Tréville Holmes shorts in that series. Union Features copyrighted it in the United States on November 4, 1912, and released it through Warner's Features. Silent Era lists it as two reels, about 1,700 feet.
Themes
Preservation
16mm reduction prints survive in private collections. It is one of two surviving titles from the 1912 Éclair Holmes series.
Notes
- Georges Tréville plays Holmes without Watson.
- It is one of two films from the eight-film Éclair series that survive.
- The series was advertised as made under Arthur Conan Doyle's supervision. Silent Era marks that claim as uncertain.
- Prints exist as 16mm reductions in private collections. The U.S. rights are in the public domain.
Scenes
- Rucastle locks his daughter in the shed and posts Hunter at the window.
- Holmes has him taken off by the police.
Influenced by
- Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches