The Crime of Carelessness
About The Crime of Carelessness
Henry Waters, owner of a woolen mill, leaves the fire exits blocked, and an inspector accepts his promise to fix them. The day before his wedding to mill worker Hilda Fox, machinist Tom Watts throws a lit match into basement rubbish. The mill catches fire. The exits are locked or piled with bales. Tom chops through a partition with a fire axe, then goes back for Hilda and carries her out. He admits he started the fire. The workers drive him out of town, and Hilda is left badly hurt. He is about to kill himself when she arrives with a letter from Waters, who shares the blame and asks Tom back to the rebuilt factory.
Cast & crew
More about The Crime of Carelessness
Harold M. Shaw directed. James Oppenheim wrote it. Thomas A. Edison, Inc. produced it in the fall of 1912, with the National Association of Manufacturers, as a factory-safety picture. Barry O'Moore, also known as Herbert Yost, plays Tom Watts. Mabel Trunnelle plays Hilda. Bigelow Cooper plays Henry Waters. Austin Conroy is the inspector. John Sturgeon and Mrs. William Bechtel play Hilda's parents.
Themes
Background
The short was made after the Triangle Waist Company fire in New York on March 25, 1911, which killed 146 workers, most of them young women. It moves the disaster to an unnamed woolen mill and splits the blame between the owner and a smoking machinist.
Preservation
The National Film Preservation Foundation holds a viewing copy in its screening room.
Notes
- The National Film Preservation Foundation notes that the story follows the Triangle Waist Company fire of March 1911, in which 146 workers died, without naming that factory.
- Investigators of the Triangle fire thought a cutter had thrown a match or a cigarette into cotton scraps. Tom does the same with a match in a rubbish pile.
Scenes
- Tom finds the exit piled with bales and cuts through a partition with a fire axe.
- He carries the unconscious Hilda out of the mill and tells the crowd he started the fire.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-crime-of-carelessness)
- National Film Preservation Foundation screening room
