The Curtain Pole
About The Curtain Pole
Mr. Edwards has the gout, so the women run the house party. The portieres are still down when the guests arrive. Monsieur Dupont insists on hanging them, falls off a chair, and breaks the pole. He goes for another, stops for absinthe, and buys a pole eighteen or twenty feet long. Riding in a cab with a drunk driver, he holds it across his lap and knocks down lampposts, fruit stands, and carriages. At the house a pole is already up. Nobody looks at him. He flies into a rage.
Cast & crew
More about The Curtain Pole
D. W. Griffith directed. G. W. Bitzer photographed it and shares a writing credit with Griffith and Mack Sennett. Biograph released it on February 15, 1909. The release was one reel, 765 feet, projected at about 11 to 12 minutes. Sennett plays Dupont. Harry Solter plays Edwards. Florence Lawrence plays Mrs. Edwards. Moving Picture World ran the synopsis on February 13, 1909.
Themes
Making
Biograph was working in Fort Lee. The street damage is played in the open, not on a stage.
Look
G. W. Bitzer followed the cab so the pole could be seen hitting stands and posts.
Preservation
A print survives. A circulating copy runs about eight minutes, against 765 feet on the 1909 release.
Notes
- A surviving copy runs about eight minutes, shorter than the 765-foot release.
- Sennett is sometimes said to have co-directed, without a credit.
- The destruction gag is the pole sticking out of both sides of the cab.
Scenes
- Dupont falls off the chair and snaps the pole.
- The pole, sticking out of the cab, mows down the street.
Quotes
Oui! Oui! I bring you ze one grand pole, if I have to get ze North Pole.
