The Ex-Convict
About The Ex-Convict
A man just out of prison tries to keep his wife and child. Nobody will hire him. He saves a little girl from being run over. Work still does not come, and he is pushed back toward a burglary.
Cast & crew
More about The Ex-Convict
Edwin S. Porter directed and photographed it for Edison, from the play Number 973 by Robert Hilliard and Edwin Holland. Thomas A. Edison copyrighted it on November 19, 1904, in entries H53489 through H53496. Edison released it in December 1904. It carries a main title and intertitles. Silent Era lists the length as 660 or 800 feet. Wikidata gives 8 minutes.
Themes
Background
Edison was selling staged one-reel dramas by 1904. This one uses a prison record as the reason a man cannot get work.
Making
Porter shot it as a story film with titles, not an actuality, and Edison copyrighted it as a series of numbered entries in November 1904.
Look
Edwin S. Porter photographed it himself, with titles cut into the story.
Preservation
A 35mm paper positive from the Library of Congress paper-print collection survives. The film is in the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- The source play is Number 973.
- Silent Era's synopsis is one line: a jobless ex-convict is forced back into crime.
- The rescue of the child is part of the action. Keywords on that listing include a sidewalk, an automobile, and a burglary.
- A 35mm paper positive from the paper-print collection is at the Library of Congress.
- The film is in the public domain in the United States.
Scenes
- Employers turn him away because of the prison record.
- He pulls a little girl out of the path of a vehicle.
- He is driven back toward a break-in.
Influenced by
- The play Number 973 by Robert Hilliard and Edwin Holland
