What Happened to Jones?

1926 Comedy 70 minutes Directed by William A. Seiter

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About What Happened to Jones?

The night before he is to marry Lucille Bigbee, Tom Jones is pulled into a poker game at the house of his henpecked friend Ebenezer Goodly. Police raid the game. Tom and Ebenezer escape down a fire escape into a women's Turkish bath, leave in women's clothes, and reach Goodly's house in a milk wagon. Tom puts on the clothes of Goodly's brother, a bishop who is expected that morning, and Mrs. Goodly makes him keep up the pose. He is pushed into officiating at Lucille's wedding to someone else. She recognizes him and says she does not. They grab the real bishop and are married in a moving car, ahead of the police.

Cast & crew

More about What Happened to Jones?

William A. Seiter directed. Melville W. Brown adapted George Broadhurst's play, which opened in New York on August 30, 1897. Carl Laemmle produced. John Rawlins edited. Leo E. Kuter was art director. Wikipedia dates the release February 8, 1926. AFI lists January 17, 1926, with openings in Spokane on December 31, 1925, Oklahoma City on January 3, and Los Angeles on January 16. Copyright LP22098, December 9, 1925. AFI length is 6,726 feet, seven reels. Photography ended in mid or late September 1925. Wikidata also names Nate Watt as a director.

Themes

  • a poker raid the night before a wedding
  • a bishop's clothes
  • a bride who will not say yes to the wrong man
  • Tom Jones
  • Lucille Bigbee
  • Turkish bath
  • bishop
  • Reginald Denny
  • poker

Look

Arthur L. Todd photographed the Universal comedy.

Preservation

The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database lists the film as extant.

Notes

  • Reginald Denny plays Tom Jones. Marian Nixon plays Lucille Bigbee. Otis Harlan is in the cast.
  • ZaSu Pitts, Emily Fitzroy, and John Elliott are credited on Wikidata.
  • The Library of Congress silent-feature database lists the film as extant.
  • The catalog overview calls the hero Reginald Jones and his fiancée Mary. The magazine synopsis and the cast list use Tom Jones and Lucille Bigbee.

Scenes

  • Tom and Ebenezer land in a women's Turkish bath and leave dressed as clients.
  • Lucille, at the altar, recognizes the fake bishop and refuses the other man.
  • The real bishop marries them in a speeding car.

Influenced by

  • What Happened to Jones, the 1897 play by George Broadhurst

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