A Society Scrimmage

Released November 12, 1917, A Society Scrimmage is a one-reel Black Diamond Comedy filmed and produced by the United States Motion Picture Corporation (USMPC) in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures.

As of the writing of this article (November 30, 2017), no prints of this film are known to survive. If you have any information about the film, please contact us.

A synopsis of the film is available in the December 15, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World on page 1684. The text is here transcribed by Noreen O’Connor:

A SOCIETY SCRIMMAGE (Black Diamond Comedy — Nov. 12). — Michael Brogan is a retired bricklayer, whose wife has a strong ambition to enter into society. She wants Maggie, her daughter, now known as Margarette, to marry a count. Maggie loved Sammie, who brought flowers. In the bouquet was a bee, however, and Sammy is ejected.

Mother receives a telegram from the Count telling of his arrival. Maggie learns that the Count will arrive and sends for Sammy to help her. Sammy goes to the station and recognizes the count. He follows him through a field, where he knocks the Count out, drags him to a blacksmith shop, changes clothes with him and goes to the house disguised as the Count.

Sammy intends to disgust mother and father with his actions. He is invited to dinner, and, much to the surprise of mother, he eats his soup reading a sheet of music, after which he pulls the chicken apart, serves it with his hands and throw? it around the table. Mother and father start after Sammy again, Sammy pulls down the curtain and swings on the chandelier, pulling plants, lath and dirt down, burying mother, father, daughter and himself in the debris. Sammy makes his getaway, leaving the family by themselves. Mother, after all this, is cured of her society craze.