All at Sea

Released February 6, 1917, All at Sea 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 29, 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 February 3, 1917, issue of the Moving Picture World on page 748. It was transcribed below by Noreen O’Connor in 2017:

ALL AT SEA (Black Diamond– Feb. 6). Bob, cabaret entertainer, is always broke. He is in love with Dot, whose father sends her away to school. She writes Bob that she Is sailing the next day. Although Bob hasn’t the fare, he resolves to take the same boat. Taking wigs and make-up, he tries to get aboard. He hides in a box but is discovered, climbs to a porthole, but is knocked down by a pail of garbage; climbs a rope, but it is cast off by a sailor, and he falls into the water. Finally, he gives up and is waiting for a last look at Dot, when a porter, thinking him a belated passenger, hurries him on board.

Dot is delighted but the purser checks short and starts to find the extra passenger. Bob makes up exactly like the captain. Later he disguises as a sailor, but is caught and put to work scrubbing the decks. Tiring of this, he makes up in exact duplicate of the Count de Brie.

The purser discovers the two counts and brings them together, demanding to know “which is the imposter.” Dot saves Bob by claiming he is the real count. The purser forces the count to stoke the fires while Bob enjoys himself with Dot.

The count’s wife sees them In an affectionate pose, and drags Bob away, beats him and throws him on the bed In the stateroom while she dresses for dinner.

The count escapes [and] enters his stateroom to find Bob. The wife is horrified. The count starts after Bob. The purser and sailors Join the chase, and Bob takes refuge on top of the smokestack. The count shoots and he falls through the smokestack and out of the furnace into the stokehole.

The chase continues, Bob finds Dot and drags her to the bow of the boat. The others are about to overpower him when the ship Is torpedoed. Bob and Dot land on a piece of wreckage. The purser comes up out of the water and demands Bob’s fare. Bob pushes him under and he and Dot float away.