Getting the Evidence

Released April 2, 1917, Getting the Evidence 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 the Paramount Pictures.

 As of the writing of this article (November 25, 2017) no prints of this film are known to survive. If you have any information about the film, please contact us.

 The USMPC received a copyright for this film (#10501) on April 4, 1917.

 An article for the film that appeared in the April 7, 1917 issue of The Moving Picture World, pages 163-3, provides a summary of the film’s plot. It is transcribed here by Noreen O’Connor:

“GETTING THE EVIDENCE (Black Diamond —April 2). —With the blowing of the one o’clock whistle Waldo is awakened from his snooze on a park bench and dashes home. There he demands his dinner, but Sue, his wife, shows him the empty larder and tells him: “If you don’t provide for me, I’ll get a job for myself,” and she starts out. She lands a job with the Dubb Detective Agency and is assigned to the case of a woman who wants to get evidence for a divorce.

 With a photograph of the faithless husband, Sue goes at once to his business address and stations herself by the door, where she watches every passer-by, comparing each with the photograph. Her patience is at last rewarded. She finds a man who resembles the photo and trails him. He turns into a restaurant and begins an earnest conversation with the cashier. Sue stands outside watching them and taking notes.

 When the cashier turns around and Sue gets a look at her ugly face she tears up her notes in disgust. There was surely no evidence in that. Her quarry tells the cashier: “Have your daughter communicate with me at once,” and leaves. Waldo sees Sue waiting outside the restaurant. When she trails her man down the street, Waldo is overcome with jealousy and follows after. Her quarry goes to his office and Sue, finding the door locked, resolves to get in some other way. Closely watched by Waldo, she gets to the top of an adjoining building and walks out on some wires which lead to the office window opposite. Half way across she loses her balance, and falls, catching her toes on two stories below. There she hangs until the wire breaks and she falls headfirst toward the pavement.

 She goes through the brick pavement. Waldo pulls her out and a huge bump swells on the top of her head. It burst with a loud report which causes a passing chauffeur to think he has blown a tire. Waldo accuses Sue of trying to kill him by falling on him. She resents this with her fist, knocking Waldo across the walk. He then collides with a horse, which he carries over with him. She goes into the office building again and a passing officer arrests Waldo for cruelty to animals.”

 The messenger leaves the door open and “open and Sue slips inside and hides behind a screen just in time to hear him tell a girl over the phone, “Meet me at the parsonage and we’ll be married at once.” He hurries out, and Sue calls her client and tells her that her husband is a bigamist and to hurry to the parsonage. She starts there on the run herself, picking up a cop on the way.

 The suspected bigamist arrives at the parsonage with his intended bride and the marriage ceremony is almost completed when Sue and the cop burst in and place him under arrest. He objects but Sue scoffs at him. Her client rushes in and confronts the captive. With one look she dismisses him saying “That is not my husband—I never saw him before!” and Sue realizes that she has trailed the wrong man.