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The Last Drink of Whiskey
(1914) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by Eddie Dillon (Edward Dillon)
Cast: Tod Browning [Desperate Rudolph], Tammany Young [the sheriff], Fay Tincher [Rudolph’s wife], Baldy Belmont (Joseph Belmont) [a gang member], Max Davidson [a gang member]
Komic Company production; distributed by Mutual Film Corporation. / Scenario by Anita Loos. / Released 7 June 1914. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [Reel Life, 6 June 1914, page ?] It is a rattling burlesque, showing the efforts of Desperate Rudolph, the Terror of Red Gulch, to get the only three fingers of firewater in the camp. He has to kill twelve armed men before he gets it but does not hesitate. Unfortunately, he hestitates before drinking and the sheriff seizes the bottle from his lips. Desperate Rudolph regains the bottle but is too busy defending it to drink it and his youthful son finally gets it — as a medicine. / [From Moving Picture World] Only one drink of whiskey is left in Red Gulch, and the pack train won’t arrive for thirty days. The one drink, which isn't to be had for love or money, reposes in a bottle on a table in the middle of the barroom, guarded by twelve armed men. Desperate Rudolph makes up his mind that the whiskey shall be his. He rises in the morning, kisses his wife and his son, Little Willie, and starts out for his career of crime. Creeping into the barroom, he forces the guard to line up. Then, with a single bullet, he shoots down the whole twelve like a row of ninepins. Rudolph stands in the road, getting ready to drink the whiskey, when he is seen by the sheriff. The officer of the law gallops past and snatches the bottle. At a signal from Rudolph, his desperate gang surround him. They give chase, wrenching the bottle from the sheriff who, by a clever trick, escapes alive. The sheriff rides hot-footed to the headquarters of the vigilantes, and all give pursuit. With Desperate Rudolph and his gang in one wagon, and the vigilantes in another, the race leads over a high bluff. Rudolph’s vehicle gets on fire, and reaching the top first, he and his men pile out and push the wagon over on their adversaries. The sheriff, however, is not to be so lightly vanquished. The vigilantes scale the bluff and a brisk fight ensues, in which Rudolph and his gang shoot down every member of the opposition. Victorious at last, Rudolph prepares to enjoy his whiskey. But private monopoly of the treasure causes mutiny in the gang, and he is forced to shoot all his followers before he can have his drink unmolested. After long tribulation, he stands with the liquor almost to his lips. While his father has been cavorting about the country, little Willie has spent the day in the orchard, thoughtfully making the most of a windfall of green apples. His mother finds him, doubled up, and seizing him, starts out in frantic search of aid. They reach Rudolph just as he is putting the bottle to his lips. There is nothing to do but pour the whiskey down little Willie. But this is too much for Rudolph. He falls in an apoplectic fit, and gives up the ghost.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 27 June 1914, page ?] Another helter-skelter farce of amusingly outrageous doings. It will compel laughter, draw it even out of a tightly corked audience. There is nothing wonderful about the picture; it is very much like others of the kind, but it has newly tried things and there is a good freshly thought-up scheme behind it with much that is truly funny in it. The acting is according to the best ideas for farces of this kind and it makes what is surely a desirable offering.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Alcohol - Law: Enforcement: Police: Sheriffs
Listing updated: 28 October 2022.
References: Skal-Browning pp. 237-238 : Website-IMDb.
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