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Roscoe Arbuckle (center).
Photograph: Silent Era image collection.
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The Sanitarium
Also known as [The Clinic]
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] Tom Santschi?
Cast: Hobart Bosworth [Charley Wise], Nick Cogley, George Hernandez, Roscoe Arbuckle, M.B. Curtis, Miss Williams (Kathlyn Williams)
The Selig Polyscope Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by [?] The Selig Polyscope Company, Incorporated, and/or The General Film Company, Incorporated? / Produced by William N. Selig. / Released 10 October 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [The Film Index, 15 October 1910, page 10] Charley Wise with a Waldorf appetite on a beany salary finds himself growing unpopular with his landlord as well as other creditors. In fact the sighing breezes seem to whisper “Charley it’s your move.” So together with Pete, his valet, they decide upon a visit to the country to spend a few days with the rich old uncle. Upon their arrival they find Uncle Jim and Sarah are just planning a trip to Europe and the timely arrival of Charley renders it unnecessary to close up the home as he is placed in full charge with faithful Pete as his assistant and Jim and Sarah are off for the other side. Charles repairs to the race track and donates the remaining fragments of his bank roll, to the other man’s better judgment. Pete hits upon a plan to open the palatial home of the uncle as a sanitarium and thus collect a few of the shining shekels that health seekers are always anxious to let loose of. Accordingly an ad is inserted in the daily papers, a sign put over the door, and the rooms are all numbered in regular order, per city hotel fashion. The patients begin to flock in like children to a nickel show. All sorts, ages, sizes, suffering from every known and unknown malady from Reno-it is to raving maniac. Pete was collecting in advance and the place in a few short hours looked more like a castle garden of Blackville Island than a country home. The money was rolling in so fast that Chas. and Pete almost went into hysteria. Just then a telegram arrives from 'Frisco from Uncle Jim saying that Aunt Sarah had lost her necklace and was returning home that night to find it. To clear the house for her coming was no small job and they encounter all kinds of trouble, compelled to return their money, which has a telling effect on Charles’ ambitions. No sooner than this part of the program was completed a second message arrives saying the necklace had been found and they were off for Europe. Charles had no time to rejoice over the finding of the pearls; he was too busy thinking about the money he had found necessary to return to his sanitarium patients.
Reviews: [Variety, 15 October 1910, page 12] No excuses are necessary for the making of this film. It may have been slammed together in the night . . . . Same old situations, some are worked to the limit. There are enough people in the picture to make some genuinely funny climaxes. The photography will do. // [The Moving Picture World, 22 October 1910, page 936tr] The young man who transformed his uncle’s palatial residence into a sanitarium and the calamity which compelled him to pay back the money his patients gave him, are so graphically told in this picture that one is almost ready to sympathize with him. Misfortune seemed his lot, and his woebegone looks after the last dollar has been paid back and the last patient has departed, and the telegram comes saying that his uncle will not be back, would melt the most stony heart. The picture is acted with spirit, and the personality of the Selig players pervades it so strongly that it is especially attractive. It is a comedy which develops its humor through unexpected situations and good acting, and the result is almost one continuous laugh.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 10 April 2024.
References: Edmonds-Arbuckle p. 244 : Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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