Trying to Get Arrested (1909)

Directed by

D. W. Griffith

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

4 min

Rating

3.5 of 10 from 2 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A man tries to get himself arrested so he can have a place to stay. He does various things to draw the attention of police but keeps failing.

lightheartedwhimsicalfast-pacedplayfulcomedicold-fashionedquirkyslapstick

What happens

Trying to Get Arrested is a 1909 American comedy short film directed by D. W. Griffith, produced by the Biograph Company of New York City, and starring John R. Cumpson. Filmed in two days in early 1909 at Palisades Park, New Jersey, it was released in April that year and distributed to theaters on a "split reel", which was a single film reel that included more than one motion picture. The other picture that accompanied this comedy was the Biograph "dramedy" The Road to the Heart. The screenplay or "scenario" for Trying to Get Arrested was inspired by and adapted from the short story "The Cop and the Anthem" written by American author William Sydney Porter, who is more commonly known by his pen name "O. Henry". Porter's short story was initially published in the New York World newspaper in December 1904 and republished in The Four Million, an anthology of O. Henry's works released in 1906, just three years before the production of this Biograph short. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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