Underplayed Gems

The Sleeping Sentinel (1914)

The Sleeping Sentinel poster
Genre
silent film, trial film
Country
United States
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A film about President Abraham Lincoln pardoning a Civil War soldier who fell asleep on guard duty and was sentenced to death. Lincoln arrives just before the firing squad shoots.

historicalsomberdramaticsentimentalblack-and-whitequietold-fashionedbrief

What happens

The Sleeping Sentinel is a 1914 American black-and-white silent film that depicted President Abraham Lincoln pardoning a military sentry who had been sentenced to die for sleeping while on duty. The name of the film is taken from the Civil War poem "The Sleeping Sentinel" by Francis De Haas Janvier. In the actual incident during the American Civil War, William Scott, a private in the 3rd Vermont Infantry, fell asleep while on guard duty. He subsequently was arrested, court-martialed, and sentenced to be shot. Lincoln heard about the case, pardoned Scott, and returned him to his unit. William Scott was actually standing before his firing squad when the death sentence and pardon were both read, however no one had told him that he had been pardoned. Scott later died at the Battle of Lee's Mills. The "Sleeping Sentinel" was a melodramatic poem written about this case. In the film, Lincoln happens upon the scene while riding in a carriage, stopping the squad just before it fires (which never happened). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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