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Bungling Bill’s Dress Suit
(1916) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by Jack Dillon (John Francis Dillon)
Cast: Paddy McGuire [Bungling Bill], Elsie Greeson [Elsie], Arthur Moon [Elsie’s sweetheart], Jack Gaines [Elsie’s father], Ben Turpin, Gypsy Abbott
Vogue Films, Incorporated, production; distributed by Mutual Film Corporation. / Released 5 August 1916. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Moon, at the time of his uncle’s death, receives as his share of the estate, an old dress suit. Considerably disappointed he sells the suit to a second-hand clothing dealer for a sum with which he buys some flowers for his sweetheart, whose birthday it is. While dickering with the clothing dealer, Moon’s sale is overheard by Jerry, a crook, who must have a dress suit to get in the house that night, where a reception is being held in honor of a girl’s birthday, and this girl is Dolly, Moon’s sweetheart. Through is accomplice, the maid in the house, Jerry is to make a clean-up, but in order to avert suspicion, he must have the dress suit. Consequently he steals it from the clothing dealer, and after a chase he gets into his room. There he is examining it when his upper neighbor, Bungling Bill, falls through the floor on him and steals the dress suit while Jerry is unconscious. Bill is in possession of the suite, finds therein a letter telling him that a lawyer named Daniels has a will, which leaves him a mighty sum. He accordingly presents himself at the lawyer’s office in the dress suit and is treated royally. The lawyer invites him to the reception that evening and there Bill has quite a time in playing up to the lawyer’s daughter. Moon, having found out from the father of his sweetheart who is Bill’s lawyer friend, that he is good for nothing but manicuring boulevards, resolves to elope with Dolly that night at seven thirty, which is the time the maid has told Jerry to be on hand to rob the house. Complications set in and Bill is exposed as a fraud when Jerry is eventually captured. Bill is forced to take refuge in his dingy room, where he resolves that dress suits were never made for him, and he cuts it off, revealing himself in the garb which fits his work better. Moon is restored to the fortune Bill accidentally fell into, and he wins Dolly, the lawyer’s daughter.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 14 November 2022.
References: Spehr-American p. 597 : Website-IMDb.
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