The Best Policy (1912)

movie

Country: USA
Genres: Comedy, Short
Release: 1912-02-01
Director: Allan Dwan
Writers: N/A
Language: None | English
Stars: J. Warren Kerrigan , Jack Richardson
Runtime: min
Awards: N/A
AKA: The Best Policy , The Best Policy (United States of America)
Plot: Three gentlemen are seen forcing their way through the thick semi-tropical growth of Southern California. The dilapidated trio bears the names of Boggs, Briggs and Boswell. They camped. They slept--or pretended they did. Boggs and Briggs, determined to appropriate all they had, thus leaving Boswell free. But Boswell overheard and, while the older robber went away to place the treasure in a hollow tree, Boswell bitterly upbraided his companion. So, Briggs relenting, the pair decides to give the old man the double cross. Proximity of the rangers prevented Briggs and Boswell from retiring very far into the underbrush; hence old Boggs overhears and decides to double-cross both of them. So he leaves the treasure in the tree and places in his vest a false package. Then Briggs held him up and secured what he thought was the treasure. Finding it all his own, he sees no necessity for sharing it with Boswell. A chase ensues. Boswell catches Briggs, sits upon him and removes the loot quite handily. And then they discover the gross fraud perpetrated upon them! Meanwhile, Boggs has lodged himself comfortably against a tree. He draws from his shirt the real loot and examines it long and earnestly, looking up with a pleasant smile just in time to sight down the wrong end of a gun barrel. The law catches tight hold of poor Boggs's collar, and Briggs and Boswell are left alone to speculate on the folly and futility of material things.
IMDB:tt1307872