The Coward and the Man (1914)

movie

Country: USA
Genres: Drama, Short
Release: 1914-05-16
Director: Ashley Miller
Writers: Ashley Miller
Language: None | English
Stars: Charles Ogle , John Sturgeon , Joseph W. Girard , Denis Ward , Robert Brower , Miriam Nesbitt , Edwin Clarke , William Bechtel , Edna Hammel , Walter Crosby
Runtime: 12 min
Awards: N/A
AKA: The Coward and the Man , The Coward and the Man (United States of America)
Plot: The only excuse that can be pleaded for Joe Brown is that he was hungry and desperate on account of the apparent impossibility of finding honest work. When he asked Preston Senall for a job, and Senall not only refused, but added an gratuitous insult by telling Joe that he was a worthless loafer, Joe was certainly wrong in losing his temper. Whether his offense merited the severe prison sentence given him when he was arrested on Senall's complaint is another matter. The fact that Joe saved the life of one of the wardens during an outbreak in the prison had a great deal to do with his early release. In the tenement in which he roomed after his release, Joe met Mrs. Burrowes, who supported herself and daughter by sewing. Joe was able to be of some service to her on one or two occasions, and an intimacy sprang up between them. One day Joe learned that Preston Senall had been the cause of Mrs. Burrowes' poverty. When Joe found Preston Senall's young son, Harry, who had strayed away from home, he sent an anonymous letter to Senall, directing him to meet him in a certain deserted building at a certain time. Senall, after one vain attempt to catch the writer of the letter with detectives, came to the appointed spot. Joe met him and gave the boy into his father's charge. When Senall, overjoyed at regaining his son, offered to pay him the reward. Joe threw it into his face. Then he confronted him with the woman he had robbed, "Do you remember what the judge said to me?" he asked the trembling Senall, "Only cowards take advantage of the weak." Preston Senall was not a good man, but, on the other hand, he was not an absolute villain. So, although Joe bade him take his son and go, he refused to go before he had made arrangements to pay back to Mrs. Burrowes the money she had lost.
IMDB:tt0003801