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The Sham Reality
(1916) United States of America
B&W : Split-reel
Directed by Francis Ford
Cast: Francis Ford [James Brooks], Grace Cunard [James’s wife], Irving Lippner [James’s friend]
The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated [Rex]. / Scenario by Grace Cunard. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / [?] Website-IMDb notes that the film’s title is for a rerelease in the USA on 16 April 1916; the original title is unidentified.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? James Brooks is an actor, and while his wife is away he decides to move to new apartments. He secures the new quarters and when the key is delivered he places same in his vest pocket. His wife telegraphs she is coming home and he in turn wires her that he is unable to meet her, but will have a boy at the train with the key to their new flat. Brooks goes to the rooms of his friend, who is working in a play with him, and the two actors begin to go over the script of the play. The friend receives a call and leaves Brooks alone in the room, telling him to be sure to lock the door. When Brooks leaves he absently puts his friend’s key in his trousers pocket, and arriving at the desk of the apartment house, places the key to his friend’s flat in an envelope, instructing the boy to meet his wife at the train and deliver the key to her. That night the friend and his wife arrive home and have to get the landlady to open their flat. Later Brooks joins them and they talk of the play. Left alone with the friend’s wife, Brooks becomes very attentive to her and this is noticed by the husband, who becomes enraged. Not knowing they are watched she and Brooks carry on a love affair. Mrs. Brooks arrives at the apartment and finding the boy at the desk asleep she decides to go on up to the apartment, as it is shown on the key. Hearing noises in the room she peers through the keyhole and sees her husband making love to another woman. She unlocks the door and enters. Brooks jumps up nervously and tells his wife he was only rehearsing their new play. His friend, in a moment of rage, fires at his wife and she falls over backward. As Brooks and his wife laugh and joke with another friend who has dropped in, the body of the actor’s wife is shown apparently lying stiff in death. At the end of the play one is left to puzzle out whether the shooting actually occurred or was a part of the rehearsal.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 24 November 2022.
References: ClasIm-224 p. 43 : Website-IMDb.
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