| The Human Gamble | |
| Director: | Lloyd B. Carleton |
| Producer: | Lloyd B. Carleton |
| Screenplay: | Calder Johnstone |
| Starring: | |
| Studio: | Rex |
| Runtime: | 15–24 minutes (2 reels) |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English intertitles |
The Human Gamble was a 1916 American silent Short film directed by Lloyd B. Carleton. The film is based on the story and screen adaptation by Calder Johnstone. The drama stars Dorothy Davenport, Emory Johnson, and a cast of Universal contract players.
The story revolves around a stockbroker Father and his two children. Both work at the father's firm, but the son gets fired for gambling. His sister follows him out the door. They both go to work for a rival firm. Financial adventures ensue, and the daughter ends up saving her father's brokerage house from financial ruin.
Universal released the film on October 8, 1916.[1]
John Hill is a successful wall-street stock trader and runs his own brokerage house. Hill has achieved his success through prudent investments and hard work. He hoped to instill these qualities in his children. He has a son, Charles, and a daughter, Flavia. Both of his children work at the Hill brokerage house. Charles Hill, along with being a stockbroker, also loves to gamble. While spending a considerable amount of time at the gaming tables, he has racked up debts. His father has helped him repay a few of these debts. John Hill believes his son's gambling habit sends the wrong message to potential investment clients. His gambling habits also jeopardized his ascent to the president of the brokerage house.
Since John Hill despises anyone identified with gambling, his resentment of his son's gambling grows until his emotions boil. He demands his son to move out of the house and then disowns him. Flavia must choose between supporting her brother or her father. She supports her brother, and they both move away while resigning their positions at their father's company.
Time passes, both siblings find employment at a rival brokerage company. They become confidential clerks for the brokerage house owner, Frank Garner. Both become successful at their new positions. Flavia moves up the ranks and becomes the company's office supervisor. Flavia's beauty and acumen with stocks catch Frank's eye. Frank and Flavia grow closer and develop feelings for each other. They set a date, and the couple marries. They share ownership of the Brokerage house.
A financial war breaks out between the two brokerage houses. Amid this rivalry, Frank Garner becomes very ill. Flavia takes charge of the brokerage house. It is up to Flavia to sustain the competition against her father. Flavia brings the Garner house to new financial heights while pushing her father to the brink of total collapse.
Her father calls Flavia and pleads with her to help him. The rivalry has reached a point where she must decide between an obligation to her father and her husband's love. At first, she refuses to help her father since she has a point to prove. Also, if she helps her father, it will ruin her husband's business.
Flavia reconsiders and decides Blood is thicker than water. She scrambles to her father's office and finds him about to commit suicide. Flavia develops a quick financial recovery plan for her father. She engineers a financial bailout of her father's company reaps a windfall profit and saves her father's brokerage house. Her father regains his financial footing and repays the debt to his daughter. They settled all financial obligations between the two rival companies. The Hill family reconciles while saving her father's company, and they all live happy lives.
| Actor | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| Dorothy Davenport | Flavia Hill | |
| Emory Johnson | Charles Hill | |
| Richard Morris | Frank Garner | |
| Alfred Allen | John Hill |
In the book, "American Cinema's Transitional Era," the authors point out, One aspect of this transition was the longer duration of films. Feature films were slowly becoming the standard fare for Hollywood producers. Before 1913, you could count the yearly features on two hands. Between 1915 and 1916, the number of feature movies rose 2 ½ times or from 342 films to 835. There was a recurring claim that Carl Laemmle was the longest-running studio chief resisting the production of feature films.[2] Universal was not ready to downsize its short film business because short films were cheaper, faster, and more profitable to produce than feature films.
Laemmle would continue to buck this trend while slowly increasing his output of features.In 1914, Laemmle published an essay titled - [3] In 1915, Laemmle ran an advertisement extolling Bluebird films while adding the following vocabulary on the top of the ad.Carl Laemmle released 100 feature-length films in 1916, as stated in Clive Hirschhorn's book,
All players in this film were under contract with Universal.
Lloyd B. Carleton (–1933) started working for Carl Laemmle in the Fall of 1915.[8] Carleton arrived with impeccable credentials, having directed some 60 films for the likes of Thanhouser, Lubin, Fox, and Selig.[9]
Between March and December 1916, 44-year-old Lloyd Carleton directed 16 movies for Universal, starting with The Yaqui and ending with The Morals of Hilda. Emory Johnson acted in all 16 of these films. Of Carleton's total 1916 output, 11 were feature films, and the rest were two-reel shorts.
Carleton was given the task by Carl Laemmle to determine if the Davenport-Johnson duo had the desired on-screen chemistry. In 1916, Carleton directed 13 films pairing Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson. This film would be the eleventh in the 13-film series.
| Doctor Neighbor | May-1 | L. B. Carleton | Hazel Rogers | Hamilton Powers | Drama | Feature | Lost | ||||||||||
| Her Husband's Faith | May-11 | L. B. Carleton | Mabel Otto | Richard Otto | Drama | Short | Lost | Laemmle | |||||||||
| Heartaches | May-18 | L. B. Carleton | Virginia Payne | S Jackson Hunt | Drama | Short | Lost | Laemmle | |||||||||
| Two Mothers | Jun-01 | L. B. Carleton | Violetta Andree | 2nd Husband | Drama | Short | Lost | Laemmle | |||||||||
| Her Soul's Song | Jun-15 | L. B. Carleton | Mary Salsbury | Paul Chandos | Drama | Short | Lost | Laemmle | |||||||||
| The Way of the World | Jul-03 | L. B. Carleton | Beatrice Farley | Walter Croyden | Drama | Feature | Lost | ||||||||||
| No. 16 Martin Street | Jul-13 | L. B. Carleton | Cleo | Jacques Fournier | Drama | Short | Lost | Laemmle | |||||||||
| A Yoke of Gold | Aug-14 | L. B. Carleton | Carmen | Jose Garcia | Drama | Feature | Lost | ||||||||||
| The Unattainable | Sep-04 | L. B. Carleton | Bessie Gale | Robert Goodman | Drama | Feature | 1 of 5 reels | ||||||||||
| Black Friday | Sep-18 | L. B. Carleton | Elionor Rossitor | Charles Dalton | Drama | Feature | Lost | ||||||||||
| The Human Gamble | Oct-08 | L. B. Carleton | Flavia Hill | Charles Hill | Drama | Short | Lost | Laemmle | |||||||||
| Barriers of Society | Oct-10 | L. B. Carleton | Martha Gorham | Westie Phillips | Drama | Feature | 1 of 5 reels | ||||||||||
| The Devil's Bondwoman | Nov-11 | L. B. Carleton | Beverly Hope | Mason Van Horton | Drama | Feature | Lost | ||||||||||
Calder Johnstone (1880–1958) wrote both the story and screen adaptation.[1]
On March 15, 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios.[10] Since this film required no location shooting, it was filmed in its entirety at the new studio complex.
The Davenport-Johnson pairing produced 13 films which over half were feature-length. Before The Human Gamble, the pairing had headlined five feature-length films, including:Doctor Neighbor, The Way of the World, A Yoke of Gold, The Unattainable, and Black Friday.
According to an article in November 1, 1916 issue of The York Gazette:
The copyright was filed with U.S. Copyright Office on September 21, 1916.[11] and entered into the record as shown: and officially released on October 8, 1916.[1]
By 1915, feature films were becoming more the trend in Hollywood. However, Universal wasn't ready to downsize its short film business. Short films were cheaper and faster to produce than feature films. While advertising short films, Universal might include a section titled–"' The Universal Programs'" above the movie ads, espousing the advantages of continuing to show short films.
Many of the newspaper ads for the film use the following Tagline:
"A Financial Drama, Wall Street, or The Card Room, is There any real Difference?"[12]Other newspaper ads use the following hook to attract paying customers:
"Story of a business war waged within the immediate family of John Hill. - Hypocrite"[13]One newspaper advertisement shows The Human Gamble playing along with two other films:
Lengthy detailed reviews for short films were rare. The Hollywood magazines primarily reviewed feature films and only gave short films honorable mention. Of course, in 1916, movie magazines were evolving and becoming more sophisticated like the movies they reviewed and advertised.
In the October 14, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World, quoted from the section - Comments on the Films - Exclusively by our own Staff:[14] The November 1, 1916 issue of The York Gazette & Daily, the reviewer points out:
Many silent-era films did not survive for reasons as explained on this Wikipedia page.
According to the Library of Congress, all known copies of this film are lost.