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Cousin Pons
(1914) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by Travers Vale
Cast: Charles H. Mailes (Charles Hill Mailes) [Cousin Sylvain Pons], Edward Cecil [Schmucke], Ivan Christy [Brunner], Vivian Prescott [Cecile De Marville], Mrs. A.C. Marston [Madame Cibot], Thornton Cole [Magus]
Biograph Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / From the novel Le cousin Pons by Honoré de Balzac. / Released 8 December 1914. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The novel was subsequently filmed as Le cousin Pons (1924).
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Sylvan Pons, musician and collector of rare, art objects, lives with his friend, Schmucke and a housekeeper, Madame Cibot. Nearby is the shop of Magus, a crafty art dealer, who covets the old musician’s treasures and bribes Cibot to let him see them. Pons goes to call on his relatives, the De Marvilles, and is first snubbed, then made much of, by the women, who, believing him to be poor, change their opinion of him when Monsieur de Marville declares that Pons has a rich friend who might marry Cevile. But Frederick Brunner, the rich friend, refuses to be a party to Pons’ matchmaking, saying that he is too old to marry a selfish girl like Cecile. Enraged, Cecile orders Pons from the house, and this cruel treatment prostrates him. Cibot tells the De Marvilles that her master is very rich, and they come to see him. On promise of an annuity if Pons dies without making a will, Cibot puts slow poison in his medicine. She also sells some of his rarest treasures to Magus. Pons makes a will leaving everything to Schmucke, and thereby creates one of the tensest situations in all drama.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 27 April 2025.
References: Spehr-American p. 1 : Website-IMDb.
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