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The Imp of the Bottle
(1909) United States of America
B&W : Split-reel / [?] 705 or 750? feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
Edison Manufacturing Company production; distributed by Edison Manufacturing Company. / From the novel The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson. / © 16 November 1909 by Edison Manufacturing Company [J134985, J134986, J134987, J134988]. Released 16 November 1909; in a split-reel with A Winter’s Tale (1909). / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
[?] Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? In the present picture the wonders are worked by a terrible little imp who has his residence in an oddly shaped bottle. He has the power to grant every wish that the owner of the bottle can frame, except that for a long life, and the penalty attached is that anyone who dies with the bottle in his possession goes straight through to perdition and eternal punishment. Consequently whoever owns this wonderful bottle is anxious to get all he can as speedily as possible and then get rid of the bottle; but here another hard condition appears: the bottle can be sold only for less than it cost. This sounds very simple until the price, reduced from purchaser to purchaser, reaches the two-pence mark, at which point the story of the film begins. A young sailor’s rapt admiration for the King’s daughter attracts the attention of an old magician who owns this wonderful bottle. Being, like every other purchaser, anxious to get rid of it, the magician seizes the sailor’s love as a possible means to an end. He takes the young man to his own house, shows him the wonders of the bottle and offers it to him for the small sum of two pence. The sailor is only too glad to close the bargain, but after testing the properties of the bottle by wishing for a sum of money, he incautiously desires to see the imp himself, and the sight is so terrible that he would gladly call the bargain off, only the thought of the beautiful Princess makes him wish to still retain the bottle. We see him stand upon the hillside and wish for a house worthy of her, and we see the house appear in the thin air. We see him wish for the Princess, and she stands before him; and then we see the start of his troubles when the real heart story begins. The knowledge that no one will buy the fatal bottle for one penny when aware of the fact that it might be impossible to sell it for less, weighs upon the now prosperous young sailor, until the Princess notes it and asks the cause of his depression. When she learns it, like the wonderful little woman that she is, she resolves to lose her own soul to save that of her sailor lover. She bribes an old beggar to buy the bottle from her for one penny. Relieved of it, the sailor’s joy is unbounded, but curiosity makes him follow the beggar, and by so doing he learns of the self-sacrifice of his Princess wife. He now faces the alternative of seeing her a lost soul or of finding some way of getting the bottle himself. The thought of the half penny comes to him and he gets a drunken sailor companion of former days to buy the bottle from the Princess for a half penny, knowing that by so doing it will come back to his possession, and this time irretrievably. The drunken sailor comes from the magnificent house carrying the mystic bottle, and noting its emptiness, wishes that it were full that he might have another drink. The wish, of course, is instantly granted and the bottle overflows with liquor. The reprobate is delighted and resolves not to complete the bargain, but to keep the bottle for his own. Though warned what its possession means to him, he decides that it is worth the price, and we see the bottle disappear from the lives of the now happy young people. The story is clearly and happily told by the Edison players, and the bottle's magic properties are taken full advantage of.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 13 December 2024.
References: Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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