Mr. Jones' Burglar (1909) User Reviews

The Griffith Diaspora

[Single-Black-Male · 15 October 2004]

This short film lends itself to be refashioned in later projects by successive writers and directors. The 34 year old D.W. Griffith provides the bare bones of a model for film-making to be fully realized in subsequent projects. I would regard Griffith as a filmic Daniel Defoe because he creates a vocabulary rather than a story for future filmmakers to aspire to. I personally would remake this film from the viewpoint of Mack Sennett's character rather than John Cumpson's character in order to add diversity to the piece. This will enable the viewer to see the plot from the inside rather than the outside.

The ever delightful Jones family

[deickemeyer · 14 December 2014]

A comedy from the Biograph studio in which the ever delightful Jones family give another of their laughable exhibitions. This time Mr. Jones goes out on business and after trimming the crowd at poker goes home to his wife long after the hour set for his coming and about seventeen kinds of trouble are waiting for him just inside the door. Luckily he discovers a frightened burglar and impresses him into a scheme by which Mr. Jones performs a great hero stunt and succeeds in pacifying Mrs. Jones. It would be difficult to conceive of a better acted or funnier series of pictures than the Biograph's Jones combination and this film will add to the already delectable list. The humor is manifest and the action and photography are so good that they help materially in developing the funny subject. Mr. Jones is to be congratulated upon his successful elusion of the watchful Mrs. Jones. - The Moving Picture World, August 21, 1909