After reading a newspaper article about gypsies kidnapping babies, John Cumpson goes to work. Florence Lawrence goes shopping, leaving baby with nurse Anita Hendrie. Miss Hendrie spots gypsies and invites them in to read her fortune. Florence returns with a huge hat, the size of a peach basket. The gypsies are hustled out behind her back, the box the hat came in falls over the baby (not harming him, of course). Mr. Cumpson returns home. Where's the baby?
Here's the slapstick chase given solid plot justification in a split reel, complete with Mack Sennett as the cop who joins the frenzy. Cumpson was Biograph's resident comic, leading with Miss Lawrence as the Joneses in shorts like HER FIRST BISCUIT and MR. JONES' BURGLAR. Then he left Biograph for the greener fields (i.e. More money) at Edison.
Griffith also makes the point that gypsies are not necessarily rootless, evil people. Why, people say the same things about actors on tour!
Here's the slapstick chase given solid plot justification in a split reel, complete with Mack Sennett as the cop who joins the frenzy. Cumpson was Biograph's resident comic, leading with Miss Lawrence as the Joneses in shorts like HER FIRST BISCUIT and MR. JONES' BURGLAR. Then he left Biograph for the greener fields (i.e. More money) at Edison.
Griffith also makes the point that gypsies are not necessarily rootless, evil people. Why, people say the same things about actors on tour!