Plot and Counter Plot - Production & Contact Info

Plot and Counter Plot (1916)
Short | Short, Comedy, Drama

Plot and Counter Plot (1916)

Short | Short, Comedy, Drama

Jack Hopewell, sole support of an invalid mother, secures employment with Benjamin Bimb, a designing old rascal, manager, and promoter of the Yellowglint Mining Company. Unaware that his employer is a swindler and the Yellowglint Mining ...See moreJack Hopewell, sole support of an invalid mother, secures employment with Benjamin Bimb, a designing old rascal, manager, and promoter of the Yellowglint Mining Company. Unaware that his employer is a swindler and the Yellowglint Mining Company a fraud, Jack invests his own and his mother's savings in stock of the company. While at work one morning, Jack sees Casper Cardwell, notorious get-rich-quick financier, enter his employer's private office. This arouses Jack's suspicions and he observes his employer and Cardwell through the keyhole. He hears Bimb say: "We'll clean up a million if the suckers continue to buy." As soon as Cardwell has departed, Jack enters the private office and threatens to expose Bimb unless he returns the money invested by Jack and his mother. Bimb resorts to bribery. Jack refuses, and leaves the office. Left alone, Bimb begins to worry over Jack's threat. Finally his eyes fall on a $500 bill. It gives him an idea: he marks the bill with a cross. Jack is in the outer office, making a hurried examination of the books. Bimb steals up behind him and deftly puts the marked bill into one of the pockets of Jack's coat. A few minutes later, Bimb telephones the police that he has been robbed of a $500 bill. After an investigation, detectives find the bill in Jack's pocket. He is arrested and subsequently convicted on purely circumstantial evidence. Jack reveals Bimb's plot to his fiancée, Jane Fanning. Jane, determined to save her sweetheart, conceives an idea: She visits Jack in his cell, and tells him that as Bimb caused his conviction by a "frame-up." they will convict Bimb by the same means and force him to retract. Accordingly Jane dictates and Jack writes the following note to Bimb: "Dear Mr. Bimb: I have repented and will return the $500 I stole. A friend of mine who wishes to remain unknown will throw a box containing the money from the train that passes Summerville at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon. It is important that you be there in person to receive it. Yours truly, Jack Hopewell." Leaving the jail, Jane seeks out a hobo and bribes him to aid her in the execution of the counter-plot. She takes him to a public telephone booth, instructing him to call her uncle, Tobias Matley, a jolly old capitalist, and give him the following message: "Your home will be dynamited unless you throw a box containing $500 from the train that passes Sommerville at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon." Leaving the hobo, Jane visits her uncle and tells him of the counterplot. He agrees to follow out minutely the terms of the threatening message. Later in the same day, Bimb receives Jack's letter. Knowing Jack has stolen no money, it perplexes him. After much hesitancy he resolves to go out to Summerville. The following day Jane is at her uncle's office. The old capitalist chuckles as he marks with his initials a five hundred dollar bill, which he packs in a box. Then Jane and her uncle take the train which is to pass Summerville at 12:30, having already notified detectives to trail Bimb. Bimb is at the appointed place at 12:30 and receives the box which the uncle throws from the train. He extracts the bank note and stares at it in a bewildered way. As he stares, detectives leap from their hiding place and pounce upon him. He is placed under arrest charged with extorting money by means of threats. He expostulates, and searches for Jack's note to explain. He finds only a blank sheet, Jack's letter having been written in vanishing ink. Jane and her uncle, having left the train at the first stop beyond Summerville, join the group. Jane calls Bimb aside. "It's a dirty frame-up," growls Bimb. Jane says: "You retract your frame-up charge against Jack, and I'll explain everything to the detectives." Bimb admits he is outwitted, and yields. The closing scenes show Bimb in jail (the fraudulent character of the mining company having been exposed) and Jack, Jane, and Jack's invalid mother chatting on the porch of the suburban home that has now actually come into their possession, having received a very remunerative position from Jane's uncle. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less

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4 cast members

Name	Known for
Matt Moore Jack Hopewell Jack Hopewell See fewer	Rain (1932)
Jane Gail Jane Fanning Jane Fanning See fewer	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)
Howard Crampton Benjamin Bimb Benjamin Bimb See fewer	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)
Jack Ridgeway Tobias Matley Tobias Matley See fewer	The Soul of Buddha (1918)

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