Doctor Maxwell's Experiment (1913)

• 74%
• 1913
• Drama
• Arthur V. Johnson
• Arthur V. Johnson
• Charles Brandt
• Lottie Briscoe

Dr. John Maxwell, a surgeon, comes home to find his daughter, Alice, awaiting him asleep. He sends her to bed, and reads of a new operation upon the brain that will change a criminal into an honest man. He resolves to test it. An hour later, Bill Dawson, a burglar, enters the house. Maxwell captures him, and gives Bill the choice between jail and the operating table. Bill chooses the latter. The operation succeeds, and to the delight of Alice, William is sent away a few weeks later to begin life anew. Dawson becomes a successful man of business, but loses frack of his benefactor. Two years pass by. Unknown to Dawson, Dr. Maxwell has gone the road to ruin. Dawson advertises for a stenographer and Rodney, his manager, sends a girl into his private office. The girl is Alice Maxwell. "What has happened?" demands Dawson, after the recognition. Alice shows him a worn-out letter, "Dear Alice," it reads, "speculation and morphine have rained me. Save what you can of the home. I cannot face you, and I am going, God knows where. Your Father." Dawson cannot offer Alice money, but he gives her a position in the office. Inside of a year they are man and wife. They return from the honeymoon into the new house and the new life. A man sees them enter, or rather, the wreck of a man. He does not recognize them. Instead, he determines to break in and get at least a square meal. Dawson hears a noise in the kitchen, and leaving Alice, he investigates. He finds his benefactor. Not knowing that Alice is Dawson's wife, Maxwell pleads to be allowed to escape, for the sake of "old times." Dawson hears Alice coming. He locks the door, and takes Maxwell to the bathroom. "Get into these clothes and shave, Quick!" He commands. Maxwell obeys. The debt is about to be repaid. After Maxwell is dressed up, Dawson gives him a suitcase and brings him into the drawing-room. "I've found your father, and he's going to live with us forever," says Dawson. And it was the beginning of another experiment that succeeded.