That Night (1917)

• 67%
• 1917
• Comedy
• Edward F. Cline
• Hampton Del Ruth
• Charles Murray
• Mary Thurman
• Wayland Trask

There is harmony in The Café until it is accidentally discovered that lovely Mary has had a fortune left her, whereupon Beery, the proprietor, Trask and Murray, two entertainers, all race to her home with the idea of marrying her. Now it chances that Beery is married already, but in order to get the money he hires a crook to pose as a minister, planning to get the fortune through a fake marriage. He nearly succeeds. The minister arrives promptly, however, as does Trask, who, finding the parson at hand, bribes him to double cross Beery and marry him (Trask) to Mary. Trask, though, believes it to be a wedding on the square. Then ensues a sequence of the funniest, rapid fire complications imaginable. "You're not married," becomes the slogan of everybody, including the police force. Once the bogus status of the minister has been established, there is a wild chase after the couple, who, in the meantime, have secured a nice little honeymoon flat. Before they are located, however, the newlyweds have a scrap so that the honeymoon flat is vacant when Charlie Murray arrives. He, too, gets into trouble and, indeed, is so lit up he does not know he is in the wrong room and he's in the bathroom in his pajamas when Mary arrives. Naturally it doesn't look good to "hubby" when he appears on the scene and he isn't a bit slow in unlimbering his trusty shooting iron. And into the melee somehow comes mother-in-law, the police and a bunch of thoroughly irate citizens of the ultra-respectable type, whom the police have routed out through mistaken identity. The chase that follows is a scream and all through it one observes apartments on whose doors marriage licenses are nailed, proof of the widespread havoc caused by Beery's villainy. Meanwhile, however, a real parson arrives and the principals again assemble for a real wedding which is about to take place, when it is learned that no fortune is coming to Mary. Right away Trask gets cold feet, Beery being already out of the running, but noble Charlie Murray steps to the front. "I love, you for yourself alone," he chortles, and they are made one, only to learn that the act has, after all, brought Mary her fortune.