Lawyer Quince (1924)

Production company: Artistic Films.  Director: H. Manning Haynes.  Script: Lydia Hayward (writer), W.W. Jacobs (story).

Genre: Comedy

Cast: Moore Marriott (Quince); Cynthia Murtagh (Celia Rose); Charles Ashton (Ned Quince); George Wynn (His Rival); Johnny Butt (Farmer Rose); J.Edwards Barker (Bully); Ada Palmer (Widow).

The storyline follows a dispute between a bootmaker and farmer.  Neighbours like to call local bootmaker “Lawyer Quince” (Moore Marriott), because of his readiness to share the legal lore he has acquired from a few old books while following his useful occupation of making boots.   Unfortunately, he advises the local Farmer Rose to keep a young man locked in a stable to prevent him courting the farmer’s daughter, Celia (Cynthia Murtagh), without realising that it is his own son, Ned (Charles Ashton), locked in the stable.  Quince tries to put matters right by persuading Farmer Rose to release Ned, but the farmer doesn’t want to play ball and claims the key to the stable is lost.  Celia is to be sent away so she hides in Quince’s toolshed, where she falls asleep. To get his own back on the farmer, Quince locks Celia in his toolshed while she is sleeping.  When Rose discovers his daughter is also imprisoned, Quince claims to have lost the key to the toolshed. Reluctantly Farmer Rose releases Ned from the stable and Celia is then released from the toolshed.  Both stubborn men are now quits. The film is presumed lost.

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