Max Plays at Drama (1911)

Max is a stage struck youth, and because of a deep-seated desire to go on the stage, refuses to consent to a marriage his father has planned for him. The girl, whom Max has never met, is also stage struck, and entertains no wish of marrying him, though her mother is anxious to see her make the alliance. The parents finally manage to bring the young people together, and they, in turn, exert all their skill in an attempt to disgust each other. An accidental meeting between the two when they are off guard causes them to change their minds, and, as a climax of the scene, we see them gently clasped in each other's arms. The scene following, and the last one, is subtitled, Six Months Later. The girl appears with a baby in her arms in a filthy tenement house. Max enters as a broken-down sport, and demands money from her. She refuses to part with her last cent, and, in the quarrel and struggle that follows, he kills her, and then - the curtain falls and the spectator discovers that he has been witnessing Max and his wife in a drama within a drama. They have fulfilled their stage ambitions, besides satisfying their parents.