| Trying to Get Arrested | |
|---|---|
 Advertisement in The Moving Picture World for split-reel releases, 1909 | |
| Directed by | D. W. Griffith |
| Written by | D. W. Griffith Mack Sennett |
| Based on | The 1904 short story "The Cop and the Anthem" by O. Henry[1] |
| Produced by | American Mutoscope and Biograph Company New York, N.Y.[2] |
| Cinematography | G. W. Bitzer Arthur Marvin |
| Distributed by | Biograph Company |
Release date |
|
Running time | 5-6 minutes (release length 344 feet)[3][a] |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | Silent English intertitles |
Trying to Get Arrested is a 1909 American comedy short film directed by D. W. Griffith, produced by the Biograph Company of New York City, and starring John R. Cumpson.[1] Filmed in two days in early 1909 at Palisades Park, New Jersey, it was released in April that year and distributed to theaters on a "split reel", which was a single film reel that included more than one motion picture. The other picture that accompanied this comedy was the Biograph "dramedy" The Road to the Heart.[3][b]
The screenplay or "scenario" for Trying to Get Arrested was inspired by and adapted from the short story "The Cop and the Anthem" written by American author William Sydney Porter, who is more commonly known by his pen name "O. Henry". Porter's short story was initially published in the New York World newspaper in December 1904 and republished in The Four Million, an anthology of O. Henry's works released in 1906, just three years before the production of this Biograph short.[4]
- ^ a b Graham, Cooper C.; Higgins, Steve; Mancini, Elaine; Viera, João Luiz. Entry for "A Sound Sleeper", D. W. Griffith and the Biograph Company. Metuchen, New Jersey and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1985, p. 43. Internet Archive (IA), San Francisco, California. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
- ^ "Trying to Get Arrested (1909)", American Film Institute (AFI), Los Angeles, California. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
- ^ a b "Latest Films/American Mutoscope and Biograph Company/April 5/Trying to Get Arrested", release listings, The Moving Picture World (New York, N.Y.), 10 April 1909, p. 454. IA. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
- ^ "The Four Million by O. Henry"; New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1906. Online reading list of the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
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