A Trap for Santa Claus (1909)

Release Date:

20 December 1909 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Short

Plot:

The children set a trap for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, knowing he has to come through the window because their estate has no chimney...

Plot Keywords:

Trap | Christmas | Santa Claus | Estate | Misery

Cast

Henry B. Walthall	...	Arthur Rogers
Marion Leonard	...	Helen Rogers
Gladys Egan	...	The Rogers Daughter
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kate Bruce	...	The Maid
William J. Butler	...	In Bar / Attorney
W. Chrystie Miller	...	Old Man
John Tansey	...	The Rogers Son (unconfirmed)

Also Known As:

A Trap for Santa (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

16 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Fort Lee, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Biograph Company

Trivia:

Worldview Entertainment and the Killiam Collection has released a set of nine early movies about Christmas collectively called "A Christmas Past," with an original score by Al Kryszak. This movie is the third one, and has a running time of 16 minutes.

Early Griffith Holiday Film

A Biograph film.

On Christmas Eve, two children set A TRAP FOR SANTA, with somewhat surprising results...

Film legend D. W. Griffith directed this little film. If it is rather heavy-handed with the pathos - drunken father, desperate mother, hungry children - it is simply an indication that Griffith was learning to master his trade as he went along. Within a few more years he would be at the top of his profession - as would cameraman Billy Bitzer, who photographed this film.

Movie mavens should probably recognize Henry B. Walthall as Arthur, the father & Mack Sennett as an unfriendly bartender, both uncredited.

Al Kryszak provided the score for the video compilation A Christmas Past, in which this film appears.