Getting Evidence (1906) User Reviews

Mystery Comedy 1906 Style

[boblipton · 7/10 · 5 June 2020]

A private detective is hired to get pictures of the client's wife in compromising positions. He takes his camera and heads out.... and gets run over by automobiles, chased by angry beachgoers, and in general, suffers all the slapstick woes that that one can in a 1906 movie.

It's an extreme length for the year, two full reels, and thus can be called highly ambitious. Technical abilities may have advanced in the last century or more, but Edwin S. Porter turns out an engaging and funny picture.

Uf you pay attention to details, you may notice that the detective in this title-free film is named 'Hawkshaw.' That's the name of the detective in the 1863 play THE TICKET OF LEAVE MAN. There being no Sherlock Holmes at the time, it became a slang term for a private eye for a long time.

No more stupid . . .

[cricket30 · 7/10 · 21 April 2013]

. . . than most of the misogynistic output of the Edison Manufacturing Company when it got sidetracked from light bulb mass production and beloved zoo animal electrocutions into a flirtation with movie making. The plot of this 14 minute, 27.91 seconds-long short is pretty simple: a neurotically jealous husband hires a totally inept bumbler (posing as a private eye) to produce photographic evidence that his wife is bumping uglies with some other Tom, Dick, or Harry. The P.I. loser somehow gets on the track of his client's daughter instead of his wife (given a 20 or 30-year age difference between the two women, it would be amazing if this hired snoop was able to find his own nose in the dark). A series of slapstick misadventures ensues, as the daughter's lover is always 10 steps ahead of the photo spy, breaking about a dozen of his cameras, and nearly killing him once or thrice. Stuff such as the lynch mob out to drown the hapless lens man along the beach may have been funny in 1906, but will be hard-pressed to hold the attention of a modern or female audience today.

Getting Evidence review

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 10 May 2020]

Superior comedy (for its time) in which a hapless detective struggles to get photographic evidence of a client's wife with her lover. It's essentially one long and repetitive build-up to a weak punchline, but it's put together well and feels more like a coherent narrative rather than a crude collection of shots.

A Funny & Creative Short Feature

[Snow Leopard · 1 July 2005]

This short comedy is quite funny, and for its time it shows creativity and good technique. There were also a couple of short features using similar material made by other studios of the era, but this one works especially well. Edwin S. Porter with his cast and crew put quite a bit of extra work into it, rather than just hoping that the basic idea would be enough.

The story starts with a jealous husband who wants a private detective to provide him with photographic evidence of his wife's alleged infidelity. The hapless but determined detective devotes himself to the job in the face of one setback after another. Most of the movie consists of a series of comic vignettes about the detective's repeated attempts to get that elusive picture. Some of the sequences are quite resourceful for their time, and all of them work.

The movie saves the funniest and most involved vignette for the climax, with a lengthy sequence at the seashore that also features some good camera movement and some good composition. Then, at the end, there is an amusing twist that caps off the movie nicely. All in all, you won't see too many comedies of the era that still work as well as this one does.

Two from Edison

[Michael_Elliott · 13 March 2008]

Getting Evidence (1906)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A man hires a private eye to spy on his wife to see if she's cheating. All goes well until it's made clear that the private doesn't know what he's doing. Most of the slapstick doesn't work here but there is a very funny twist ending that makes it worth watching.

Kathleen Mavourneen (1906)

** (out of 4)

A wealthy landlord attacks a young woman just for the fun of it. This early "epic" has a lot of hard work, which is easy to see but none of it really pays off. Outside some great outdoor scenery and some nice sets this here is pretty dry.