The Evidence of the Film is a 1913 American silent

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 short crime film

Crime film

Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...

 directed by Lawrence Marston and Edwin Thanhouser

Edwin Thanhouser

Edwin Thanhouser was an actor, businessman, and film producer, most notable as a founder of the Thanhouser Company, along with his wife Gertrude Thanhouser and brother-in-law Lloyd Lonergan.-Biography:...

 starring William Garwood

William Garwood

William Garwood was an American stage and film actor and director of the early silent era in the 1910s....

.

The only known copy of this film was rediscovered in 1999 on the floor of the projection booth in a Superior, Montana

Superior, Montana

Superior is a town in and the county seat of Mineral County, Montana, United States. The population was 893 at the 2000 census. Superior was named after its founders' hometown of Superior, Wisconsin in 1869...

 movie theater

Movie theater

A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

. In 2001, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry

National Film Registry

The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

 by the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

The Evidence of the Film tells the story of a messenger boy at a film studio who is wrongfully accused of stealing bonds worth $20,000. He is saved by his sister, a film cutter, who comes across some footage of her brother inadvertently walking into a location shot and being knocked down by the real-life villain.

Cast

• William Garwood
  William Garwood
  William Garwood was an American stage and film actor and director of the early silent era in the 1910s....
  
   as The Broker
• Marie Eline
  Marie Eline
  Marie Eline was an American silent film child actress and sister of Grace Eline, who apparently turned 111 in 2009. Nicknamed The Thanhouser Kid she began acting for the Thanhouser Company in film aged 8 and starred in exactly 100 films between 1910 and 1914.-Filmography:* Uncle Tom's Cabin ......
  
   as Messenger Boy
• Riley Chamberlin
  Riley Chamberlin
  Riley Chamberlin was an American silent film actor. He began acting in films at the age of 57, and starred in over 100 films until his death five years later at the age of 62.-Selected filmography:-External links:...
  
   as Clerk
• Florence La Badie
  Florence La Badie
  Florence La Badie was an American actress in the early days of the silent film era. Though little known today, she was a major star between 1911 and 1917, her career was at its height and climbing when she died unexpectedly due to injuries sustained during an automobile accident.-Early life:While...
  
  as Sister of Little Boy