''What Happened to Jones'' is a 1926 American silent

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

William A. Seiter William Alfred Seiter (June 10, 1890 – July 26, 1964) was an American film director. Life and career Seiter was born in New York City. After attending Hudson River Military Academy, Seiter broke into films in 1915 as a bit player at Mack Senne ...

and starring Reginald Denny. It was produced and distributed by

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

. The film is based on the 1897 Broadway play '' What Happened to Jones'' by

George Broadhurst George Howells Broadhurst (June 3, 1866 – January 31, 1952) was an Anglo-American theatre owner/manager, director, producer and playwright. His plays were most popular from the late 1890s into the 1920s. Biography Broadhurst was born in Wal ...

Plot

As described in a review in a film magazine, Tom Jones (Denny), who is to be married the next day to Lucille Bigbee (Nixon), goes home but is inveigled into a poker game. The place is raided and Tom and a fat elderly friend, Ebenezer Goodly (Harlan), escaping down a fire escape land in a ladies' Turkish bath establishment, where they naturally create a hullabaloo and finally make a getaway in women's clothes, reaching Goodly's home in a milk wagon the next morning. When Tom dons the clothes of Goodly's brother, a bishop, who is expected that morning, he is seen by Mrs. Goodly (Fitzroy) and has to pose as the bishop. Complications follow thick and fast including the jealousy of a chap because Tom kisses his sweetheart, and the forcing of Tom as the bishop to officiate at the wedding of his fiancé to another chap. It all turns out right, for she recognizes Tom, says "I Don't" instead of "I Do." Tom escapes from the waiting cops by grabbing her and the real bishop (Elliott) and getting married in a speeding automobile.

Cast

Preservation

Prints of ''What Happened to Jones'' are preserved at the

Cinematheque Royale de Belgique CINEMATEK (Dutch: Koninklijk Belgisch Filmarchief; French: Cinémathèque royale de Belgique; English: Royal Belgian Film Archive) is a film archive in Brussels, Belgium. The archive was established in 1938 under the name Royal Belgian Film Arch ...

in Brussels,

Filmmuseum Eye Filmmuseum is a film archive, museum, and cinema in Amsterdam that preserves and presents both Dutch and foreign films screened in the Netherlands. Location and history Eye Filmmuseum is located in the Overhoeks neighborhood of Amsterdam in t ...

in Amsterdam, and

UCLA Film and Television Archives The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the ar ...

.The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''What Happened to Jones''
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References

External links

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Lobby poster
1926 films 1926 comedy films American black-and-white films Silent American comedy films American films based on plays American silent feature films Cross-dressing in American films Films directed by William A. Seiter Surviving American silent films Universal Pictures films 1920s American films {{1920s-silent-comedy-film-stub