A Drunkard's Reformation is a 1909 American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. Prints of the film survive in the film archive of the Library of Congress. The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company advertised the feature as "The most powerful temperance lecture ever depicted".
Plot
In its March 27, 1909 issue, the New York-based trade journal The Moving Picture World provides the following description of the film's plot:
Cast
Arthur V. Johnson as John Wharton
Linda Arvidson as Mrs. John Wharton
Adele DeGarde as The Wharton Daughter
Charles Avery as In the Play
John R. Cumpson as In the Orchestra / In the Bar
Robert Harron as Theatre Usher
Anita Hendrie as In the Play / In the Audience
Florence Lawrence as In the Play
Marion Leonard as In the Play
David Miles (actor) as In the Play
Owen Moore as In the Play
Tom Moore as In the Audience
Herbert Prior as In the Bar
Mack Sennett as In the Play / In the Orchestra / In the Bar
Harry Solter as In the Play
Herbert Yost as In the Play
Production
The drama was filmed in four daysFebruary 25–27 and March 1, 1909in New York City at Biograph’s studio, which was located in a converted brownstone mansion in Manhattan at 11 East 14th.
Background
A moving picture house manager in Moline, Illinois, George Dehl, promised to donate $500 to a local hospital if he could not produce films that have the best sermons beat. Dehl proposed "that they bring the Reverend Billy Sunday to Moline and have him preach the best sermon in the list, and they bring a great temperance lecturer here and instruct him to make his best effort". Dehl said once they had left, he would put on two reels of film at his theater, and if the public does not vote one of them a greater temperance sermon than what the speaker had delivered, and the other a greater religious appeal than the sermon by Sunday, he would donate the money to a local hospital. The films he had referred for showing were The Drunkard's Reformation and The Resurrection.
Variety reported that Biograph had received a letter from an exhibitor in an Iowa town, stating that when the film was shown there, it had caused the town to "go dry" at the election which occurred the week after it had been featured. The letter went on to say that the exhibitor had been visited by a delegation of "The Wets", asking for the picture not to be shown. The man refused and the town "went prohibition by a big majority".