5/10
Jack Clark: Boy Spy
16 October 2016
J.J. Clark is a Union spy during the Civil War. On a mission, he and Gene Gauntier fall in love. When Clark's mission is discovered and he is imprisoned by the Rebel army, what will Miss Gauntier do in this Kalem short film?

Gene Gauntier, at this point, had played "The Girl Spy" in several movies, a woman in crinolines always ready to switch to trousers to serve the Cause. In this one, she is cast more conventionally and acquits herself well, even if the Confederate army can't seem to understand how to hang onto a prisoner. Possibly this is intended to appease Northern sentiments, since the assumption among film makers in this era was that to mock the Confederacy would lose a lot of bookings in the South. Clark himself seems to saunter through most of the role.

A good copy of this film has been posted to the Eye Institute site on Youtube.
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