Underground Favorites Parallel to the Artistry of The Fixer: Cult G...

The The Fixer Phenomenon

The visceral impact of The Fixer (1915) stems from to transcend the limitations of its 1915 budget and technology.

When Bill Fowler decided to wed wealthy widow Isabel Dare of Rye, New York, he gave a bachelor dinner. And the dinner degenerated into a quiet game with sugar for dice until Constable Zack arrived with sleuths galore and landed them everyone safe and sound in the local calaboose. So Christopher Cutting, Bill's friend "The Fixer" put his brain to work, chloroformed Zack and hustled Bill home in time for the wedding. Meantime, Isabel's daughter Dorothy bids her sweetheart Lieutenant Ned Hemmingway, U.S.A. a tearful good-bye; he was going away with William Fowler on a dangerous mission to Mexico. (Diplomat William Fowler and bridegroom Bill Fowler are two different people.) But that didn't deter Bill. He stole the identity of Wm. Fowler and when Constable Zack arrived Bill told his bride that Zack was a special messenger from the President come to escort him to Mexico. Zack escorted him to the calaboose and "The Fixer," fixed it again, this time with cash, not chloroform. One lie begets another. Bill couldn't go home so soon, so "The Fixer" found a scheme. They went to Mexico and sent letters home from Laredo telling of their thrilling adventures and their diplomatic triumphs. Unfortunately, they are captured by bandit general Gomez, and treated ignominiously. They escape and find the real Wm. Fowler is famous. Bill wires the folks back in Rye and they send him a telegram inviting him to a reception in his honor. Unhappily for Bill, the real William Fowler gets the invitation and accepts. Meantime Isabel receives word her former husband may be alive. The former husband looks like the real diplomat. When Bill arrives and gets the ovation the diplomat is left in the cold. Bill is dressed like a major general and no one believes the real agent who is plainly dressed. Isabel, seeing the agent, believes him her former husband and drops at his feet pleading for mercy. Bill sees her and challenges the agent, who accepts. In the course of the duel, "The Fixer" saves Bill by hitting the diplomat with a brick from behind. Isabel then discovers the absence of a birthmark which proves he is not her husband, and the party are faced by the problem of which is the real government agent. Lieutenant Hemingway settles the matter by persuading the diplomat to see Bill's predicament and he departs without disproving Bill. Lieutenant Ned and Dorothy embrace; Bill and Isabel are reconciled and Cutting gets what all good fixers get: nothing.