One of Edison’s three “educational” releases for September 1914, Making a Convert was the first of Collins’s solo efforts to be released, beating his dramatic debut Jim’s Vindication into theaters by four days. A sponsored film, “produced in cooperation with Public Service Railway of New Jersey” (the operators of the streetcar line that served Edison’s Fort Lee studios), this one-reeler departs from the usual didactic/documentary form of Edison’s educationals by introducing a “heart-interest” storyline provided by the conspicuously credited Epes Winthrop Sargent, a critic for Variety and the author of a popular how-to book for aspiring screenwriters, The Technique of the Photoplay. The Railway Company must have been pleased with the results, for they commissioned Edison to make a follow-up in 1915, On the Wrong Track, directed by Harry Beaumont.
Our young lovers, Ruth (Elsie MacLeod) and Bill (Harry Gripp), “meet cute” when Ruth twists her ankle stepping off a moving streetcar (a safety “don’t”) and Bill escorts her home to mother (Cora Williams). Once recovered, Ruth proves to be a remarkably heedless if not suicidal young lady, who insists on bounding into oncoming traffic and grasping at dangling power lines. Soon, she comes to resent Bill for prudishly insisting on “safety first” and breaks off their relationship, leaving her broken-hearted suitor to go on to become a motorman for the streetcar company. But Ruth sees the error of her ways when she attends a safety lecture and sees a film-within-the-film (whose grainy images suggest it has been repurposed from an earlier Edison release) on the consequences of leaping without looking. The lovers are reunited when Ruth’s little brother (Edison child star Andrew J. Clark) is nearly struck by a streetcar Bill is piloting.
Though he has yet to develop his signature symmetrical compositions, Collins enlivens the standard Edison tableau style by placing his camera closer to his actors, and at one point cuts in for a very modern two-shot, as Ruth proudly shows her mother the “safety first” button she is now wearing. The relatively tight framing helps Collins create some visceral thrills, when Ruth is nearly run down by traffic that comes streaking into the frame without warning. Also notable are some striking natural-light effects, including a magnificent interior (apparently the actual offices of the Public Service Railway), in which figures are lit from the left by sunlight through windows while the rear of the scene is illuminated by a pair of overhead electrical lights and sunlight through a lowered shade. The shot is a fine early example of Collins’s experiments with multi-dimensional playing spaces – stages within stages created by platforms, mirrors or lighting – which allow Collins to shift the viewer’s attention within a tableau set-up without cutting.
Wide-eyed Elsie MacLeod had been an Edison regular since 1911 without making much of an impression on the fan press; she later achieved a measure of success opposite Marcel Perez in his “Bungles” comedies at Vim before finishing up her career as a supporting player. Collins gave her work in two of his last features, Opportunity (1918) and The Gold Cure (1919).
It’s worth noting the presence of young Andy Clark, billed here as Andrew J. Clark, playing Ruth’s brother. Earlier in 1914 Edison starred him in the “Andy” series as “a self-sufficient youngster who will tackle anything – man or job,” but by 1916 his credits were becoming fewer and he made only minor appearances in the 1920s.

Dave Kehr