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Running just shy of a full 1000-foot reel, Biograph's One Night -- and Then was what was known at the time as a "bohemian" melodrama. "Daddy" Butler heads the cast as a rakish old millionaire who has never done a kind thing for anyone else in his life. Upon finding that he has a potentially fatal heart condition, the old reprobate prepares to commit suicide but is prevented from doing so when he gets involved in the plight of a poverty-stricken widow and her children. When the old man finally does die, his servants and associates laugh derisively, declaring that it was no more than he deserved. Only then does the world find out about the selfless generosity extended to the widow by the elderly protagonist during his last hours on earth.