The Silent Witness (1912)

The president of a state bank, guilty of malfeasance bribes the District Attorney to suppress the case. The DA’s secretary takes a photograph of the moment when a considerable sum of money changes hands extorting his employer. The dissolute secretary makes advances on a friend’s wife and as the husband rushes the roue a lamp is upset, plunging the place into darkness. A flash and a shot and the young blackmailer falls to the floor dead. The wife thinks the husband fired in anger, the husband believes the wife shot to protect herself. The District Attorney, the guilty man, is called upon to prosecute and accuses them both. An unexpected witness appears at the last moment and the pair are set free.