Jean the Dog

With all the good influences and favorable surroundings of a model home, Mr. and Mrs. Gray cannot understand why their son, Jack, does not prefer it to all other places. Jack seeks pleasure elsewhere and his father finds fault with him for his non-appearance at supper-time or his delay in getting home a certain hour at night.

Dolly Dillard jumps at the conclusion that George Gordon is playing her false, as he affectionately greets his sister at the train when she comes to pay him a visit. Dolly, who is not acquainted with his sister, sends back her engagement ring. Sad and disconsolate, she saunters to the cliffs overlooking the seashore, trying to forget her imagined wrong. As she is climbing down the side of the rocky prominence, her foot slips and she falls into a narrow crevice. She finds herself helpless with a sprained ankle. Remembering George's returned match-case, she tears a piece of cloth from her skirt; writes with a burnt match a note, telling of her accident. She ties it around her shoe and throws it over the cliff to her collie dog Jean, who carries the missive to George, who at once, after summoning aid, goes to her rescue, accompanied by his sister.

A short film about the friendship between a little girl and a stray dog.

"Love me, love my dog," does not appeal to Billy Hallock. He is very jealous of his wife's attentions to her dog "Jean."

Two nice young people become acquainted at the beach; a romance develops.

Like so many early film celebrities, Jean the Vitagraph Dog, America’s first canine screen star, broke into the movies by being in the right place at the right time. The black-and-white border collie belonged to Lawrence Trimble (1887–1954), an aspiring writer who happened to be on the Vitagraph set one day when a dog was needed to play a scene. Jean performed perfectly and a star was born. Trimble joined the company, directing some 60 films before relocating to Britain in 1913.