"A Jar of Cranberry Sauce" or "The Crime in Room 13"

What?

A twine game/adaptation of the silent film A Jar of Cranberry Sauce or The Crime in Room 13, written in around half a day. I have not seen it (nor, perhaps, has anyone still living), so it's based on a summary written in the year of the film's release, 1910. As far as I can tell the film is not lost, as there may be a copy in the Library of Congress, but it doesn't show up in an online search of their archives. Similarly, it's not available for viewing anywhere that I could locate. Surprisingly little other information is available online, so I decided to give an impression of what the film could be.

Why?

I was listening to The Flop House podcast, a podcast about bad movies, and they had a Thanksgiving themed episode in which each Thanksgiving staples were paired with appropriate movies. For cranberry sauce it was, naturally, A Jar of Cranberry Sauce. The description caught my interest, so I looked into watching it, only to find that it wasn't available online.

However, the plot summary was, and it immediately motivated me. I thought it could be fun to play with the two perspectives. This adaptation is, ultimately, far from the original film, as the narrative in the game is parallel, while in the film, it is seemingly intertwined.

Film Information

Little information is available about A Jar of Cranberry Sauce, and a good deal of the information readily available on the Internet was not sourced. The only evidence I could find for the title suggested that its title was only A Jar of Cranberry Sauce, although multiple secondary sources indicate that The Crime in Room 13 was an alternative name. I chose to include both as it suited the way I wished the framing to play out.

It was distributed by the Edison Manufacturing Company, although I could not find any information about any individuals who worked on the film.

Assertions online for which I found no underlying source:

• Also known as The Crime in Room 13 (seen here, here)
• Split reel with Almost a Hero (seen here)
• Stored as paper print in the Library of Congress (seen here)

That's not to say that these are untrue, just that I was not able to find any evidence in support of the claims.

Primary Sources:

The Nickelodeon, Vol. IV, No. 7, page 200: A review of the film.

Moving Picture World, July-Dec 1910, page 813: A review of the film, with more of the premise.

Moving Picture World, page 760: A summary of the film. It refers to the penny dreadful the man is reading as "The Crime in Room Thirteen".