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1914Thanhouser CompanyTwo reelsDrama

From the Flames

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“Knowing that he has not long to live and seeking to find some way by which he can check the extravagances and dissipation of his nephew, Jack, John Gray, an aged millionaire, leaves a will bequeathing all his estate to his favorite niece, May. The will is turned over by Fleming, Gray’s lawyer, to a clerk who is Jack’s crony. Upon Gray’s death the clerk sees an opportunity to turn a dishonest penny and tells Jack that for a consideration he will hide the will. Jack accepts the clerk’s offer, and when it comes time for the will to be read, Fleming is unable to find it. Under the circumstances Jack inherits everything and May is turned out into the world. Caddie, Gray’s faithful housekeeper, is convinced that May has been cheated out of her share of the estate and starts a quiet investigation of her own. She recovers the document in an extremely novel way and turns it over to Fleming. Crooks, employed by Jack and his crony, the dishonest lawyer’s clerk, attempt to regain the document, and in a struggle between Fleming and the crooks a lighted lamp is overturned and the house is soon in flames. A fireman manages to save the will, however, and May at last comes into her own.”

Summary from Reel Life · 25 April 1914

What the papers said

3 reviews · 1 advertisement

“Her uncle’s secretary learns that she is to be left sole heir to the old man’s estate and that his good-for-nothing son is to be cut off without a penny. He offers to get the will out of the way for ten thousand dollars. The boy agrees, the uncle dies and the girl is left poor. One of the servants …

Read in full · 1 min

“Her uncle’s secretary learns that she is to be left sole heir to the old man’s estate and that his good-for-nothing son is to be cut off without a penny. He offers to get the will out of the way for ten thousand dollars. The boy agrees, the uncle dies and the girl is left poor. One of the servants suspects foul play. She tells the old lawyer what she thinks and he learns that the son is in possession of the will. He recovers it but his house catches on fire. A fireman rescues the paper from the flames and the girl is found to be the rightful heir.”

The Morning Telegraph · 26 April 1914

“A two-part dramatic pictureplay that contains intense and gripping scenes, which follow each other rapidly and consistently. It visualizes how a dissolute son comes to grief through an attempt, with the aid of a dishonest clerk, to destroy his father’s last will. There is a spectacular fire scene in this picture that is wonderful. Everything considered, a superior production.”

The Moving Picture World · 2 May 1914

More reviews

13 May 1914The New York Dramatic Mirror1 min

This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

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25 April 1914Reel Life1 min

“Our ‘fire’ masterpieces, Flames and Fortune, Jess, and Junior Partner, showed no more thrilling fire scenes than this. Your audience will rise out of their seats at the big climax.”

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Cast and crew

Director
Carroll Fleming
Cast
Arthur Bauer as Gray, an aged millionaire
William Noel as fireman
Carey L. Hastings as Caddie, the faithful housekeeper
Carl Louis Gregory
Carroll Fleming as Fleming, a kindly lawyer
Ed Brady as Brady, a tough fellow
Mignon Anderson as May, his niece
J. Morris Foster as Jack, his dissipated son [or nephew]
Sidney Bracy as Bill, Fleming’s clerk
Writer
Lloyd F. Lonergan
Photographed by
Henry Cronjager
Roswell J. Johnson

Every name opens that person's page, with each film they appear in and which of them you can watch.

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More about this film

Bowers’ notes
  1. This film was based upon actual fire footage taken by Henry Cronjager during the burning of the Oaksmere School in New Rochelle, February 18, 1914. Refer to the entry for the film, A Seminary Consumed by Flames, released March 4, 1914, for newspaper articles about this event. 2. The release date of this film was listed erroneously as April 21, 1914 in several issues of The Moving Picture World. 3. The length was listed erroneously as one reel in some schedules. 4. The characters of “Jack” and “May,” Lloyd F. Lonergan’s most popular screen names, appear with great frequency in scenarios around this time. Jack and May in one film bear no relationship to Jack and May in another. Lonergan used these names often as a matter of convenience.

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1914 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “From the Flames”. thanhouser.org/films/from-the-flames/

Where a print is held

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No print known