The story
“Other People’s Money, Mutual Masterpicture, DeLuxe Edition, produced by Thanhouser, is a fascinating drama of the attempts of an unscrupulous man and wife to live on the money of other people. Ever since money became the standard of world exchange adventurers have conspired with more or less success to maintain themselves by swindling their fellows. Stories of human parasites are numerous; pictures with this theme are common, but it remained for this Mutual Masterpicture DeLuxe to strike a new note in the presentation of such a story. The action of the plot is rapid throughout the five acts. Gladys Hulette plays the lead. She is unusually clever in the role of the daughter of the man who is victimized by the crooks and made the scapegoat by the authorities. Miss Hulette is ably supported by Fraunie Fraunholz, J.H. Gilmour, Yale Benner and Kathryn Adams. The entire cast was selected by the director with a view to obtaining the best type for the required characters. The results attained justify the choice.
“The story opens with the broker, who, as the head of the company was promising quick returns on investments, suddenly disappears. Another ‘get rich quick’ bubble had exploded. The case was ordinary, it was averred by the officials, for the man had imposed on a gullible public and made off with their money to live in ease in some distant country. But there was a different story. The man had been the victim of a scheming couple. He was the tool of two wizards of high finance who used him to cover their tracks and take the blame for their misdeeds. The escape of the broker had been accomplished in a highly sensational manner. While his daughter detained the detectives by talking to them, he left the table of a dinner party given at his home and from that time no trace of him had been found. To help the needy ones who had suffered by the apparent mismanagement of her father, the girl turned over all her property to the creditors and withdrew to earn her livelihood by working in a dressmaking establishment. Among those who attended the creditor’s meeting were the actual criminals, and they selected as their next victim a young man who had lost a few thousand in the crash but who could easily afford to lose more. He had been very sympathetic with the unfortunates and seemed ‘easy.’
“To enlist his immediate sympathy, the woman simulated an attempted suicide. After the young fellow had rescued her, she told him that her husband’s meager earnings had been wiped out by the crash and that they had nothing left. The young man escorted her home and said he would help them to a new start in life. While the woman and the ‘sucker’ were out in the latter’s automobile chance intervened to upset the plans of the conspirators. The girl, who had retired after the flight of her father, was struck by the machine. Despite the fact that the woman made sure to inform the young fellow who the upstart was, he evinced a great interest in her. To destroy this interest, the scheming woman tried a novel plan. She had the employer of the girl send the young woman out motoring in expensive gowns, arranged for the young man to see her, and insinuate that the worst possible conclusion was the only way to explain the sudden acquisition of wealth. This trick proved useless for the lover investigated and found that she was merely acting as a model. Various attempts to injure the girl and put her out of the way were tried but all to no avail. Feeling convinced that she was being persecuted for an unknown motive the young fellow decided to do a little investigating.
“As a last resort the swindlers had their bookkeeper, who had only been a short time in their employ but had earned their confidence, write a letter to the girl purporting to come from her father asking her to meet him. The girl kept her appointment and found the man and woman waiting for her instead. They threatened her with bodily injury unless she withdrew and they reminded her of how they had disposed of her father. Then they became boisterous, feeling sure of their victim, and recalled the details of the plot that had eliminated the father. Their talk suddenly ceased when they saw their bookkeeper followed by the young man and a policeman enter the room. While the crooks raged at the bookkeeper who had betrayed them, the old man smiled, removed his wig and glasses and introduced himself as the fugitive broker. He had determined to disclose the real criminals and, with the aid of the police, had installed a dictagraph, listened to what was said and arranged for their arrest. In the face of this testimony the swindlers were speechless and were silently escorted to prison to await trial.”
Summary from Reel Life · 20 May 1916
