The story
“At the seashore resort they called it ‘the haunted hotel,’ and explained that since the death of the proprietor’s wife, who was drowned at sea, her spirit had walked the sands each night. True or false, the story had ruined the place, and for years it had been closed and was fast falling to ruins. The proprietor lived there with his daughter, but he was practically bankrupt, and it was whispered that he would soon be turned out for non-payment of his taxes. A young physician came to the resort to visit his sister, and hearing of the haunted hotel, decided, out of curiosity, to investigate. He was greatly taken with the broken-down owner, and listened with sympathy to his story of misfortune. When the doctor came away, he vowed that he would devote part of his time seeking to solve the mystery of the haunted hotel, and by good luck he succeeded in doing so. The ‘ghost’ was unmasked, but she was not punished. The innkeeper’s daughter was the ‘spirit,’ and her mind had been unhinged by grief because of the death of the mother she dearly loved. The doctor succeeded in restoring her to health, and the hotel, the curse removed, soon regained the popularity of the summer visitors, who had shunned it when it was a ‘haunted hotel.’”
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 25 October 1913
Another synopsis, from Reel Life · 18 October 19131 min
“Everyone likes a spice of mystery, and the moving picture screen lends itself admirably to everything in the ghost line. In fact, kinetic photography is the only perfect method so far discovered for reproducing Mr. Ghost as he really is—shadowy, intangible—yet perfectly depicted. This story is simple enough in its description, but as it works out in the moving picture, it is thrilling enough to satisfy the most devoted ghost-believer. The hotel around which the story revolves has been haunted some time by the shade of the proprietor’s wife, who was drowned at sea, and the reputation thus obtained has killed it with the traveling public. The place is inhabited only by the broken-down proprietor and his daughter. They are shortly to be evicted for non-payment of taxes when a young doctor comes to the resort and becomes interested in the ghost story. He determines to investigate it and discovers the ghost in the person of the daughter, whose mind has become unhinged through grief over her mother’s death. He restores her mind to normal condition, business picks up and everybody is happy. The various scenes were photographed from buildings and localities at Cape May which lent themselves in a particularly effective way to the working out of the story.”
