Volume II: Filmography

A MYSTERY OF WALL STREET

February 11, 1913 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Cast: Mignon Anderson (the girl), Eugene Moore (leading man), Harry Benham, Helen Badgley

Note: This film was originally scheduled to be released on January 14, 1913. It was rescheduled to February 4, 1913, and then it was again rescheduled, this time to February 11th, so that When the Studio Burned could be shown on February 4th.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, February 15, 1913:

He was a great financier and he fell in love with a girl whose father was also on the exchange. She rejected his suit. In a rage, the financier got busy with the market. Aiming his strength at the securities of the girl's father, he reduced the man to penury. But there was a turn in the market. With it, the father regained his wealth. How is it accomplished? Through the financier's absence. Why was he absent? Ah, there is the reason for the title!

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, February 15, 1913:

A great financier, a power in Wall Street, fell in love with a society girl. Feeling sure that she would accept him, he proposed, but she had the bad taste to prefer a younger and poorer man, and the financier, filled with rage and chagrin, determined to be revenged. The girl's father was a broker in Wall Street, and it was at him that the financier struck. In the daily battles of the stock exchange the shares in which the broker was interested steadily sunk in value. The broker, on the verge of ruin, learned who his enemy was, and asked him to spare him. The financier laughed at him and said that he meant to ruin him. And he certainly would have kept his word if the successful suitor had not intervened. The young man told his future father-in-law not to worry, but on the following morning to lead a determined onslaught upon the financier's holdings, for the latter, he assured the worried broker, would not be on hand to lead his forces.

By a clever ruse, the financier was decoyed away from his home, and he did not return to New York until the market had closed for the day. The silent ticker in his office told its own story. During his absence the girl's father had recouped all his losses, while the financier had lost heavily. Why the financier happened to be absent at such a critical time is one of the mysteries of Wall Street. A few venturesome people have asked this question of him, but all they received was a fierce glare and a snappish, 'None of your business.' The broker, too, was silent, but when the matter is discussed in the presence of his son-in-law, a suspicious twinkle comes into the young man's eyes.

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, February 16, 1913:

This is a striking story of the New York money market in which one stockbroker endeavors to ruin another because the latter's daughter refuses to marry him. His attempts proves a failure, however, because of the cleverness of the girl's lover, who lures the rejected suitor away from his office on a day when he should have been at his office to manage his affairs. This results in the father and the girl regaining all he had lost and almost wrecking his rival. The mystery of the disappearance of the other broker on this day is the keynote of the play and is what makes it worth seeing. The story is interestingly revealed, it is capably acted and is splendidly put on.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, February 22, 1913:

A good story of high finance, with its chief feature showing the manner in which a noted financier was spirited away in a steel-enclosed cab until the market closed for the day. The love story is well handled, and the plot follows consistently from beginning to end. Not an exciting plot, but a rather fascinating one.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, February 12, 1913:

In a recent issue of one of the weekly magazines there was a story on Wall Street which strongly suggested the idea for this photo-comedy. The story, as we have it here, is not fully rounded out. The situations are introduced without sufficient explanation or preparation. After the financier has been forcibly wheeled around in the buggy all day, we wonder why he doesn't remonstrate more. We are told that his disappearance will always remain a Wall Street mystery. But why? The acting is lively, the settings are good, and the photography is in accord with the usual standard of the Thanhouser company.

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