Volume II: Filmography

Episode 15 .

THE MILLION DOLLAR MYSTERY

THE BORROWED HYDROPLANE

a.k.a. ANOTHER TRAP SET

September 28, 1914 (Monday)

Length: 2 reels: (reels 29 and 30)

ARTICLE, The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 5, 1914:

"Howell Hansel, a late photograph of whom is shown above, is a rather busy man these days. Mr. Hansel is busy directing The Million Dollar Mystery for the Thanhouser Film Corporation. This picture, which is in forty-six reels, will be the longest serial ever shown on the screen. At the present time Mr. Hansel is working on the 30th reel and anticipates the completion of the production by November."

ARTICLE, Reel Life, August 8, 1914:

"Florence LaBadie, the 'actress unafraid,' performed last week the most difficult feat, actual risk of life considered, thus far attempted in a motion picture play. The scene is one of the thrillers in The Million Dollar Mystery, Thanhouser's big serial. Miss LaBadie leaped from a hydroplane, going at a high rate of speed and was then picked out of the water by James Cruze, her story hero, who arrives at the critical moment in a hydroaeroplane. The scene was taken at Shippan Point, near Stamford, Connecticut, cottagers and summer residents turning out to witness the young girl's daring. Asked what her sensations were, as she hurled herself from the speeding hydroplane, Miss LaBadie calmly commented: 'I only remember that I lost my breath when I struck the water. The rest of it was fine.'"

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, September 26, 1914:

"After the narrow escape of the conspirators, as narrated in Episode 14, for a time Braine and the others remained under cover. But their determination to gain possession of the missing treasure did not waver. Braine's fertile mind soon develops a new scheme, and his companions are quick to act upon it. While Norton is in town attending to his duties on The Blade, Florence receives a telephone message from one of the gang. 'Norton is seriously injured,' she is told over the wire. 'Come to the Queen Hotel at once.' And the girl, her only thought being for Norton's welfare, calling for her companion Susan to accompany her, readily falls into the trap.

"Meanwhile a desperate struggle has been going on at the Hargreave garage, where Florence's chauffeur has been attacked by Braine and one of the conspirators. He puts up a game fight, but in the end is overpowered, and it is one of his attackers, disguised in the chauffeur's hat, duster, and goggles, who drives the car, which glides quietly up to the front of the Hargreave mansion to take Florence on her mission of rescue.

"Without a suspicion that anything is wrong, Florence and her companion step nimbly into the machine and direct the pseudo chauffeur to hasten to the Queen Hotel. They have not gone far, however, when the auto stops not far from the waterside, and another of the conspirators pulls open the door and drags Florence out. He threatens to disfigure both the girls with a powerful acid, if any outcry is made, and compels Florence to go with him to the wharf, where a speedy motorboat, already engaged by the gang, is awaiting them.

"Cowering with terror in the car, Susan sees Florence placed aboard the craft, which at once speeds away. In the meantime, Braine, who has awaited his opportunity on the grounds of the Hargreave mansion, slips a note under the door. He then rings the bell and hastens away. Old Jones answering the ring a moment later finds this message: 'The girl is now in our power. Nothing can save her except the surrender of the treasure before midnight tonight. - The Black Hundred'

"At once the venerable butler sends for Norton, who arrives posthaste on learning of Florence's peril. The two are considering what is best to be done, when the telephone rings. It is Susan, miles away in the country who has hurried across fields and rough pastureland, through briars and brambles, to tell of Florence's danger. 'They put her - on a - fast motorboat,' she gasps breathlessly, 'at the foot of - Storey Street.'

"Norton waits to hear no more, and the next instant he is speeding in his runabout on the river. Once there he looks around for some speedy boat in which to set out in pursuit. There is none. But a fast hydroplane, which has just set its owner ashore, is on the beach at the water's edge, with only a mechanic on guard. To him Norton tells his urgent need, a few bills pass between them, and in a twinkling, the reporter is off down the bay in the hydroplane in the wake of Florence and her captors. From the merest speck in the distance, the motorboat, as the speedy hydroplane overhauls it, soon assumes its normal size. Flying low, Norton calls on Florence to jump, although the craft is going at the rate of 40 miles an hour, and she, with every confidence in his work and without further thought, leaps into the foaming wake behind the speeding boat. A minute later, the hydroplane has alighted on the surface, she is taken in, and the rescuer and rescued are off like an arrow for home.

"Meanwhile, old Jones has been having his troubles. Two of the gang have obtained entrance to the house and under threat of death have given him exactly 15 minutes in which to divulge the hiding place of the treasure. The old servant, anxious to gain time, although he has at least one trick in reserve which may thwart the conspirators, writes a hurried note to Norton, telling him that the two men are in the house, and throws it out upon the driveway where Norton cannot fail to see it.

"That done, after all other subterfuges to gain time, Jones shows the thugs, how by pressing a secret spring on the wall beside a picture of the vanished Hargreave, the portrait slides up, disclosing a space in the wall, apparently the hiding place of the missing million. While the conspirators stare in surprise and delight, thinking that success has crowned their efforts at last, Jones thrusts his hand into the aperture and brings forth - not the treasure but a loaded revolver with which he covers the precious pair. As he does so he hears Norton's whistle in the driveway and knows that he has got the message for help. Norton, who has been helping Florence homeward, rushes into the house, while she runs for aid. The reporter's entrance is the signal for a desperate struggle, for the two crooks have nearly overpowered old Jones, having rushed in under his guard an instant before. The battle is soon over, however, for the arrival of the police brought by Florence quickly ends the fray. Both of the men are made prisoners and once more Florence and the treasure are safe."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, October 24, 1914:

"This is the fifteenth episode of The Million Dollar Mystery. It continues the general interest of the series, and a chief feature being Jim's dash in a hydroplane to rescue the girl from a fleeing motor boat. This makes an interesting exhibition of the manner in which this invention works, and James Cruze and Florence LaBadie seem very much at home in this type of machine. One of the gang of conspirators is captured while trying to get hold of the box containing the million."

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