Volume II: Filmography

THE SIGNAL CODE

February 9, 1912 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama

Location: Some scenes were filmed aboard a United States battleship in New York Harbor as part of a setting "in which a warship fleet was used." The final scene shows the fleet steaming past Governor's Island.

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture News, January 27, 1912:

"In the search for novel effects in pictures that is ever being conducted by the film producers, Thanhouser Company came upon a fleet of warships the other week and pressed them into instant service. The completed picture has been called The Signal Code, and is announced for release on Friday, February 9...."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture News, January 27, 1912:

"The most jealously guarded book in the world is a naval signal code. By it messages by wireless and flags are received, and in war times it is vitally important that the enemy not be able to understand the orders that are flashing about. So important is it, that the volume is always well weighted with lead, so that in case of impending capture it can be dropped overboard and speedily sunk. A foreign adventuress, received in New York society under the title, she claims, of 'countess,' was really a foreign spy. Her accomplice, also presumably noble, saw a chance for her to win a signal code by fascinating a naval officer. He picked his victim with rare skill, for the man he selected speedily fell before the fascinations of the countess, and soon believed that she was the dearest, sweetest woman in the world.

"While the fleet was lying in New York Harbor, the countess was invited by the naval officer to visit his ship. There she found a chance to see the signal code, and asked her admirer, as proof of his love, to permit her to retain it until the next day. He refused, of course, but she laughingly slipped it into her handbag, and mingled with the other guests so that it was impossible for him to more than guardedly urge that she return it. The young officer found himself in a perplexing situation. He did not want to publicly disgrace the girl he loved, and he foolishly believed that he could trust her. The girl left the ship with the book, promising to return it the next day, dramatically informing him that 'your honor is safe in my hands. Do you doubt it?' He did not, and the adventuress escaped with her booty. Luckily for the young officer, it happened that her actions were observed by a sailor, his suspicions aroused by her conduct, and he determined to keep an eye on her.

"One reason was that the sailor owed a debt of gratitude to the officer, who had aided him with money and sympathy when the sailor's child was dying. He followed the adventuress to her auto, crouched on the running board, out of her sight, and she unsuspectingly carried him to her rendezvous with her fellow conspirator. The two, happy in their triumph, were off their guard for a moment. This gave the sailor a chance to make a quick substitution. They found it out later when they looked for the code book and found a brick. The sailor returned the book to the young officer, thereby repaying his debt of gratitude. Later the fleet sailed away, her cipher messages still safe, and the secret of a gallant officer's weakness securely hidden in the breast of a gallant common sailor."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, February 11, 1912:

"Whether such a thing possible could happen may be doubted by many, but that it lends itself to dramatic picture playing cannot be questioned. A foreign spy urges a beautiful woman to steal from a naval officer the secret signal code. She secures it on the plea of borrowing the book, and leaves the ship, but is followed by a faithful sailor who gets it back in a dramatic manner, and thus she and her accomplice are defeated. The actual battleship scenes, the water views and those along Riverside Drive in New York City when the ships of the Atlantic Squadron recently visited the port, are all fine and most appropriately used in the story. A minor point of criticism and possibly an oversight was noted when the naval officer appeared at one time in a ball room in fatigue uniform while later he left his ship in the same garb, but when seen on shore was in full dress. The play will entertain folk of every description who are fortunate enough to see it."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, February 3, 1912:

"What little book is kept weighted with lead? What is the most jealously guarded volume in the world? What volume, though the weight of the very lead aforementioned, may be cast overboard (Aha! It is connected with a boat!) when capture threatens, and hence speedily and easily sunk? Why, none other than the naval signal code book, and it is of this book that a new film called The Signal Code treats.... A whole fleet of battleships was employed for it, and it is expected that the reel will create a sensation. The code book is stolen from the young officer by a young woman in the pay of a foreign nation. The film takes up the matter of the theft and is certain to hold the spectator's interest."

Note: The preceding "review" was probably adapted from a Thanhouser news release and is more of a publicity puff than a critical commentary. Also see the following.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, February 17, 1912:

"A spy story, telling how a clever woman worked to obtain a signal code book from a young and somewhat susceptible lieutenant in the United States Navy. The lieutenant falls in love with her and, as his guest, she visits the ship determined to secure the code. One of the ship's sailors has reason to be grateful to the lieutenant, and when he weakly permits the girl to take the code book, he craftily substitutes in her bag a brick for the book. The backgrounds were obtained during a recent visit of a large fleet to New York; they included dreadnought deck and bridge, the Hudson River, with the ship at anchor, and the scenes about the decks, etc. These pictures are very interesting. Most of the photographs are good. It will serve as a filler."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, February 14, 1912:

"As far as the story is concerned, this is a rather raw old melodrama that somewhat stretches our credulity, but the background of a warship fleet, together with a good handling of these scenes, lends an enchantment and interest outside the story itself. The acting is also of a high order, but in spite of its art it rather fails to convince the thoughtful spectator that such things could be. Indeed men do portray all sorts of weaknesses led on by the wiles of a lady, but our young lieutenant in this film really did not seem to be the sort of chap to let the girl so easily run away with the United States government's secret signal code book, at least not in such an open manner. Perhaps the play was made to order and marked 'rush.' The young lieutenant makes friends with a sailor by aiding him in obtaining a leave of absence. He then makes friends with a countess who is a spy and who visits him on the ship and then runs off with the signal code, to which he idiotically submits when she says it is to test his love. The sailor whom he had befriended clings to the side of her automobile that also contains her accomplice, and places a stone in her bag to take the place of the code book which he removes and returns to the ship."

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