Volume II: Filmography

THE READER OF MINDS

December 8, 1914 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels

Character: "Romantic drama"

Director: Carroll Fleming

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan and Phil Lonergan

Cast: Muriel Ostriche (the switchboard girl), Harris Gordon (Lieutenant Esmond), Carey L. Hastings (his mother), Nolan Gane, Ernest Warde

Note: This film was produced during the last week of October 1914.

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, December 6, 1914:

"Esmond, a lieutenant, has invented an apparatus which will destroy hostile ships at long range. An old German invents a machine which reads people's minds. By means of this foreign agents obtain Esmond's secret. When it is discovered that the plans are in the hands of another government Esmond is dismissed from the service. Later a telephone operator at a large hotel gets a clue to the mind-reading instrument. In the end the mystery is solved and Esmond is reinstated."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, January 6, 1915:

"Mr. Lonergan drifts out to sea this time and remains for the length of the offering over the unfathomable mysteries of a marvelous invention. This is nothing else than a machine that reads men's minds and projects the hidden thought on a screen by means of a moving picture film. Mr. Lonergan seems not to believe in working out little homely facts of life. Our imaginations are to be startled by the incredible, coupled in some measure with the melodramatic. If these be slots for pictures, then the entrance of inventors who would propel aeroplanes by transmitting power from the earth, or a myriad of similar improbable theories into the film field, would seem imminent. Nor is the very unusual in subject borne out by a similar treatment in the staging of it. A foreign spy seems to drag the offering back into known channels; recognize his dark looks. The cast is one of well-known names, who are undoubtedly hampered by the nature of the subject. Muriel Ostriche is the one pleasant spot in the picture.

"The story tells of the invention by the lieutenant of the machine that destroys ships at a distance, and the theft of his invention by the foreign spy with his mind reader - 'the machine photographs the plans as the inventor thinks of his invention.' A telephone girl, overhearing a conversation, is able to help solve the mystery of how the lieutenant managed to lose the secret of his plans."

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