Volume II: Filmography Volume II: Filmography
August 31, 1914 (Monday)
Length: 2 reels (reels 21 and 22)
ARTICLE by Mae Tinee, The Baltimore American, July 5, 1914:
"Railroad Wreck Comes Handy for Stunt of Thanhouser Stars: It was with a relieved feeling of 'God's in his heaven, all's right with the world,' that I emerged from the New York, New Haven & Hartford train at the New Rochelle station on a bright and beautiful Sunday morning. The relieved feeling was due to the fact that I had managed to get there safe, sound and with none of my members missing, for I had been most lugubriously started on my way by the dark man who carried my bundles from the station to the coach.
"I arrived and emerged beaming, as I have said, and, surrounded by the small and hungry-looking boy who had insisted on annexing my baggage, I walked out of the depot and looked around for eager welcomers. But there was not a sign of a familiar face or one that might hope to become familiar. Not even a taxi! So, sighing, I nodded to a dilapidated driver who was making high signs in my direction, was deposited in a dilapidated shay drawn by what, I imagine, had many years ago been known as a horse, and was driven toward my destination.
"As I alighted in front of mine inn [the Pepperday Inn], which is right across the street from the Thanhouser studios, I noticed, drawn up before the latter, two automobiles surrounded by excited and gesticulating men. They spotted me, and one of them, a blonde man with his hat on awry, tore across the street. He grabbed me by my arm. 'You'll do!' he shouted. He threw a bill to the driver and said to him: 'Bags upstairs!' and started back toward the automobile, pulling me with him. Like a mule, I planted my feet and balked. 'What'll I do? I'll do nothing of the kind. I just came. I'm Mae Tinee. I...'
"'I know it,' the blonde man said. 'Come on. Hurry up! Wreck! Need some dead women. All right, John.' John was the chauffeur. 'Ready, everybody?' Chug, chug-bzz-zz-zz - and we turned around on two wheels and were beating it up Main Street. Have you ever been kidnapped? Well, neither have I. But I know just how it would feel. Some sensation! We tore along - past sleeping stores, past people, around a curve - and just then we were in front of a church. The blonde man gave a yelp.
"'John - there they are! Stop!' The machine stopped so suddenly that it nearly went over and the blonde man leaped out, chased up the steps of the church and clutched at a pretty woman all dolled up and a man in a frock coat and silk hat. Back he came, dragging them, protesting, after him. He chucked them into the machine and said: 'Beat it, John!' and again we were on our way, pretty well into the country by this time, with scandalized chickens, indignant family cats, and harshly protesting dogs scurrying from our path. The other automobile followed closely after.
"Above the noise of the wind as it sizzled past our ears I could hear the pretty woman saying: 'The very idea, Hansel! To take me away from the church like that! It's in my contract that I have Sundays off!' She turned to me suddenly and put out her hand. 'Why, who is this?' she inquired.
"'A dead woman,' I told her stolidly. 'He' - I pointed to the blonde - grabbed me and said I'd do - that he needed some dead women.' Now they all laughed and introductions followed. The blonde, I learned, was Howell Hansel, formerly one of David Belasco's most popular leading men, now one of the principal directors of the Thanhouser Company; the pretty woman was Miss Marguerite Snow, known fondly to her intimates as Peggy, and the wife of the man in the silk hat, who was none other, dear children, than your own Jimmy Cruze. When the other automobile drew up just after us at the scene of the wreck I met Florence LaBadie, Lila Chester and Sidney Bracy.
"The wreck - to my great relief - proved to be one of those miraculous affairs where everything is completely demolished but nobody is hurt. The track and the road by the track near Harrison were covered with overturned and demolished cars. But the dead, wounded and dying were missing, and this was where we came nobly to the fore. Mr. Hansel assumed command, while the cameraman set up his apparatus and prepared to take what will figure someday soon as a 'thriller.'
"'Florence, lie half in - half out - of that wreckage there. Sidney, put a couple of boards over there. Arms out, limply, Florence - you're dead, you know. Here, you' - to a couple of extra men and an extra woman - 'form a group, leaving her well exposed. You are grief-stricken - horrified. No, you're not registering the proper amount of horror there. Face up to the sky, Florence - that's right. Here, wait a minute.'
"He rushed to a mud puddle, stuck his hand in it, and, going over to Miss LaBadie, smeared a streak across her forehead. The dead gave decided signs of life. 'Mister Hansel! Oogy!'
"'Oogy?' returned the directors, eying her with rapture. 'That's just the touch! That's really artistic, Florence!' He tore over to the camera and squinted through it. 'Fine! Now let's see you register horror. All right! Ready to take!' They took. Mr. Hansel beamed and shifted his attention to Miss Snow - all in her Sunday clothes, the last person one would ever suspect of having just gone through the awful catastrophe about to be cast on her shoulders.
"'Peggy - crawl under that car. Jim, remove your hat, please! You - ' But Peggy was speaking belligerently: 'Crawl under a car in this suit! I should say not! It would positively ruin it! I'll do anything for you, Mr. Hansel, but ruin this suit - that I kinnot. I fought six rounds with the tailor to get him to make it so I could walk in it, and I am able to fight no more. If it was a dark suit, Mr. Hansel, I wouldn't mind - but it's so beautiful and light - '
"Mr. Hansel looked about, and as he looked his eye rested on poor me, who happened to have a dark suit on. He took me by the arm. He said kindly: 'Right under the car - there, Peggy shall die some other way, Now, you're in agony! These men are trying to pull you out and the pain is something frightful. Let's see you register pain.'
"Obediently I crawled under the car; thought of the time I had to take gas to have a tooth pulled and register - something - which was evidently not pain, for the blond director crouched down beside me and gave a half hour's private instruction. It took time and patience, but by the time he was through I was going through a list of expressions that would have brought sorrow to the heart of a surgeon. And then we rehearsed the pulling process - it was done so realistically that I shall have no qualms in turning in a bill for a new suit. You would never have recognized this humble interviewer had you seen her just after the wreck. Nevah!
"Well, they took that picture. (Haunt the movies and tell me what you think of the acting.) Then Peggy had to take her turn. They compromised - with her by sticking her in between two cars, where she assumed a limp pose; tilted her hat over one eye and looked pale. Along came Jimmy Cruze, his silk hat and frock coat off - and rr-rescued her bravely - the new suit awry, but intact. Speaking of the hat and coats - he had given them to an extra man to hold. The extra man started walking away from the wreck. As he did so an official who had just arrived at the scene of operation stopped him."
SYNOPSIS, Movie Pictorial, August 29, 1914:
"After their escape from the tramp freighter, Florence and Norton, feeling safe at last, board a train for New York. But they have reckoned without taking into account the almost diabolical cleverness and cunning of Braine. He has anticipated their every move, and on board this same train they see the Countess Olga, Vroon, and several other members of the Black Hundred.
"Norton and Florence are still hoping for a chance to escape, ignorant as they are of the Black Hundred's determination to keep Florence away from Jones at all costs - when there is a terrific crash - and then oblivion. The conspirators have wrecked the fast express! Vroon is uninjured, and he picks up the unconscious Florence, puts her into a buggy which he secures and takes her away to a cabin in the woods - a prisoner again. Jim Norton finds the countess, assists her to a farmhouse, and there learns of Florence's re-capture. He first wires Jones to send out a rescue party, then sets out for the cabin. The conspirators discover and attack him, but just at the moment of his and Florence's greatest peril, Jones and the officers arrive and again the conspirators are foiled."
SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, August 29, 1914:
"We left Florence Gray and her faithful swain, Jimmy Norton, hastening toward the railway station, while Braine, bound and gagged in the cabin of the whaler, struggled vainly to free himself. But their escape was not to be made so easily, for Braine, managing finally to work the gag out of his mouth, attracts the attention of the whaler's captain and is set ashore. He reaches the railway station, just as the train which bears Florence and Norton steams out. His first angry disappointment, however, is but momentary. Braine is nothing, if not resourceful, and, realizing that the couple are headed for New York, he sends a wire to the Countess Olga instructing her to meet the train at a point as far from its destination as possible.
"With Jackson, the conspirator who discovered the whereabouts of Florence, the Countess boards the train, when it is still many miles from New York and, pretending that she is returning from a visit to a country friend, in mock surprise and delight at seeing the girl again, embraces Florence warmly. Norton she also congratulates, expressing her concern at his strange disappearance, but before she can learn from either of them their version of the strange mishaps that have befallen them, concerning one phase of which she is already quite familiar, there is a terrific, grinding crash. The car lurches heavily to one side, tossing the passengers about in confusion. Many are rendered unconscious, among them being Florence, Countess Olga and Norton. Jackson alone is unhurt.
"Dragging himself to Florence's side, Jackson carries her senseless body out of the train and into the woods. Reaching a road he hails a farmer driving a buggy and quickly makes arrangements with him for the use of his vehicle for the afternoon. For Jackson knows he is near a dilapidated hut, which is the resort of a desperate gang of thugs and cutthroats in the pay of the conspirators, and thither he takes the still unconscious Florence, who by this time is beginning to recover from her swoon. When she does so she is in the clutches of the gang, and despite her struggles, tears and pleadings, she is threatened with instant death unless she reveals the secret cache of the missing million.
"While Florence is in this desperate plight, Norton comes slowly to his senses. Failing to find her and thinking that she has been already rescued by some of the trainmen, he carries the Countess from the wreck and with her finds refuge in a nearby house. There he learns from the farmer, who had turned over his buggy to Jackson, of Florence's capture and, mounting a horse, he hurriedly makes his way in the direction taken by the conspirators. As he draws near the hovel where Florence is confined, the lookout sees his approach and notifies the ruffians within. Hurriedly binding the girl, the men hasten to a part of the road which Norton must pass, and there they lay in wait for him. As he comes up they drag him from the horse and after a desperate struggle carry him bodily into the hut. There they threaten Florence that unless she at once divulges the hiding place of the Hargreave's treasure, they will carry Norton bound, to the railway, where the flying Lighting Express is nearly due. When she tearfully and for the thousandth time pleads her ignorance of its whereabouts, without further parley, they proceed to carry out their threat.
"Florence, left alone in the hut, struggles vainly with her bonds. Working her way to a window, she smashes it with her pinioned feet, and, with a haste born of desperation, succeeds in sawing through the cords that hold her wrists on a fragment of the shattered glass. Once freed, the girl runs wildly toward the railway, in imagination seeing Norton crushed and mangled by the wheels of the on-rushing express.
"Nor is she any too soon, for hardly has she reached the reporter's prostrate form, when the whistle of the train warns her that she will not have time to untie his bonds before the engine will be upon them. With an energy born of desperation she darts down the track in the direction of the oncoming train and throws the switch. The next instant, the express rushes by at top speed, but on the track next to that on which Norton has been bound by the conspirators. It is but the work of another instant for Florence to cut the cords that hold Norton.
"But their troubles are not yet over, for Jackson and his gang, viewing from a safe vantage point the escape of their would-be victim, give chase and rapidly overtake the couple, both of whom are suffering from their recent trying experiences. Before they do so however, Norton has made good use of the signal box at the switch, sending a hurry call for help to the nearby town. Fortunately, the police station is near the railway, and without delay several stalwart bluecoats requisition a handcar and set out to aid them. Even then they do not arrive any too soon for the gang have caught up with the fleeing couple and Norton is fighting desperately for their lives, when the guardians of the law reach his side and scatter or capture the ruffians."
REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, September 19, 1914:
"This two-reel installment is Episode No. 11 in this series. Flo and Jim, just escaped from Braine, are caught in a train wreck with two of the conspirators. The scene was apparently taken at a real wreck. Later Jim is tied to a railroad track; Flo escapes from the gang and saves him by throwing the switch before the approaching train. There is good suspense throughout this number."
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Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.