Volume II: Filmography

THE CRIMSON SABRE

November 30, 1915 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels

Character: Drama

Cast: Isolde Illian (the girl), George Marlo (her sweetheart), Robert Whittier (his rival), Dave Keleher (chief of police), Hector Dion (the detective), Charles S. Gould

ARTICLE, Reel Life, November 27, 1915:

"A miraculous piece of detective work is The Crimson Sabre, a two-part Thanhouser drama, for release on the regular Mutual Program, November 30th. Hector Dion impersonates Sherlock Holmes, who, for the sake of a girl and her lover, burrows into a murder mystery and tracks down the real criminal. The girl's sweetheart, played by George Marlo, has been wrongly accused. He is exonerated, after an intensely dramatic scene in which the actual murderer stands, self-convicted, in the very spot where he had felled his victim. An old love affair of the dead man plays an important part in the chain of evidence; while the romance of Winston Holmes and Hilda Brown ends in happy fulfillment."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, November 27, 1915:

"Winston Homes is decoyed to the home of Gerald Lafitte, his unsuccessful rival in love, by a promise that the latter will put him in touch with a proposition which will mean big money. Lafitte, meanwhile, robs his own safe, and sends for a detective. When Holmes arrives, he finds that the 'proposition' is: 'Give up Hilda Brown, or go to jail.' For a despairing moment, the young man sinks his face in his hands. He is roused by a cry of horror. In the doorway stands the detective and Lafitte's valet. On the couch, his head cloven in twain, lies his enemy, a sabre, crimson with blood, at his side. A few minutes before Holmes had been absent-mindedly admiring the strange weapon as it hung on the wall above the couch. He is arrested for the murder.

"Rhoades, the detective, is not convinced even by apparently inclusive evidence. He finds in Lafitte's study the money and jewels cleverly removed by the dead man from his own safe, also a photograph of a beautiful girl with a theatrical signature across the corner. The detective visits a theatrical agency, where he learns that the original of the picture had been Lafitte's sweetheart. Rhoades studies the mechanism by which the sabre had been so attached to the wall that it could be swung out over the head of an unconscious victim and dropped with fatal effect. A photograph of the missing actor forms another link. Rhoades proves to the detective force that Lafitte's valet is none other than the father of the deserted actress, whose death he at last has avenged in the murder of her betrayer. Winston Holmes is acquitted, and he and Hilda marry."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, November 27, 1915:

"A two-reel melodrama that is more than ordinarily interesting. A mysterious murder is committed and the wrong man is arrested. The affair is finally cleared up, however, by the detective who discovers that the sabre, which is hung on the wall, has been manipulated by the other side of the wall, so that it has killed its victim in falling. The butler is then arrested, having shown signs of fear and possible guilt."

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