Volume II: Filmography Volume II: Filmography
a.k.a. A CALL IN THE NIGHT
June 22, 1914 (Monday)
Length: 2 reels (reels 1 and 2)
Notes: 1. The filming of Episode 1 commenced on April 1, 1914. 2. Variant title: The Airship of the Night. 3. The title was registered with the Copyright Office on May 8, 1914, at which time 70 prints (stills of various scenes) were deposited.
ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, June 27, 1914:
"We've done exactly as promised. The first two-reel episode of The Million Dollar Mystery was released last Monday, June 22. PACKED HOUSES EVERYWHERE is the result. Undoubtedly this gigantic serial production is the greatest attraction ever offered to theatres. The story by Harold MacGrath starts in nearly 200 of the leading newspapers Sunday, June 28. The second two-reel episode will be released next Monday, June 29th. Two-reel episodes will be released once each week. You may still be able to make booking arrangements if you act quickly. Get in touch with a representative of the Syndicate Film Corporation at once. The Million Dollar Mystery is an independent release and may be obtained regardless of the regular program being used. Remember $10,000 in cash will be paid for the best 100-word solution of this startling mystery."
ARTICLE, The New Rochelle Pioneer, October 17, 1914:
"How many readers know that Mr. Hansel staged the first action on April 1 - Fool's Day - which was a rather appropriate beginning, but because it was up to Lloyd F. Lonergan and Howell Hansel to 'fool' all of the people all of the time until the end of Episode 22?"
SYNOPSIS-ARTICLE, Reel Life, June 27, 1914:
"If the first two reels of the Thanhouser 46-reel serial, The Million Dollar Mystery, are a promise of what is in store for photoplay fans, then, indeed, the motion picture world is about to be startled as it never before has been. The Mystery is inaugurated in a manner calculated to keep photoplay lovers on the edge of the seat. In fact, it will be remarkable if, in their excitement, many spectators do not more than once slip entirely from their cushioned chairs when they see this serial projected.
"The story is told in episodes, each episode taking up two reels of film. The first episode of The Mystery contains a dozen thrills. One of them was not in the scenario. In the balloon scene, Albert [sic; should be Alfred] Norton, who plays Stanley Hargreave, the millionaire, is rescued before the camera from almost certain death when the balloon in which he is leaving the roof of a mansion breaks unexpectedly from its moorings and plunges away with Norton clinging desperately to the sides of the basket. Norton's struggles to get into the car were not planned in advance by Director Howell Hansel, and when theatregoers the country over clap approvingly as A. Leo Stevens, the aeronaut, drags Mr. Norton into the basket, they may be assured that they are applauding a real rescue and Mr. Norton's own desperate fight to save his own life.
"As a matter of fact if the full story of the photographing of The Million Dollar Mystery ever is told, it will make an adventure serial almost equal in interest to the scenario which Lloyd F. Lonergan has written and which Harold MacGrath, the famous novelist, has fictionized.
"The first reel of Episode One shows Stanley Hargreave, father of Florence Gray, stealing up from his carriage to the entrance of the Susan Farlow Select School for Girls. In his arms he cradles his baby daughter. While his coachman waits at the carriage entrance to the school grounds, Hargreave makes his way across the lawn and terraces to the veranda of the institution.
"Tenderly he wraps up the child and puts it down in a spot sheltered from the wind. Cautiously he crouches up to a window of the office, where the matron of the school sits attending to her correspondence. A sharp rap brings Susan Farlow to the window. Hargreave hurriedly steals back to his carriage and drives off. Puzzled by the mysterious tap on the pane, Miss Farlow opens the window and peers into the darkness. Her curiosity aroused, she then swings open the massive main entrance doors. Before her on the threshold lies a baby, wrapped in garments of expensive texture. Pinned to the child's silken outer wraps is an envelope and inside the latter a note and a gold bracelet. 'The name of this child is Florence Gray,' the note reads. 'Take care of her and educate her. I shall provide liberally for her. The other half of the enclosed bracelet will identify me when I send for her.'
"Seventeen years pass. Florence Gray now is a young woman and one of the most popular girls in the Farlow school. Throughout her girlhood she has never wanted for anything, and from time to time liberal remittances and presents reach her from her parent.
"Miss Gray is shown surrounded by her friends. The girls of the boarding school evidently are right up to the minute, for the film shows them tangoing and doing the maxixe while Matron Farlow stands by to censor any steps which do not meet with her approval. The scene quickly changes to Florence's room in the dormitory of the school. The girls are having one of those midnight parties so dear to the heart of every venturesome boarding school miss. The chafing dish with the alcohol flame beneath is busily sputtering away when the girls, in imagination, hear footsteps in the hall. The lights are dimmed, and all sit about eating their fudge in hushed whispers. The scene changes to the home of Stanley Hargreave, father of Florence Gray.
"Hargreave, when a young man, had joined the Black Hundred. This was an organization of Russian millionaires. Circumstances made him an exile from Russia. Branded as a traitor by his fellows, the young millionaire knew that a price had been set upon his head. The passing of the years had changed his appearance, however, and now, nearly twenty-five years after his departure from Europe, he hopes that the beard and the mustache he has grown, together with the changes which time has marked upon his features, have altered him beyond recognition.
"Feeling assured that he will not be remembered if he returns to his old haunts, Hargreave determines to claim his daughter, dispose of his estate and servants, liquidate his holdings, and return to Russia. He sends a note to the Farlow school demanding the return of Florence Gray, settles his daughter's bills, and then, to celebrate his departure, enters one of the most fashionable of New York's restaurants.
"He is recognized, as he enters, by James Norton, a reporter, who recalls to the millionaire that he interviewed him when the panic was on. Hargreave invites the reporter to dinner and introduces him to Countess Olga Petroff and her companion, Braine. Hargreave, as he sits down to dinner with the reporter at an adjacent table, little realizes that his nearby acquaintances, Braine and Countess Olga, are watching him closely and that they recognize him as the man for whom they have been commissioned to seek the world over.
"So sure are they of their identification that both hurriedly leave the restaurant for the local headquarters of the Russian secret society. There, in a few words, they inform resident members of the Black Hundred that they have recognized in Hargreave a former member of their band and that the opportunity to wreak the vengeance of the Black Hundred is at hand.
"A picture of Hargreave, taken in his youth when he was a faithful member of the society, has come into possession of the New York chapter. This picture, now carefully preserved by Countess Petroff, is handed around among the band for identification. The conspirators, their faces covered with black masks, are sitting about a long table in a secret room when the Countess and Braine tap on the door and are admitted. Two members of the organization are delegated to spy upon Hargreave while the rest mature their plans for his downfall.
"From the moment he leaves the Fifth Avenue restaurant Stanley Hargreave is a marked man. One or another of the Black Hundred shadows him constantly. They watch him as he withdraws his wealth from the safe deposit vaults of a Wall Street bank; they learn through the unsuspicious servants of his preparations for a hurried departure, and they view from a distance in puzzled astonishment his secret interview with Stevens on a Long Island aviation field.
"The first intimation that Hargreave receives that his identity has been discovered is a note slipped under his door by Braine. The note warns Hargreave that the members of the Black Hundred are aware that he has withdrawn his wealth from the bank and that he plans flight. They tell him not to try to escape.
"As Hargreave, with trembling fingers, reads the note, he staggers back against the mantle in his library and there flashes before his mind's eye the picture of his introduction into the Black Hundred years before. He sees himself again a young man, clad in Russian garb, pledging himself, while he clasps hands with the aged president of the secret order, to devote his life and wealth to the promotion of the aims of the society. He sees frowning down from the walls the imperial eagles of Russia. The shield of the order and of the Czar, with the Little Father's coat of arms emblazoned upon them, again seem to threaten him who would prove a traitor to the cause.
"The note from the enemy causes Hargreave to make a quick change in his plans. Hastily shaving his beard and mustache he dons a rough suit and, upon ascertaining that his home is surrounded, goes to the roof of the mansion and sets off a rocket to call Stevens to his aid. The rocket is seen by the conspirators as it roars up from the roof into the darkness. They determine to break into the isolated home of the renegade member of their band. They attack the massive entrance doors of the mansion with iron bars, dealing blow after blow that echoes through the mansion.
"In the distance Braine, the leader of the band, sees a balloon creeping across the sky toward the House of Mystery. Realizing that Hargreave intends to escape in the car of the balloon the band redoubles its attack on the door of the mansion. There follow the most exciting incidents of the first episode.
"As the balloon sweeps across the roof of the House of Mystery, Hargreave clutches at the basket. He manages to obtain a hold just as the big bag, struck by a sudden gust of wind, leaps like an animate being into the air and is carried away over the tree tops. In his struggles to get into the basket of the balloon, Hargreave is assisted by the pilot. The millionaire finally crawls up over the edge of the wickerwork car and falls exhausted on the floor.
"While the balloon drifts out over the ocean, back in the House of Mystery Hargreave's butler does his best to cope with the members of the Black Hundred who finally manage to break into the mansion. The conspirators, upon smashing in the great front door, at once run to the roof of the house just as the balloon skims away across the tree tops. Braine shoots at the big bag in an effort to puncture it. Shot after shot goes wild but finally one takes effect and the balloon is seen rapidly sinking toward the sea.
"Braine runs below to tell his fellow conspirators of his successful shot. He finds that they have bound Jones, the butler, and are giving him the third degree, in an effort to make him reveal where Hargreave has hidden his wealth. But someone has already removed all the money from the safe built into the wall of Hargreave's library, and Jones is able only to point to the empty compartments. Far out at sea a collapsed balloon bag drifts about on the wave tops, kept afloat by the wickerwork car and the few remaining feet of gas within the bag. (To be continued)"
REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, June 28, 1914:
"As exclaimed the Queen of Sheba when she saw the awe-inspiring glory of Mr. Solomon, so exclaimed the viewer when he saw the first episode of the long-heralded Thanhouser 46-reel serial. 'They had not told me the half.' And he who knows the habits of these press agents when they have anything good to push, will agree that that is some admission.
"It is perfectly true, though. Despite the fact that everyone had heard so much about it that disappointment would not have been astonishing, it is doubtful if anyone left the projection room with other than favorable comments, mental or verbal, for the picture. If the serial can keep up the pace it has set at the outset it will be one of the greatest pictures of all time.
"No time is wasted in getting the action of the story into running order. The mystery starts right in, reverting to the vernacular, with a wallop, and continues to keep the audience on the qui vive. The first episode is filled with thrills in plenty, not the least of which is the balloon rescue of Mr. Norton, who plays the part of Stanley Hargreave, from the top of the house where he is confined by the black-masked gang who conspire to get his money. The rescue is even more realistic than the director intended it should be, for the balloon broke away before the time appointed for its departure, and Mr. Norton had to be dragged into the basket by the aeronaut, A. Leo Stevens.
"Stanley Hargreave, the father of Florence Gray, leaves his baby daughter on the steps of a girl's school, with a note which states that he will provide liberally for her education. With the child is left half of a bracelet which will serve to identify her when she is sent for.
"Seventeen years passed away, and Florence has grown to young womanhood. Hargreave, who in his youth had joined a society of Russian millionaires known as the Black Hundred, bears a price upon his head because he is adjudged a traitor by his fellows. But thinking that the 25 years which have elapsed have obliterated all chance of discovery, he determines to sell his estate, reclaim his daughter and return to Russia. He therefore sends a note to the school, and to celebrate his decision, enters one of New York's most fashionable restaurants. Here he is recognized by two members of the society, and from that time is a marked man.
"The members of the New York chapter of the Black Hundred follow the millionaire to his home, after seeing him draw his money from a Wall Street bank, and there place a note under the door. Meanwhile the house is surrounded. But Hargreave does not depend alone on escaping via the earth, and is taken into the balloon of the aeronaut, sailing away in spectacular style. The conspirators managed to puncture the gasbag with a shot and the balloon sinks slowly to the sea over which it is sailing. The conspirators, entering the house, find that the money has disappeared with its owner.
"As the heroine of this astonishing story Florence LaBadie is very attractive. Sidney Bracy, in the role of the butler, displays perhaps the most histrionic ability of a cast, the least of whom is more than adequate. It is unnecessary to add that good photography is not overlooked to the filming of this serial. And the settings, particularly the interiors of Hargreave's home, which are interiors of the old Francis Wilson mansion at New Rochelle, unless the reviewer is misinformed, are exceptionally perfect in their appointments."
REVIEW by Randall M. White, The Moving Picture World, July 4, 1914:
"Representatives of all the important daily newspapers in New York, as well as of the several motion picture trade papers, to the number of almost two score, crowded into the little projection room at the Mutual Film Corporation office to view the tremendous new serial, The Million Dollar Mystery, which has been made by the Thanhouser Company and marketed by the specially formed Syndicate Film Corporation in cooperation with the Mutual.
"The verdict seemed to be: 'Guilty, as stated in the indictment' - and the indictment, was represented by the Thanhouser company's extraordinary advance advertising campaign, was that The Million Dollar Mystery was the biggest and best serial ever attempted and a set of motion pictures that would establish a record for this class of productions.
"The Million Dollar Mystery, the last scenes of which were filmed a few days before the first release was made on Monday, June 22, after months of patient work by the Thanhouser players, is to be offered in 26 episodes, each episode comprising two reels for release weekly on successive Mondays. The scenario is by Lloyd F. Lonergan from a story by Harold MacGrath. Howell Hansel was assigned the big task of directing the production.
"In a number of respects, The Million Dollar Mystery project is a particularly notable one in the motion picture industry. It has been handled in an unusually big way and is a gamble the success or failure of which will be followed with keen interest in the trade.
"To begin with, MacGrath and Lonergan are said to have drawn down a record price for the story and scenario. Then the pick of the Thanhouser players, including the highest salaried people on the payroll, were cast in the action, and the matter of expense was not considered in the making of the production. And finally, a publicity scheme with the $10,000 prize offer broad enough to embrace every section of the universe in which motion pictures are shown and enjoyed, an expense of enough to dwarf anything which had been attempted before, was devised.
"The $10,000 prize was offered for the best 100-word solution to the mystery which the serial will develop as it progresses. The advertising campaign has been placed in the hands of a national advertising agency in Chicago which is working in conjunction with the Mutual Film Corporation's highly effective publicity department. Page advertisements in a number of leading daily newspapers and big painted signs have been used to herald to the New York public the coming of the feature, and this expensive advertising is to be supplemented with a national campaign intended to make the serial as big a polar in the smallest town as it is in the largest city. A quarter of a million dollars is the estimate placed on the advertising which was done for the serial before the release of the first episode.
"Eight reels of the total of 52, comprising four episodes, were shown at the recent private exhibition. For these it can be said that they will not disappoint those who have read every line of advance publicity printed about this serial and by it have been led to expect something far beyond the ordinary. The Million Dollar Mystery, as a title, and the mention of a $10,000 prize for the solution of the mystery, gives the proposition that 'wealthy' start, and it strikes one as particularly fitting - if not vitally necessary - that elegant and expensive a production is made to stand out. That each of the episodes in the four already shown in private already makes a complete and logical chapter in the story but has been given one or more big incidents to make it satisfying in itself is also to be commended.
"Part 1 of the first episode is given over to pictured information concerning the serial. A group of Thanhouser people, which includes President Hite, of the producing company, and Messrs. MacGrath and Lonergan, who collaborated on the photoplay production, is interesting. The principals of the action, as follows, are introduced in quite a novel way: Albert [sic] Norton as Stanley Hargreave, the millionaire; Sidney Bracy, as Jones, Hargreave's butler; Florence LaBadie, as Florence Gray, Hargreave's daughter; Marguerite Snow, as Countess Olga, adventuress; James Cruze, as James Norton, a newspaper reporter; Lila Chester, as Susan, Florence Gray's companion; and Frank Farrington, as Braine, one of the conspirators.
"The 'Million Dollars' of the title and the greed for it which inspires the action of the story is allegorically shown with the clever conceit in which a mass of bank notes in the center of the picture is the bait for scores of darting hands belonging to invisible owners. The certified check for $10,000, signed by President Hite of the Thanhouser company, which is to be given as a prize for the solution of the mystery of the picture, is also shown.
"The action in the story begins with millionaire Hargreave's mysteriously leaving his baby daughter at a school for girls with instructions that she should be reared to childhood and given every care, at his expense. Seventeen years later the daughter leaves the school to join her father, whom she does not remember. She arrives at his home just after he has been compelled to flee for his life which is threatened by a gang of conspirators known as The Black Hundred, against whom he has apparently turned traitor. A demand has been made upon Hargreave for a million dollars which he is known to have concealed in his home, and the action of as much of the serial as has yet been shown hinges upon the efforts which are made by the conspirators (of the Black Hundred) to discover what has become of the million dollars after Hargreave's escape. In the first episode of the serial a pair of hands - and hands only - are shown removing the million dollars in bank notes from the safe. Who owns these hands is one of the early mysteries.
"Hargreave's escape in a balloon which he has arranged to have alight on the top of his house is the big thrill of the first episode - and it is some thrill. An encounter between two of the conspirators and the newspaper reporter (who is the hero of the story), followed by the daring escape of the conspirators from the police whom they dump off a pier in the river, is the climax of the second episode, for release June 29.
"Of the players who appear in The Million Dollar Mystery, judging from the early releases, it seems evident that Miss Marguerite ('Peggy') Snow is destined to score a great personal triumph. Miss Snow is the adventuress in the story, and her work is particularly convincing. Miss Florence LaBadie, as Hargreave's daughter, is giving a good performance, and James Cruze, as the newspaper reporter who is no stranger to dress suits, frock coats, and roses for his lady love, makes splendid use of 'fat' opportunities. Sidney Bracy has a lot more than the 'bit' which is common to the butler in most dramatic or photoplay productions, and shows himself a fine actor in the way he carries off the big scenes in which he is a principal. Mr. Farrington, Mr. Norton, and Miss Chester give performances which warrant the statement that the cast is splendidly balanced."
REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, July 1, 1914: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.
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Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.