Volume II: Filmography

THE MAGNET OF DESTRUCTION

March 30, 1915 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels (1,995 feet)

Character: Drama

Scenario: Philip Lonergan

Cast: Arthur H. Ashley (Arthur Grennell), Edward N. Hoyt (Hilton), Mignon Anderson (Mignon, his daughter), Morgan Jones (Lyell), Frank Grimmer

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, March 20, 1915:

"In The Magnet of Destruction, a Thanhouser drama designed for the Mutual program, a situation new to the pictures is skillfully developed. In the scene at the foundry the great magnet lifts the tons of rails into the air, and the audience sits spellbound, knowing Lyell's intention to drop that crushing weight on the head of an innocent young man and his father. Suddenly Mignon Anderson leaps into sight, pulls a lever and saves her menaced lover."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, March 20, 1915:

"Lyell, head of an organization whose object is to injure the rich members of society, interests old Professor Hilton in his cause and persuades him to join the association. Arthur Grennell, the son of a wealthy manufacturer, also becomes a member, having mistaken the organization for a reform movement with peaceful methods. Lyell falls in love with Hilton's daughter, Mignon, but soon realizes that she prefers Grennell. He then decides that he will put his rival out of the way. He selects Grennell to execute the death sentence of a capitalist, who, the society has voted, must die. Realizing now the nature of the organization, Grennell, on Mignon's advice, flees the city. Some months later, Lyell, Hilton and Grennell all meet in a factory town. Lyell and Hilton, as secret agents of the anarchist league, are working in one of the big mills. Lyell determines this time to be rid of his rival. He is employed to handle a huge magnet which lifts several tons of iron from barges in the river and deposits them in the factory yard. Knowing that Grennell and his friends are to visit the factory, he plans to drop the rails upon his victim. Lyell persuades Mignon to enter the car from which the magnet machinery is operated, and at the last moment he tells her what he is going to do. The girl has presence of mind enough to pull a lever, thus causing the magnet to drop its load a few seconds too soon. The plot is discovered. In an attempt to escape, Lyell is killed. And Grennell and Mignon plight their troth."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, April 3, 1915:

"A two-reel story written by Philip Lonergan, in which the villain of anarchistic tendencies tries to drop pig iron from an electric magnet on a party of millionaires. The girl, in love with one of the men below upsets the villain's plans. The main situation in this is led up to in a somewhat conventional way, but the story is a well-rounded one and is well up to the average in interest. The closing scenes were quite exciting and possess considerable suspense."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, April 14, 1915:

"A two-part drama written by Philip Lonergan and featuring Arthur Ashley and Mignon Anderson, in which a powerful electromagnet is used by a member of an anarchistic organization as a means of getting rid of what he considers undesirable members of society. That the plot to kill the governor of the state and his party, as they are inspecting the plant in which the magnet is used for the carrying of several tons of big iron across the yard, is frustrated at the last minute by the girl and the young hero in the story is only to be expected. The story is well-worked out, the settings realistic and the acting capable."

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