Volume II: Filmography

FROM THE FLAMES

April 28, 1914 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels (1,721 feet)

Character: Drama

Director: Carroll Fleming

Assistant director: Carl Louis Gregory

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cameramen: Henry Cronjager, Roswell J. Johnson

Cast: Arthur Bauer (Gray, an aged millionaire), Morris Foster (Jack, his dissipated son [or nephew]), Mignon Anderson (May, his niece), Sidney Bracy (Bill, Fleming's clerk), Carey L. Hastings (Caddie, the faithful housekeeper), Carroll Fleming (Fleming, a kindly lawyer), Ed Brady (Brady, a tough fellow), Billy Noel (fireman), various members of the New Rochelle Fire Department

Notes: 1. This film was based upon actual fire footage taken by Henry Cronjager during the burning of the Oaksmere School in New Rochelle, February 18, 1914. Refer to the entry for the film, A Seminary Consumed by Flames, released March 4, 1914, for newspaper articles about this event. 2. The release date of this film was listed erroneously as April 21, 1914 in several issues of The Moving Picture World. 3. The length was listed erroneously as one reel in some schedules. 4. The characters of "Jack" and "May," Lloyd F. Lonergan's most popular screen names, appear with great frequency in scenarios around this time. Jack and May in one film bear no relationship to Jack and May in another. Lonergan used these names often as a matter of convenience.

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, April 25, 1914:

"Our 'fire' masterpieces, Flames and Fortune, Jess, and Junior Partner, showed no more thrilling fire scenes than this. Your audience will rise out of their seats at the big climax."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, April 25, 1914:

"Knowing that he has not long to live and seeking to find some way by which he can check the extravagances and dissipation of his nephew, Jack, John Gray, an aged millionaire, leaves a will bequeathing all his estate to his favorite niece, May. The will is turned over by Fleming, Gray's lawyer, to a clerk who is Jack's crony. Upon Gray's death the clerk sees an opportunity to turn a dishonest penny and tells Jack that for a consideration he will hide the will. Jack accepts the clerk's offer, and when it comes time for the will to be read, Fleming is unable to find it. Under the circumstances Jack inherits everything and May is turned out into the world. Caddie, Gray's faithful housekeeper, is convinced that May has been cheated out of her share of the estate and starts a quiet investigation of her own. She recovers the document in an extremely novel way and turns it over to Fleming. Crooks, employed by Jack and his crony, the dishonest lawyer's clerk, attempt to regain the document, and in a struggle between Fleming and the crooks a lighted lamp is overturned and the house is soon in flames. A fireman manages to save the will, however, and May at last comes into her own."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, April 26, 1914:

"Her uncle's secretary learns that she is to be left sole heir to the old man's estate and that his good-for-nothing son is to be cut off without a penny. He offers to get the will out of the way for ten thousand dollars. The boy agrees, the uncle dies and the girl is left poor. One of the servants suspects foul play. She tells the old lawyer what she thinks and he learns that the son is in possession of the will. He recovers it but his house catches on fire. A fireman rescues the paper from the flames and the girl is found to be the rightful heir."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, May 2, 1914:

"A two-part dramatic pictureplay that contains intense and gripping scenes, which follow each other rapidly and consistently. It visualizes how a dissolute son comes to grief through an attempt, with the aid of a dishonest clerk, to destroy his father's last will. There is a spectacular fire scene in this picture that is wonderful. Everything considered, a superior production."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, May 13, 1914: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

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