Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 9: 1916 The June Schedule

In the meantime the June schedule saw various Thanhouser films released on the Mutual program. The month began with a Falstaff release on Monday, the 1st, The Dashing Druggist's Dilemma, followed on Thursdays and Mondays by other one-reel comedies, including The Skilful Sleigher's Strategy, The Kiddies' Kaptain Kidd, Freddie's Frigid Finish, then a film which began a departure from alliteration: Deteckters. Then followed Steven's Sweet Sisters, Politickers, Sammy's Semi-Suicide, and Disguisers. The comedies with non-alliterative titles featured Claude Cooper as Oscar and Frank McNish as Conrad, in a team billed as the Oscar and Conrad Company.

The Weakling, a two-reel drama released on May 2nd, featured Harris Gordon, Barbara Gilroy, and Thomas Curran. The Spirit of '61 was issued in three reels on May 4th and featured Grace DeCarlton. By this time the designation Than-O-Play for three-reelers was used only intermittently. When She Played Broadway, a two-reel film issued on May 9th, depicted Gladys Hulette as a young actress who desired a career amidst the glitter of the Great White Way, another film about the stage - one of Edwin Thanhouser's favorite themes.

Her Father's Gold, a five-reel Mutual Masterpicture, DeLuxe Edition released on May 11th, was accompanied by reams of publicity. Reel Life, the house organ of the Mutual program, printed this commentary in its issue of May 6, hoping that reviewers would agree:

Her Father's Gold is a gripping tale of love and adventure with a novel theme and a thrilling denouement. The story moves with rapidity from one adventure into another and the audience, no matter how hardened to pictures, is sure to be furnished with thrills galore. A delightful love story is interwoven in the deep and intricate plot, and the struggles of the hero to restore the stolen gold to his sweetheart is one of the most exciting series of scenes ever shown on the screen. The photography and settings are up to the high standard demanded by the Mutual. Many of the scenes were taken on a desolate stretch of Florida shore and are unsurpassed for natural beauty. Barbara Gilroy has an appealing role as the daughter of a man defrauded of his justly earned riches. She is called upon to perform many difficult feats, and her performance is one of the chief delights of this thrilling picture. Harris Gordon, as the star reporter, gives an excellent characterization and his work in an adventurous part is particularly pleasing.

Unfortunately, the reviewer for Variety was less than thrilled when he viewed it: "The scenarios on hand must have been woefully weak when Edwin Thanhouser was forced to take this for one of his five-reel productions released as a Mutual Masterpicture. The story contains the old sunken treasure idea in which a gang of thieves make away with a large amount of gold from a Mexican mine and escape with it to Florida, where one of the members gets away with the booty single handed and buries it on an island.

He then leaves for his home with the others in quick pursuit. He arrives safely with them but a short distance behind. They reach his place and make short work of shooting him. He is not killed instantly but taken to the hospital blind and on the verge of death. In the meantime he had made a map of the hiding place of the gold and placed it in his home behind a picture. His wife had been away and upon her return she goes to the hospital where her husband tries to tell of his treasure but drops dead before he can do so. The rest of the gang, of which one is a woman, get an idea of where the map is located. She goes to the house and secures it, but in her haste tears it in half.

The other portion is secured by a reporter who is trying to get the story of the shooting and the reason for it. He learns that the entire affair rested on the stealing of the gold and on this account is sent to Florida to look into the matter as well as get a story regarding a man-eating alligator. He arrives on the ground and immediately meets the daughter of the mine owner from whom the gold was stolen. The woman member of the gang is also with him, but only known as an adventuress. The reporter possesses one-half of the map and the woman the other. He manages to secure the other portion and with the young girl goes to the island to recover the gold.

One of the gangsters takes them to the hiding place in his boat, and upon their arrival and the finding of the treasure he covers them with his gun and, standing in his boat, gives them two minutes to pray before shooting. During this two minutes the man-eating alligator comes along and sees the man standing in the boat, raises itself well out of the water, grabs him by the seat of the pants and pulls him down under the water to evidently devour his prey. The gold and young couple are then rescued by friends and it all ends serenely.

A picture of this order may appeal to small picture house audiences, but it is a rather rough affair, and the alligator business is good for a laugh when meant seriously. The cast and production are well enough looked after with the former the customary stock aggregation without a big name. Note

The Moving Picture World reviewed it in the same light:

This five-part production is not an especially well-constructed one and consequently is not as entertaining as it might be. There is a crudeness about the entire production that seems inexcusable. The story concerns the theft of a quantity of gold bars from a certain mine, and deals in a rather disjointed manner with the adventures attendant on the discovery of the whereabouts of the gold, and its final rescue. The action of the play is to a large extent overdrawn.

However, Thanhouser's hometown paper, The New Rochelle Pioneer, remained loyal: "Her Father's Gold, a DeLuxe Edition Thanhouser drama, telling of an adventure, features Harris Gordon, Barbara Gilroy, William Burt, and Louise Emerald Bates. The picture is a mystery drama with a punch in every foot of film that holds the interest of the spectator from the opening scene until the very dramatic ending."

The Answer, released in two reels on May 16th, was followed by another two-reeler, For Uncle Sam's Navy, on the 23rd. The latter included in the cast Louise Daniels Wirth, a prominent Washington socialite who was a niece of Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. The Nymph, issued in two reels on May 30th, featured Barbara Gilroy as a nude bathing girl whose picture is painted by a seaside artist. For some reason the nudity was overlooked by the trade press, which had probably had its fill with the exploitation of Audrey Munson in nude poses in Inspiration the preceding autumn.