Moving Picture News (Jan-Jun 1913)

THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS 23 Manufacturers' Synopses of Films CRYSTAL HIS AWFUL DAUGHTER (May 11).— Nellie loves Ned. Her father will not have Ned around the house and insists upon choosing Nellie's callers. He finds Ned at the house one day and telephones to Freddie, a rather effeminate youth, asking him to call immediately. Freddie does, and Pa makes Nellie talk to him while he engages Ned in conversation. Ned gets disgusted and leaves. Freddie, in his awkwardness, steps on Nellie's dress and tears it. That finishes him and he leaves. Father determines to get a real man for his daughter the next time, and sends for Captain Fitzbugle, of the town militia. The Captain calls and Nellie sees him. He boasts of his feats of courage to father and pa thinks he is the bravest in the world. Nellie decides to have some fun with her father and the brave man in uniform, and dresses in her father's clothes, wearing a mask. She gets an old horsepistol and enters the room where the Captain is still waving his sword. She points the gun at them and they collapse. She makes the Captain stand on his head and he runs from the house with Nellie close at his heels, waving the gun. The Captain runs into a policeman, who chases Nellie through the streets and back into the house. She runs into the parlor and the policeman is about to arrest her when father explains that the desperado, unmasked, is his daughter, and the policeman, after taking the gun away from her, leaves. Father seeing that he is unable to curb his daughter's waywardness, writes Ned to call, hoping thusly to cure her bad habits. Ned accepts the invitation, and Nellie and he are reunited. On the same reel: WHEN LOVE IS YOUNG. — Harry Esmond, the son of a noble Southern family visits the Barringtons, who are also old Southerners. He is smitten with Pearl, the bsautiful daughter of the Barrington household. Harry and Mr. Barrington play chess, while Pearl is an interested onlooker. She hears the welcome noise of carriage wheels coming up the wide pathway, and leaves the room. She receives, in the garden, George Castleman, the scion of another wealthy Southern family, and another one of her ardent admirers. Harry excuses himself to Mr. Barrington and goes out to the garden in search of Pearl. He sees her and George and becomes insanely jealous. When Pearl and George return to the house Harry lies in wait until Pearl has gone upstairs and enters into an altercation with George. Pearl hears the row and steals downstairs. She is just in time to see Harry strike George and to hear the challenge to a duel. Realizing that duelling is prohibited, the rivals agree to place two cards in a hat, and that the one drawing the card marked X shall kill himself, leaving the other as the sole suitor of Pearl. They exit to the gunroom to get their guns. Pearl realizes the seriousness of the situation and substitutes a blank card in place of the marked one. The rivals come back, each draws a card and goes to his room to find out his fate. They each are happy in the thought that they have been saved. Pearl, determining to have some fun with them, shoots off a revolver, and the love-smitten youths imagine themselves the cause of the other's death. They enter the parlor and collide with each other and after their surprisehas given away to anger, they accuse each other of cowardice. However, Pearl steps out from her hiding place and explains her part in the bloodless duel and compels them to shake hands and they leave as friends. An ideal light comedy, with Pearl White in the lead; sumptuous in its settings and very creditably portrayed. IMP THE WHOLE TRUTH (May 5).— Georg Truthtell has a wife who keeps close watch upon his pay envelope and always demands its surrender every pay day intact. Temptation befalls George in the person of Miss Demure, and for a few hours, in an artistic cafe, George loses his sense of responsibility, only to find at the end of the joyous hours that he has lost considerably more. Unable to summon up courage to tell his wife the true happenings to the pay envelope, he has himself bandaged up by a friendly druggist, and invents a tale of heroic rescue of an old lady by himself, and later falling into the hands of a horde of desperate ruffians, led by the ones 1 e first defeated, and how, despite a Homeric fight, he was vanquished and all his valuables taken from him. The tale succeeds in changing wifey's suspicion and unbelief, to faith and tenderness and admiration, but a further complication between Miss Demure and a clever policeman, who recognizes in the girl a misdemeanant, nearly wrecks George's successful cover-up, but quick thinking brings matters to a happy conclusion to all concerned. "101 BISON" THE INDIAN'S SECRET (2-reel) (May 6). — Raymond receives a letter from his brother Dudley, telling of his finding an old Aztec temple. He leaves his brother's baby, Myrtle, with her Aunt Mildred, and with his wife and child, goes in search of the ancient treasures. Raymond finds the temple and gets imprisoned therein by the falling of a pillar upon his leg. When he manages to get it off, he finds that the party have all been murdered, including his wife. He becomes a maniac, and, returning to the temple, he lives there, obtaining food and drink from the Sioux Indians, who believe him to a white spirit. His little four-year-old boy is found, uninjured, by Big Cloud, the chief of the Sioux, who brings the boy up to believe he is an Indian, and names him White Eagle. Eighteen years later, Myrtle learns of the tragedy from her aunt, and, with a letter to the commander of a frontier fort, she obtains an escort and goes in search of the treasure temple and of news of her kinsfolk. She and others find White Eagle, who has been treacherously shot and left for dead by the Apache chief, Wolf, following a peace conference. Myrtle takes a great interest in him, to the anger of the young Lieutenant Gray, who has been placed in charge of the escort, and who has fallen in love with her. Myrtle does not believe White Eagle to be an Indian, and the frequent meetings of the two and Myrtle's derisive refusal of the lieutenant's offer of marriage, make his desperate and fill him with a desire for revenge. He comes across the Apache Wolf and makes a compact with him whereby he agrees to steal the ammunition so that the Apaches may attack with success, and with the agreement that Myrtle is not harmed, is handed over to him. The Sioux chief, Big Cloud, alarmed at the absence of his beloved White Eagle, and seeing a vision of his son being attacked, calls his braves together and they set out to search for White Eagle. They are in time to rescue Myrtle and her party, including White Eagle. Big Cloud invites them to stay a while in their camp, and the pipe of peace is smoked. A messenger is sent back to the fort to report the disturbance. The lieutenant is again repulsed by Myrtle, and again seeks out Wolf and his Apaches. Wolf kills Big Cloud, believing him to be White Eagle, and the latter rides out with his Indians to exterminate them. The Apaches hide and ride back to kill the hated whites, who escape to the Aztec temple, which Myrtle has found by following Raymond. The Apaches attack and many are blown to pieces by the maniac Raymond, as the troops and the returning Sioux return and rout the remainder. The identity of White Eagle is established and he and Myrtle are happily united. CHAMPION THE SHARK GOD (May 5). — The young Hawaiian athlete Keoki is a leader in the outdoor sports so beloved of the natives. He and others swim a race which is watched by his sweetheart Keala. On their return to the beach he goes to her and the two of them stroll off. Thev are watched by another native, who silently adores Keala. Visitors _ from a nearby village arrive in their outrigger; one of them is Piilani, a dancer. A dance is held and Piilani fascinates Keoki. She gradually draws him away from his sweetheart. Piilani makes seductive love to Keoki, who loses his head over her fascinations. Kane watches with the girl he thinks so much of — grieving for her. Kane goes to the foolish young fellow and reasons with him but can make but little impression. Poor Keala grieves. Keoki recovers his reason and goes to his love for forgiveness. Piilani, seeing her power has gone, seeks out the Witch Doctor, begging him to pray to the Shark God to strangle her rival to death. The old man does as he is bid and starts to pray the girl to the death. She is affected, and starts to strangle; despite the efforts of her lover. Kane sees her too and seeks out the dancer and tries to find out what she has done. The woman boasts of her deed and Kane, taking a native weapon, goes to the old Witch Doctor, and, as he sees the man's triumph, he strikes him down. The girl immediately recovers. Kane, horrified at what he has done, for the old man is held sacred in the islands, starts out to sea for his last swim, to sacrifice himself to the Shark God, is killed by a shark as the islanders watch from the shore. NESTOR THE AWAKENING OF PAPITA (May 7). — Hal Osborn, a cowboy, is engaged to Madge. She is coveted by Mert Sabin, a renegade cowpuncher. As cowboys will do, Hal occasionally frequents the saloon and dance hall. Papita, a dance-hall girl, is infatuated with Hal and does not hesitate to show it. Hal is naturally kind to women, no matter who and what they are. He tells her he loves another girl and she, furious at being put aside, follows him to find out who the girl is. She sees him enter the Barton Ranch gate and cautiously creeps behind some bushes and is an eye-witness to a scene in which Mert attempts to take Madge in his arms after her refusal to countenance his attentions. Hal arrives in time to fight him off, takes his gun away and sends him about his business. Papita picks up a letter from Hal which Madge was reading and which she dropped during the struggle, and follows Mert, and, together they hatch a plot. They forge Hal's handwriting and send a note by a Mexican half-breed to Madge telling her to keep an appointment at the bridge. Madge, believing the note to be from Hal, rides slowly along to keep the appointment. Passing the saloon, she sees Papita, and speaking a kindly word she throws a flower. Papita takes it wonderingly, for her conscience smites her. She enters the saloon and is grossly insulted by a drunken cowboy. Hal interferes and thrashes the brute and goes. It is too much for Papita. She runs after him and tells him of the infamous plot. They apprise the sheriff and the three of them ride off to the rescue. Madge arrives at the trysting place and is seized by Mert and the Mexican and taken to a deserted cabin. Here Mert tells the girl that her only hope of release is to marry hir» The rescuers creep up and the Mexican i» overpowered, whilst Mert puts Madge before him and aims at Hal. Papita sees the danger, and, throwing herself before Hal, she receives the fatal bullet. She dies happy in the thought that she has righted the wrong. ECLAIR SONS OF A SOLDIER (May 7).— This newest three-reel Eclair feature is nothing if not broad in scope, taking the spectator back, as it does, into the crinoline days of the American Revolution, leading him through the dark and troublesome years, pregnant with drama, of the great War of the Rebellion, and finally projecting him forward into a purely imaginative, but not on that account improbable, period when the country finds itself forced at last to face the growing peril of the Far East. To secure the many beautiful and gripping scenes which are necessary to the unfolding of this cycle-drama, a company has traveled the entire length of the Atlantic Coast, from New York to Key West, and there is hardly a state of t'-e Eastern seaboard which has not contributed its share to this very cosmopolitan picture.