Reel Life (1916-1917)

Billy Armstrong {right) as "Luke Sharpe” in " The Defec¬ tive Detective.” Cub Comedy. THE? DEFECTIVE DETECTIVE— CUB One Reel— Introducing Billy Armstrong, New Cub Comedian as “ Detective Sharpe.” Luke Sharpe, a detective . Billy Armstrong Jiggers, his aide . T ommy Hayes Wild Bill, who escapes detention. .William Welch John Little ford . Charles Atkins Evelyn, his daughter . Grace Gibson Wild Bill, an inmate of Prof. Nutt’s asylum, weary of confinement, escapes detention by climbing down the side of the building. His actions are unconventional and ter¬ rorize the peaceful citzens of the city. Bill reaches the Littleford mansion and peers through one of the windows. The contortions of his face as it is pressed against the glass frightens pretty Evelyn into hysterics. Littleford, to protect his daughter against possible harm, phones to Luke Sharpe, the human bloodhound, and enlists his services to catch Bill, offering him a reward of $5,000. Seeing a chance to make money easily and quickly, Sharpe returns to his rooms and has Jiggers, his aide, make up as Bill. He orders Jiggers to meet him at the Littleford home. After he has made his little speech about catching the terror, Sharpe goes to the door to bring in Jiggers. That worthy, however, is late. Bill, the real quarry, is seen climbing through the window of the house next door and Sharpe, believing him to be Jiggers, crosses the lawn and goes after him. Once face to face with Bill, Sharpe sees that he has a madman to deal with and makes an ineffectual effort to escape. Meantime Jiggers has arrived and enters the Littleford home via the window. Making himself per¬ fectly at home he jauntily stalks into the room where Evelyn is taking a nap. She awakens. Her screams bring her father, armed with a revolver. Jiggers rushes from the room and hides behind a chair. Littleford sees Bill in the house on the other side of the areaway and believing him to be the man who was in his home but a moment before, fires away. Sharpe, who is with Bill, gets most of the effect of the fire. When the smoke of battle clears away Sharpe, pounces upon Bill and succeeds in landing him. He carries the unconscious form to the doorstep of the Littleford home and then steps in the house alone to tell his client that his quest is successful. Meanwhile, Jiggers escapes the house and comes face to face with Bill. The two begin a fight which ends with Jiggers being vanquished and left be¬ hind in Bill’s place. Sharpe, of course, turns over Jiggers as the real madman, collects his money and is about to de¬ part when a policeman enters with Bill. The jig is up. Sharpe’s little scheme is exposed, Littleford takes back his reward and turns it over to the policeman, while Jiggers, followed by Sharpe, exits in sorrow. * * * * * MUTUAL WEEKLY, No. 57— GAUMONT One Reel — Latest of World-Wide Events Depicted in Motion Pictures. Skipping the rope atop the Majestic Hotel, latest of the fads of New York society buds in an effort to keep slim, is but one of the many interesting topics of the day pre¬ sented in Mutual Weekly No. 57. Every morning, despite weather conditions, these young and prominent society buds appear on the Majestic’s roof and for an hour or two skip the rope, with the result that they are daily taking off excess flesh and keeping their figures lithe. Other interesting news events presented in this popular weekly show Lucille Taft, popular Gaumont (Mutual) star looping-the-loop in an aeroplane near the company’s winter studios in Jackson¬ ville, Fla. ; Harvard’s crack hockey team in action at Cam¬ bridge, Mass. ; Lillian Russell, famous stage beauty and only woman member of the San Francisco Press Club being presented with a golden key to the city ; the burning of the absinthe crop in France in an effort to reduce the number of intoxicants in France; great throngs greeting President and Mrs. Wilson on their arrival and during their tour of New York City; scenes in Truckee, Cal., which for the first time in twenty-five years is all but buried under a snow storm; “Old Ironsides,” which school children saved from destruction by raising $150,000, afloat in Boston Harbor; the British steamer “Princefield” ashore off Cape Henry, Va. ; and the havoc wrought by the great deluge in and about Los Angeles, Cal. A number of interesting war scenes, taken by Mutual Weekly photographers at the front, are also shown, among them scenes behind the first line trenches of the French army, where the soldiers are making themselves comfortable for a long winter siege. The wide range of subjects covered by the Mutual Week¬ ly under the direction of Pell Metchell, the camera expert and editor of news films, has made this release one of par¬ ticular value to the exhibitors who have come to recognize the importance of the topical release as a subject with which to give the house program balance and variety. The Mutual Weekly is to be seen in most of the best theatres in all parts of the country. A scene from the Mutual Weekly’s pictorial report on the rope-skipping society women at the Majestic REEL LIFE— Page Ten