Reel Life (1916-1917)

“THE EYES THAT HOLD” Fifth chapter of the great thrilling story “ The Vam¬ pires'' produced by\Gaumont SITUATIONS of surpassing intensity frame themselves against a background of sump¬ tuous rooms and lavish gowns, moonlit ivied walls of old French inns, and hypnotism and crime and deep intrigue, in Episode Five of “The Vampires,” which will be released 1 Thursday, December 28. George Baldwin, a Chicago millionaire, has been robbed of $200,000 by his cashier, Morton, who then fled. Baldwin advertised in the newspapers of the United States and Europe that the person apprenhending Morton would be entitled to all of the stealings that might remain. Philip Guard, a Paris newspaper reporter, determined to “go after this,” as the American saying is. In his search for the absconder he had the companionship and assistance of Normandin, formerly head of the Vampires but now reformed into straight living. They start out. As guests at a charming old inn in the Forest of Fontainebleu are Colonel Kastel and his wife, distinguished persons. Secretly the Colonel is the leader of the Vam¬ pires — the cunningest, most secret and most powerful band of criminals in Paris. Arrive at the inn a young American of elegance, accompanied by a woman whom he introduces as his wife. Kas¬ tel at once suspects that he is the ab¬ sconding cashier, and determines to make him his victim, lured by what may be remaining of the $200,000 theft. The reporter Guard and his companion Normandin also suspect the American, and while tracking him near the inn they see him secrete something in a gully. Investigating, they find a casket containing $150,000 in French bank notes — what’s left of the Chicago theft. They remove it secretly to a room they have engaged at the inn, a few doors from the chambers occupied by the Kastels. Enrique Moreno is an ex-Vampire with enemies in that organization to be revenged upon. To aid in his schemes he employs falsely a young and innocent girl, and places her under his fearful hypnotic power. Aware of Kastel’s plans, he dresses this girl in Vampire garb — skin-fitting black tights from neck to heel, the head and face enshrouded in a black bag, through which gleam the eyes. Though the unconcealed outlines are full of lure, the spectacle is a chilling horror to make an audience gasp. In the third act of the Fifth Episode the figure in black delivers a note from Moreno to Kastel saying the former has a Vampire woman in his power and will kill her unless the Vampires divide with him their loot. The episode closes with a struggle between gendarmes and Morton, the American, who is denounced as a thief by the woman supposed to be his wife, and whom he in vain tries to murder. He finally confesses his identity and his crime, and Philip Guard and Normandin, instead of the Vampires or Moreno, receive the $150,000 in the casket. The struggle between Morton and his woman companion in their room while the gendarmes are on the corridor side of their door is extremely spectacular. He hears the noise of their approach and knows the end of things for him has arrived. He takes a pistol from his pocket and tries to kill her, meaning immediately afterward to shoot himself. The woman struggles with him to keep him from his pur¬ pose and to throw open the hall door to admit the gendarmes. In both of these efforts she succeeds — and as the policemen rush headlong into the room Morton fires point-blank at them, but his shot goes wild and they seize him. In a moment he is handcuffed, and presently he confesses, at the questioning of the chief of the French detectives, his guilt of the Chicago theft and his identity. Chapter Titles of Gaumont’s “The Vampires” The Detective’s Head. The Eyes That Hold. The Red Notebook. Satanas. The Ghost. The Master of Thunder. The Dead Man’s Escape. The Poison Man. The Terrible Wedding. REEL LIFE — Page Seven