Cinema News and Property Gazette (1913)

January 15, 1913. Supplement to THE CINEMA. 77 old bureau with outstretched anna. Then the madman flings hmwlt upon her and drags hex into an Lnnei 1 u, stealing out alone e lew minutes later, .1 voices and the sound of footsteps reach his ears. He gets deal -1 the • ■ 't t .«e, before . who is returning with Francine and othei villa) n. only too soon is his crime discovered. D<sir6, unable to think or tu .1. t coherently, behaves strangely, and Francine, remembering the scene she witnessed through the window, finds herself wondering if hei Bweethearl wen Emrderei Hei suspicions are read in her face, and Desire* is arrested. I>. sue, 111 prison, writes to F 1 in. inr's mule. ■esting his innocence, and declaring that in spite of the in explicable brutality he once was guilty of towards Francine, he is still worthy of hei. Francine, under the influen.e pi hei mule, who strongly believes in Desire^ regrets hei Mi-i'i^ and goes to the prison to obtain Desird's forgiveness. At first the poor fellow, worn by anxiety, finds it hard to meel her, but eventually the two exchange the kiss of pardon, and leaves the prison a little happier. During the week, shi haunts tin the tragedy, and one evening is surprised to find the padlock of the door lying on the stone step picks it up, listens intently, and hearing noises within, summons some of the villagers to wait and watch with hei. Inside the cottage, the madman, who has returned under the influence of his one idea that he must have money, ransacks the place. Finding nothing, he leaves and falls into the hai. the watchers. He is given into the charge of the police, a< cused of the crime, and confesses it without any compunction. So Desire is released. The tragedy, however, his seared his soul. He is no longer the light hearted fellow, bubbling with foolish nonsense, that formerly trundled down the country lanes. He makes his way back sorrowfully to the cottage, says his good-bve to the spot where his beloved mother lived her life of sorrow, and then, locking up the cottage, throws away the key before setting out to leave the village and Francine behind him for ever. He is stopped, however, on the road leading from the village by Francine's uncle, who has shrewdly surmised what would'happen. He argues seriously with Desire that he is wrong to consider his life blighted. Since his many good qualities outweigh his faults, and since it is certain that the hereditary criminal trait has exhausted itself. Desire listens, and Francine, also coming to plead with him for her own happiness and for his, he tak« i her once again into his arms, believing that with her he may. without sin, taste of the full sweetness of life. "THE FISHERGIRL'OF VENICE." [Italian Art.) Stellina, darkshaired and lustrous-eyed, aids her father, a bent but sturdy Venetian fisherman, by pushing her net through tile lagoons round the islands of Lido. She is busy in this occupation one day, with her short skirt leaving her free and untrammelled, when a sharp pain in the foot brings her suddenly down to the rock she is crossing. She has been badly stung by a jelly-fish. Fler first unsuppressed cry is heard across the water by Count Vasto, who is cruising around in his motorboat, in company with a demi-mondaine, called Maritza. He directs his boat to the spot from which the cry has issued, and, on learning from Stellina what has happened, insists upon her accompanying him to his home. Both he and Maritza help the girl to the boat, and later on Maritza gives her such care as her case needs. From the Count's almost palatial residence a note is sent to Stellina's father, apprising him that his daughter is in good keeping, and the old man soon comes to satisfy himself upon the point. He finds his daughter, clad in a dress lent her by Maritza, looking very charming, and he yields when the Count insists that the girl cannot yet be removed. So Stellina stays on, and falls in love with the Count, as he has hoped she would. On his side, Vasto has no scruples in making love to her and in shaking off Maritza. Maritza, scorned and hurt, carries her story to Stellina's father, and the fisherman, his heart aflame with anger and sorrow, goes to save his daughter. He finds Stellina gowned in soft robes, and tasting the sweetness of life to the full, in the fond belief that the man she loves will honourably make her his wife. She clings to him when her father would drag her from him, and awaits his defence of her and himself. She never hears it, for the Count, cold and cynical, hands to the old fisher a bundle of bank-notes to appease him, and Stellina, realising by that action that the Count has never meant any more than to play fast and loose with her, first turns upon him in mortified pride, and then, with a proud gesture of disdain, leaves him to follow her father. The shackles of love are hard, however, to break, and as the months pass by it is borne in upon Stella that she will never lx able, I >'' 5ha pin. away in the 1 ti -<•, and the sin ,;i and la rtlc m even 1 t She b to vans lo tin Count a not.', \\\ win h the pleads to him hei back, bin \ 1 a new love affair, replies coldly and brutally. Pool Steiktna, on recei letter, sobs ou4 lei griei to her lather, and the old man, grieving to', and Lo || her life, swears a bitter oatfa to inl to her, aliv, or dead, 'lli.it night he awaits and watches foi Vasto, whom he meets as hi snail narrow Ian.' on Irs way to son ing function. Hei fisherman stops him, and pitifully pleads to him to come and stellina. The other curtly refuses, and impatiently tries n, until, the old man detaining him, his impatient ■,\ rds 1 h 1 a Milts. These rouse the fisher into a fury of . and, pulling out a knife from Ins pocket, he plunges it deep into the other's breast. Vasto falls, almost without a cry, and the fisher, now almost calm, picks up the body, and staggers home to lay it at his daughter's feet. The girl stares at the dead face before her for a moment, and then madness comes to save her from the horror of the tragedy. •NICK WINTER A\D 'THE ACE "I CLUBS."1 The relentless and unceasing war which Nick Winter, the tive, wages against thieves and criminals of a most deadly tvpe creates for him numerous enemies. Almost as numerous as his enemies are the attempts made upon his life, the last recorded being that emanating from the " Ace of Clubs," a powerful association of thieves whose members have sworn to do away with the detective. The film records how nearly their object reached consummation, and how Nick's old briar nabled him to escape from death. One morning Winter, seated comfortably in his study, is disturbed by his servant, who brings him a card and an urgent message from two callers, a lady and a gentleman, that they are anxious to see him upon important business in connection with a child which has mysteriously disappeared. Upon Winter's instructions, the callers are admitted, and he prepares to listen to their business. The visitors, however, are members of the Ace of Clubs, and at the first opportunity the detective is subtly thrown off the alert. Immediately this happens the two callers spring upon him, hold him down, and, hastily summoning by their cries confederates hidden on the balcony, proceed to inoculate hydrophobia. This diabolical deed is soon done, and the detective learns its nature from the lips of his enemies. He struggles to retain his reason ; then, as madness comes upon him, rushes at them so furiously that they fly for their lives. Recovering himself slightly, he then, with his last glimmer of reason, endeavours to scrawl a denunciation and Che name of the moving spirit of th. plot. Reason and pen both fail him as he scribbles the first few letters of the name, but happily the paper serves to establish his identity, when a little after, rushing through the -treeis, he falls to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth. He is overpowered, and taken to a hospital, where science comes to his aid. Two months later the detective is allowed to leave the hospital, completely cured. His sole object