The Film Index (Jul-Dec 1910)

24 THE FILM INDEX spot for having a camera within the fortifications, runs to his superior officer and reports the incident.. This functionary feels that he should report the matter to the commandant, which he proceeds to do. After receiving his order from the commandant the officer returns with the sentry to find that Miss Guth has taken her departure. This simple incident is worked up into a tremendous affair because of the fact that the German Government is supposed to have had agents endeavoring to get photographs and plans of the French fortifications. The matter is finally brought to the attention of the Minister of War and he calls to his office the Captains Three, Captain Dunois, Villalon and Lepard, three clever, adventurous military Frenchmen. He shows them a letter from the secret service department, which in substance relates that Miss Laura Guth, the American woman who is suspected of having photographs and plans of the fortifications at Rheims and of being an emissary of the German Government, has evaded the vigilance of the secret service men and no doubt gone to London en route for New York. The Minister of War despatches the three men to get Miss Guth and also the plans which she has in her possession. The story now follows the Captains Three. We see them board the American liner in mid-stream, and we watch their actions on shipboard throughout the voyage to New York. We know what the Captains Three do not, that they are on a false scent. They are most serious in their pursuit of Miss Guth, who, by the way, has booked her passage under a fictitious name, in order to preserve the secrecy necessary in her business. Captain Lepard has met Miss Guth, little knowing that she is the person he is seeking, and has become enamored of her. He discovers who she is by her accidentally leaving with him a magazine in which her visiting card is marking the page. When Lepard discovers that the girl to whom he has been paying serious attention is the woman his Government is seeking to implicate in a commission of national crime, his inward struggle is most dramatic. He is torn between love and duty. Finally duty wins and he confides to his fellow officers what he has discovered. From now on the three men watch Miss Guth closely. We see Lepard, who has heretofore been the soul of chivalry and attention, avoiding the lady as much as possible. Miss Guth does not understand the gallant Frenchman's conduct, and there is a frigidity which is only intelligible to the audience. The three Frenchmen watch Miss Guth through the porthole of their stateroom, see her taking plans from her suit case and reading a letter. After she leaves the room they enter it and finding the plans locked in the suit case are somewhat taken aback. They read the letter, however, from Frederick Schmaltz and they are convinced that they are on the track of a great conspiracy. Arriving in New York they follow Miss Guth, never taking their eyes from the suit case in her hand. As she passes through the Custom House they are on the continuous watch. They follow her through the streets of New York in a taxicab, arriving shortly after she does at her Fifth Avenue apartment. Entering the parlor shortly after she has come to the house, the big dramatic and comedy scene of the picture is enacted. The Frenchmen are filled with various emotions. Civility to a lady, duty to France and a feeling that they are in the presence of a great national criminal. Captain Lepard is torn with varied feelings. We see the young French officer evidently deeply in love with the girl he is about to take before the Consul of his country. The whole situation is turned to a tremendous laugh when Miss Guth finally discovers what they are interested in, namely the plans which she has in her bag. These she shows to the gentlemen to their intense chagrin and disappointment. Captain Lepard is simply flabbergasted. Miss Guth had felt in love with him until she became aware of his peculiar uncertain attitude. She now feels that Lepard merely made love to her thinking that she was a German spy and for the purpose of capturing her. She tells him so. The impulsive Frenchman throws himself upon his knees and tells her it was nothing of the sort, that in his heart he had a deep and passionate regard for her. He begs to accept him as her suitor, which she finally does. There is a clever comedy ending to the scene which must be witnessed to be appreciated. A high class comedy in every way, acted throughout with sincerity and working up to a climax that is irresistible. From the above it will be seen that this film is of a most unusual character. It was taken for us by our special operator in South America and will prove to be of general as well as educational interest. "FROM THE ARCTICS TO THE TROPICS."— The Central Railroad of Peru, the most remarkable railway in the world, starts at sea level, at Callao and runs to the highest point reached by any railway in the world. This "is somewhat higher than the summit of Mount Blanc, or to be exact, sixteen thousand feet above sea level. In the trip which we are privileged to take upon this railway, we start at the high point and getting into a gravity car we begin a coast of one hundred miles down the Andes, literally from the Arctics to the Tropics. Upon starting, the country is covered with snow and ice and our passengers are well muffled up. As we go further and further in our somewhat wild ride through many tunnels, gorges and scenes of the utmost beauty, it becomes gradually warmer and warmer until we are almost shocked to find that it is really warm, and necessity exists for taking off first the heavier clothing and then our hats and coats. Finally just before reaching our destination at Callao we pass through a real tropical village, thus experiencing probably the quickest change from winter to summer that is possible in the whole world. "BUMPTIOUS AS A FIREMAN."— The enthusiastic reception accorded to Mr. Bumptious and his exploits has resulted in the present story, being added to the list as a worthy successor to its forerunners. It introduces not only Bumptious and his immediate family, but all of the familiar types that have become popular along with him, the gum chewing girl, who is really the heroine of this story; the aviators, who forgive his wrecking of their balloon, and even the man whose sad experiences in helping him to paper the parlor would naturally be long remembered. But a new phase in Bumptious' character makes all these people his admirers and friends for the time being at least. Bumptious appears as a man of action, of valor, of courage and of rewarded virtue. We see early in the film a small sized conflagration caused by the cook's burning the beefsteak, and Bumptious appearing does what any sensible man would do, throws it incontinently out the kitchen window. But the smoke has attracted his friends and neighbors and his wife and cook have explained the danger to them; consequently when Mr. Bumptious appears upon the front porch and announces that the fire is out, he is promptly hailed as a hero. The result of the incident is the organization of an amateur or volunteer fire department and Mr. Bumptious is offered the captaincy and presented with a helmet and a bugle, which adorn his unctious personality most comically. And then not long after we see the volunteer fire department called into active service. Of course all of the other members are awakened by the fire bell save Bumptious, their captain, and passing his house they call upon him loudly to come and lead them in fighting the fire demon. He commands them to lead on and he will follow, which he does as fast as his little fat legs will carry him, but they reach the fire house, get out the hose and start for the fire before he gets there. The result is that several scenes show the fire hose dashing up the street and Bumptious in hot pursuit. When they reach the fire their struggles to get the hose and water into action are something terrible to behold. Bumptious becomes a regular Laocoon entangled in the hose. And then he suddenly sees a face at the window from which the smoke is issuing in the boarding house which is apparently in flames. Like the hero that he is, he releases himself from the detaining hands of his friends and dashes into the house to the rescue of the maiden. We see him hammering at the hall door but without response, and then shifting to the inside we see the girl whom he is to rescue. When one understands that it is the gum chewing girl who is reading a novel by a smoky lamp, quite ignorant of any danger, the comic side of the situation will be evident. The door is burst in, Bumptious breaking It through with a hall chair, and he dashes in upon the scene only to be confronted by his particular aversion, the gum chewing girl. His friends follow to succor and aid him in rescuing her and as soon as they are well into the room the only remaining member of the fire department climbs up the outside of the porch by a ladder and some one thereupon turns on the water in the hose which he carries. The result is that instead of a conflagration there is a deluge, for the company is soaked with the unmanageable stream from the hose in the hands of one of their members, and everything in the room reduced to desolation, which is comparable only with Bumptious' own state of mind. The fun .in this film is more fast and furious than in any of the others, but nothing of Bumptious' personality is sacrificed thereby. It ought to prove a jolly addition to the season's fun, adding not a little to the gaiety of the nations of the earth. BIOGRAPH CO. "IN LIFE'S CYCLE."— The mother is the real guardian angel of the child. Her guiding hand and tender care mould our character and make us, if we adhere to their precepts, the upright men and women we should be. C'nsequently what a disastrous thing is the loss of a mother by young children. There is the father you would say — yes, but he does not understand the shaping of their little minds, building their natures, though he would lay down his own life for their good. This is the sad condition of the two children in this Biograph story. James Mullen, living in retirement at his country villa since the death of his wife, finds consolation in the love of his two children, Clara and Vincent, aged ten and twelve years respectively. It has been their custom to visit their mother's grave and place a wreath of flowers upon it. Seven years later, the children now grown, Vincent leaves for the seminary to study for the priesthood, while Clara undertakes to console their father, promising not to forget their mother's grave. Vincent, now a seminarian, writes to his sister of how happy he is in the call of the church. Clara, while returning from the postoffice whither she had gone in quest of a letter from Vincent, meets a handsome young man from the city. This stranger immediately lays siege to her heart, which feeling is more than reciprocated by Clara. She yields to the temptation to meet him clandestinely and during these meetings the stranger tries to persuade her to elope with him. At last she consents, and leaving a letter for her father, she runs off to the city with the tempter. Vincent has a premonition of something wrong and hastens to his father's side where he learns the truth. He breathes a prayer for her deliverance, but she is made to suffer for her false step. She goes through a purgatory ten years with this man who not only denies her the right to the name of wife, but subjects her and their child to abject poverty, he drinking up what little she earns. In a drunken brawl at the saloon he falls against the rail of the bar, injuring himself fatally, but before he dies, he, in a measure, makes reparation by marrying Clara. During all this time Vincent has attended to the mother's grave, begging her interception before God in his sister's behalf, the whereabouts of whom he is ignorant. After the death of her profligate c:nsort Clara takes her little one and starts off to make a last visit to her mother's grave. Here she falls prostrate, praying for help and forgiveness. In this position she is found by Vincent who arrives on his regular pilgrimage. At last his prayers have been answered for later, Vincent, Clara and her little one are folded to the old father's breast. "A MOHAWK'S WAY."— Indefatigable in the extreme was the Mohawk; excessive in his expression of gratitude, he is equally determined in his quest for vengeance — just, however, being his incentive. Highly emotional, he possesses the power of dissembling to such an extent, as to ascribe him stoical. This double nature is clearly shown in this Biograph story, which gives it a Cooper atmosphere. Dr. Van Brum, the white medicine-man, is a being totally devoid of fellow-feeling, in fact a contemptible despot. The Indian medicine-man has failed to cure the little papoose, over whom the brave and his squaw bend in abject anxiety The medicine-man's incantations proving fruitless the brave decides to seek the white dector's aid. Van Brum refuses to waste his time on this Indian, and in reply to the pcor fellow's earnest entreaties, knocks him down. The doctor's wife, however, hears the Indian's pleading and surreptitiously goes to administer to the fever-stricken papocse. The remedy is in the form of pellets, a bottle cf which the good woman leaves with the squaw, with the injunction to give the baby more at regular intervals. The little one convalesces immediately, and the innocent squaw locks upon the bottle as cabalistic. In fact the entire tribe regard it a supernatural charm, and so hold it in awe, the squaw hanging it by a chain around her neck as a fetish. This in a measure, sets to rest the enmity that has existed with the Indians for the doctor. His tyranny has made him an odious neighbor. This condition of peace does not last long, for the dector offers an insult to the squaw while she with others are cavorting on the river hank. She resorts to the bottle's charm for protection, but at this the doctor laughs, until she draws a dagger. The doctor, a coward, is thwarted. The Indians, upon hearing cf the episode, declare war, and start after the dector, who has fled with his wife on horseback. By a short cut the Indians waylay the fugitive and the doctor after an exhibition of his despicable cowardice meets his just deserts, while the wife is carried to the camp where she is about to suffer the same fate as her husband, when the squaw appears and in gratitude demands her release. This the braves are loath to do until she holds up the mysterious medicine bottle, the sight of which strikes terror and they withdraw. The squaw and brave then escort the woman to the river where she is taken aboard the old ferry and carried across to safety in the British camp on the opposite side. PICTURE MAN HAD IT ON BRIDAL PARTY. A motion picture romance had an exciting climax when the bride and groom tried to escape from their friends to a waiting taxicab, only to discover that a zealous picture machine operator had rigged up his spotlight so that it could be turned full in their faces as they came down the steps of the bride's home. Robert Richardson is the ticket taker at a motion picture theatre at Driggs avenue and South Fourth street, and Rebecca Cohen lives opposite, at 779 Driggs avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. They fell in love and were married at the home of the bride's parents. The young couple had hoped to avoid the usual bombardment of slippers and rice by sneaking away in the dark to their taxicab, but their plans went awry in a sudden and surprising manner. Opposite, in the show house, the operator, in his little iron cell near the ceilingkept watch from a small window overlooking the street. Finally he saw two shadowy figures dash down the Cohen front steps. They were only shadowy for a couple of seconds, however, when all at once they found themselves in the centre of a disc of blinding white light. The operator had turned the theatre's spotlight full on them from across the street. They made the best kind of a target for half a dozen old slippers and enough rice to make puddings for the entire German army.