Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1920)

1108 Motion Picture N e • Bloom of Cactus By Robert Ames Bennet Character of Story: Woslern. Theme : Love adventure ; Characters: Jack Lennon, mining engineer; Carmena Farley, a s'nl of the West; Elsie, her foster sister; Old Farley, her father ; Cochise, a renegade Apache ; Sladc, a white outlaw. The Plot: Jack Lennon is tra\'eling in Arizona, along a lonely trail, when a bullet drills a hole in his hat. He drops beside his burro and a second bullet kills the animal. He tires at a pufl of smoke and no more Inillets come. While he is investigating a young girl on a pony arrives. She tells him he has encountered Apaches. She offers to take him to her father's place near the mine for which he is huntiiig. They start and are pursued by Indians. Lennon is bitten by a Gila monster saving Carmena from it. Taey arrive at her place and he finds that she Jives in cliff dwellings with her father and foster sister The father is in league with outlaws — cattle thieves and renegade Indians. One of these Indians, Cochise, wants to marry Elsie, the little sister. So also does Slade, the white leader of the outlaws. Lennon offers to divide his share of the reward he will receive for locating the old copper mine of which he is in search to ge^ Slade to agree to leave the girl until the mine has been found. Lennon finds that in spite of himself he distrusts Carmena. who seems to be in league with the two villains. He heeds certain apparent signals between them and begins thiinking that she lured him to the place to do away with him. He finds the other girl very sweet and prettv and thinks that he has fallen in love with her. She tells him that she loves him. He starts off in search of the mine with Slade and has some thrilling experiences. After the discovery of the mine Slade stakes out Lennon with a rawhide thong near a rattlesnake to make him agree to make his report and collect the reward at once, Lennon having declared that he would not do so until assured that the girls would be sent safely away. Lennon manages to kill the snake and is carried on a prisoner. They arrive at the cliffs to find an attack upon the cliff dwellings in progress. Cochise is attacking. Lennon offers to help Slade defend the place. He is freed. Thev drive off the Apaclies and enter the dwellings. There Slade agam takes command and declares he will wait no longer for Elsie. The father, Farley, awakes from his drunken stupor long enough to shoot Slade through the shoulder and is shot and killed for his pains. Carmena and Jack descend the cliff and pretend to join forces with Cochise. They help him into the house and Slade IS wounded. Cochise and his men are lured to the cellar where thev are blown up with dynamite. Slade is killed in the freneral hght. Elsie recovers her memory, ost since the time she was captured bv Cochise as a child and turned over to Farley to bring up. Lennon realizes that it IS Carmena whom he loves. Locale: Arizona. Picture High Lights: Good love interest; Elenty of e.xcitement; good scenic possiilities. Tessie of Rainbow Glen By Seward W. Hopkins Character of Story: Western. Theme: Love. Characters: Brix ton Rice, college man ; Cooner, ranchman; Mrs. Cooner, his wife; Tessie of " Rainbow," a waif, adopted daughter of the Cooners ; Howard Dowie, friend of Rice: Stanger, leader of the cattle thieves; Mrs. Stanger, his wife; Hank Tintle, his successor; cowboys, college men, sheriff, cattle thieves, etc. The Plot: Brixton Rice, disappointed in a love affair, goes West to seek his fortune. He arrives on the scene in the opening of the story just when a voung cowboy is having an altercation with two other men over a bull. Rice takes the part of the young fellow, and in the melee which follows, shoots and kills one of the assailants. When he comes to he finds that the young cowboy is reallv a girl — Tessie. who is dressed in a man's outfit. She tells him that the strangers were cattle thieves trying to steal the bull. As for herself, there is no record of her parentage and that she is called Tessie because there was a " T " marked on her clothes. She is called Rainbow also because she was found by a rainbow falls. She brings Rice back to the ranch of her foster parents where he recovers from his wound. Rice finds that Cooner is having a struggle with the cattle thieves which practically amounts to a feud. He sends East for half a dozen of his college friends and, appointed manager of the ranch, undertakes to clean Rattlesnake Hollow of its bad men. Many encounters follow which culminate in the stealing of Tessie by the cattle thieves. A search is made for her and word finally comes that the girl has been found dead — with her face crushed beyond recognition but she is identified by her clothing. When Rice sees her he declares that it must be some other person, for the dead woman has a wen on her neck which did not belong to Tessie. Stanger is found murdered in his house and as Rice had been heard to threaten him. Rice is arrested for the crime, charged with murder. Tessie is found, dressed in men's clothing and wandering about tlie prairie. She has apperently lost her memory. Rice sends to Chicago for his lawyer and, being rich, is able to produce bail for himself and the other members of his party who have been lodged in jail as accessories to the murder of Stanger. The trial comes on and at the last moment Tessie, who has meanwhile recovered her memory testifies that she was carried off by Stanger and taken to his house where his wife drugged her and took away her clothing. When she recovered she heard an argument on the floor below and that she saw Hank Tintle murder Stanger and his wife and carry away the body of the wife who was dressed in Tessie's clothes. Tessie and Rice are betrothed. Locale: Western cattle town. Picture High Lights: There are some loose ends in this story. Tessie's real parentage is never established. The story also needs a complication or two in the love affair. The Iron Furrow By George C. Shedd Character of Story: Western. Theme : Perseverance. Characters: Lee Bryant, civil engineer; Ruth Garland and Imogene Martin, home steaders ; Stevenson, a rancher ; Graham, a rancher ; Lucile, his daughter ; Menocal, a Mexican banker; Charley, his son; Winship, the sheriff ; Joe Garcia, a tool of Menocal's ; Alvoraz, a Mexican; Pat Carrigfan. contractor;. Gretzinger. an Eastern financier representing bondholders. The Plot: Lee Bryant, while talking with two girl homesteaders at a stream, is asked to bring water to an automobile bearing a white girl, one white man and two prosperous Mexicans, both half breeds or part Indian. The driver, a young Mexican throws a quarter to Bryant which Bryant t'.irows back at him. The driver turns out to be Charley Menocal. Bryant buys a ranch of Stevenson which the latter has bought of Menocal and which is mortgaged to the banker Stevenson was swindled in the deal but Bryant knows that certain water rights attached to the property which, it developed, will make it very worth while. He trades a farm in Nebraska for the ranch. It is necessary for him to build a canal. The Menocals try in every way to interfere with his work and Charley stoops to many underhanded deeds to block Bryant's plans. Bryant calls upon the two girl homesteaders and falls in love with Ruth Garland, chiefly because he is lonely and s'.ie is lively. They become engaged. He soon finds, however, that she is not particularly interested in him and she goes about with Charley Menocal. Bryant secures the co operation of Pat Carrigan, contractor, in making his canal. He has formed his ranch into a stock company and sold bonds through a banking house to raise capital. A man named Gretzinger is sent out to represent the bondholders. It is the intention to resell the land to small farmers when the irrigation project is carried through. Gretzinger wishes Bryant to use wood instead of concrete in making the dams on his canal but this Bryant refuses to do. Gretzinger tries to work upon Bryant through Ruth and incidentally makes love to Ruth. Bryant warns him to stop this but it goes on without ais knowledge. Charley Menocal bribes Alvarez to tamper with the dams. Jle does not consult his father in this respect. Bryant finds that he gets more sympathy and understanding from Louise Graham than from Ruth and finally discovers that he really loves Louise and that she loves him. but is determined to carry out his word with Ruth. Ruth shows plainly that she cares less for Bryant's honor than for his financial success. An attempt is made through the courts to stop the building of the caiial with the result that it must be finished in ninety days or not at all. The work is rushed by Carrigan and Bryant. Bryant runs short of money and Gretzinger offers to buy him out for a small sum. Bryant refuses. Carrigan then offers to put up the necessary money to carry things through. Louise prOTe* herself a heroine in nursing some men injured through a plot of Charley's. A big storm breaks and the project is apparently doomed. Ruth elopes with Gretzinger and Bryant is left free to marry Louise in his hour of success. Locale: New Mexico. Picture High Lights: Plenty of love interest with a big project for a background ; plots and counterplots ; a few big scenes. Janet of the Kootenay By Evah McKowan Character of Story: Western. Theme: Independence. Characters : Janet Kirk ; Peter Gordon ; Captain Fenton ; Mr. Mortimer-Deane ; Mrs. Mortimer-Deane, other neighbors too numerous to detail. The Plot: This story has a very slight plot. It is largely made up of incidents and cominents upon conditions in Northwestern Canada during the war. It is in no sense a story of the frontier country, treating of t'lie country as it really is today, or was during the late war. Janet Kirk goes West from Toronto and buys a fruit farm in the Kootenay Valley which she develops, setting up housekeeping on eighty acres of wild land. " Arcady," as her farm is called, develops rapidly and so does her romance with a retired British army officer who has been invalided home with a D.S.O. and a stiff knee. This romance is detailed in a series of letters to a girl friend in the East. There are many interesting characters in the story ancl an abundance of incidents, largely humorous, together with discussions of every possible sort of matter of interest to the people in Northwestern Canada, from politics of the Dominion to the conduct of the war and the proper method of growing peas. These incidents are handled deftly and would no doubt, be of great assistance in making a working scenario of the story. In its present form it presents a good character study in the person of Janet, but is lacking in suspense and plot. It is not in the least melodramatic and the great number of people introduced into the story detract from the reader's interest in the main characters. Characters come wandering in and out of the tale much as they used to do in the old English three volume novels ; when they come you wonder what they are going to do and when they go you wonder how they got in at all. It makes entertaining reading but lacks continuity. Locale : Kootenay Valley. Picture High Lights: Would need a great deal of touching up. Will the Cinema Manager who spoke to an English Lady Motorist attached to the French Army in Chateau-Thierry, France, in the Autumn of 1918, offering her a contract in America, write her, renewing the offer? Address Grace Wethered, c o Nat. & Prod. Bank of England, 153 Sloane Street, London, S. W. 1 The Girl of O. K. Valley By Robert Watson Character of Story: Western. Theme: Sacrifice. Characters: Colin Jackson, rancher; Jean Jackson, his wife; Alexander Simpson, school teacher; Kathie. orphan and ward of Jackson, also his niece; Lisbeth, Jackson's daughter; Bob Crawford, engaged to Lisbeth; Tom Mentieth; Captain .■\l!an Gray, a retired English army officer ; Mrs. Gray, his wife ; Dr. Orr and others. The Plot: Kathie, an orphan, comes to the ranch of the Jacksons where she is made to work without pay for her board and room. She is pretty but frail. Lisbeth, the rancher's daughter, is jealous of her and makes her lot a hard one. Kathie improves in health but is lonely. She misses the violin which she played when with her father in Ireland. She buys a fiddle from a peddlar grtving a gold brooch for it. This she plays in the meadows and is heard by Alexander Simpson who leaves her books in exchange for the music. Her uncle discovers her playing and accuses her of luring young men to a rendezvous with her music. He breaks her fiddle and strikes her. Simpson comes up and knocks the uncle down. He is forbidden to come on the ranch. Kathie hears a melodious whistling and follows it into the wood where she finds the school master playing the flute while squirrels and birds gather to hear him. They fall in love with one another and plight their troth but slie says she cannot be married until she comes of age ; she must stay with her uncle. Bob Crawford, coming to see Lisbeth, tries to make love to Kathie in the dairy-house and she hits him with a milking pail. Jackson declares that Crawford is dead. Kathie ana te on secfa k nd g\Um with ua ited. Gf!^ flees to the fields in the snow wh( she ii found by Dr. Orr and brought the home of Captain Gray, upon t verge of brain fever and ttncken d'_ She recovers her speech upon findiaf violin in the house. Bob Crawford t Lisbeth are secretly married and Crm ford goes to Australia to establish hi self with the understanding that Lisbc will follow. Lisbeth decides she wot prefer to marry Tom Mentieth who k lots of money. She tells her father • is about to have a child. He hopes tt she will marry Mentieth so that the dd of the Jackson family may be paic! L beth and her father persuade Kat fo away with Lisbeth while the ch : om and to nurse the child after* a: swearing her to secrecy until such tiz as Lisbeth and Mentieth are marrii They then give out the story tha: L beth has gone to nurse Kathie and \h the child is Kathie's. Simpson is himself and in a strong scene cot::iuc his desire to drown his troubles in die — the curse of his father and grandfaA before him. Simpson sets out with Q tain Gray to prove Gray's theory tt Kathie is the daughter of Gray's youag brother. Kathie returns to face disgm Lisbeth is about to marry Mentcil Crawford unexpectedly returns and te Mentieth the truth. Lisbeth, on setb Crawford, regrets her plot an agrees to take the child and go to Australia. Kathie is vindica and Sinipson return with evidence th she is Gray's niece. Kathie and A\ Simpson are married. Old Jackson is Ic alone. Locale: British Columbia. Picture High Lights: There are sever strong scenes in this storj-, a well ievi oped love interest, suspense, complicatio and all of the necessary ingrredients i a good picture. The Typhoon's Secret By Sol N. Sheridan Character of Story: Love and adventure. Theme: Vindication. Characters: Julian Wentworth; Marnr Graeme ; Frank AUison ; Captain Robe Graeme; Elliott Wentworth, Juliaii father; Felix McGreal, a sailor; Harr* a financier ; Wiilliam Chester, attome; Fred Upson, another attorney. The Plot: Julian Wentworth, who k nearly completed his college education, r ceives a telegram stating that his father bank has failed and that he has been It with nothing. He has only two htindrt dollars and his racing car. He stans fi San Francisco, and on his way runs dom I a man but does not seriously injure hit This man turns out to be a sailor, M Greal. Julian finds that it is the gener opinion in San Francisco that his fatik drowned himself to avoid disgrace. JuUa decides to stay and see what can be d« about clearing up matters. His friest Fred Upson, an attorney believes th. some sort of plot has been hatched again Julian's father. He secures Julian a pos tion as reporter on the CalL On wati front detail Julian learns of the wreck ■ a steamer, the Halcyon. Three peop only escaped— one sailor, the captan Robert Graeme and a passenger. Info mation furnished by McGreal. formerly sailor on this boat, leads Julian to belies that the passenger was his father und< another name. Financed by the sale of h motor car and a loan from Upsoti, Jnfii starts on a quest for his father. L" to himself he is followed by his Margaret Graeme, an heiress. The leads him across the Pacific to Manila thence to China where with AUisom; starts on a cruise on a new yacht purchased by Allison, following the of a boat on w^hich his father and " Graeme are now supposed to be. yacht, in turn, is followed by the of Margaret Graeme. After some adventures and a nearly fatal em with a t>-phoon, Allison and Weni are invited aboard Margaret's yacht there they learn that Captain Graeme is her brother. 'They aic tacked by pirates and find the have also attacked the boat on Graeme and Elliott Wentworth the only sur\-ivors. Graeme wounded. Both are rescued and worth Senior is found to be men competent. Investigation ,at t^rst discloses the fact that Graeme was to talce Wentworth anywhere he to go but to see that tie would not back to the United States. Graeme not know the reason tor these ins but knows the people who gave Harran, a financier of San Francisco William Chester, formerly attorney _ Wentworth. Upson leams that Wen worth Senior suffered from a fall -.s i automobile accident and that the resn of this was a weakening of his rr.indgradual but perceptible to the men c ose associated with him in business. The men robbed the bank and put the bias on him. Julian and Margaret are marrie> Locale : San Francisco and Orient. Picture High Lights: Mtich of the actic takes place on boats.