The Moving Picture Weekly (1916-1917)

THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY 21 Spectacular Stunts from ^^The Gray Ghost^^ Eddie Polo leaps to freedom while the camera grinds serenely on. THE man in the rear seat of the speeding touring car racked his brain for a way to escape from his captors, who were taking him he knew not where. The home of Arabin, the jeweler, was to be robbed — that much he had gathered from the snatches of conversation that had drifted back to him from the crooks in the front seat — and he was powerless to prevent the robbery. If he could" only leap from the machine — he gazed at the scenery going past at a forty-mile clip. The driver turned, divined his intention and speeded up the car another notch. A leap at that pace would be fatal. The car shot out across a bridge. That was the undoing of the crooks. Their captive made his calculations at a glance, leaped from the machine, cleared the railing of the bridge and dived into the water below, to the chagrin of the crooks, who had been confident that his escape was impossible. He swam ashore, evading the revolver fire of the crooks by keeping under the bridge. A farm horse, grazing in a near-by field, was pressed into service. Without saddle or bridle, with only the halter strap to guide the old Dobbin, the man rode into the big city. They reached the heart of the city — the^big plow horse and his drenched and disheveled rider. They plunged Paton supports his leading players. into the congestion of vehicles and pedestrians without slackening their pace. The warning shouts of the rider rose above the din of the busy street. Men, women and children leaped to safety before the galloping steed, their screams mingled with the grind of brakes as automobiles and trolley cars came to an abrupt stop. Traffic policemen essayed to halt the reckless rider, but he flew by with the terse explanation: "Police headquarters." Breathlessly he reported the impending robbery to the officers, and accompanied by the star detective and a squad of men from the Central Office, hurried to Arabin's residence. This is the "punch" which Director Stuart Paton, assisted by Eddie Polo as the jumper, is putting into one of the later chapters of the serial, "The Gray Ghost," which he is filming, having made the adaptation himself from the novel by Arthur Somers Roche, which was called "Loot" when it was published in the Saturday Evening Post. There have been a lot of sensational stunts in this picture, but Paton says they are nothing to those which are coming. Stories of the real robbery of a jewelry store in Los Angeles, which excited the customers, the passersby in the streets, and the police have appeared already in the Weekly. It has been said that it was curious that the daring attempt in broad daylight did not result in accident of some sort, for the police on duty outside in the street had not been forewarned of the filming of the scene, which was kept as secret as possible. The explanation is that the resourceful Paton had staged another distraction outside the store for their benefit, and this is how he did it. He donned the garb of a truck driver and drove down the street to the comer nearest the jewelry store. Previously he had secreted four cameras on different comers overlooking the cross-roads, knowing that if the fact became known that he was merely making a picture, the rage of the traffic cops would know no bounds. Stopping his tmck right in front of the crossing officer, Paton stalled his engine and fussed around it, pretending that it would not start. All the other machines, and a long line of trolley cars were compelled to halt as the truck completely blocked the crossing. The officer began to grow angry, and Paton jumped off the tmck and told him in language more forceful than elegant that if he thought he could mn a motor tmck 'better, to go to it. As he was arguing, Beverly Griffith, one of the assistant directors at Universal City, walked into the scene and started an argument, soon shooting a fist to Paton's jaw. A merry scrap ensued, a crowd gathered, and Paton was arrested and taken off to the police station, where he provided bail, happy in the knowledge that he had obtained exactly the scene he wanted. Scraps are in order in every serial, and this one is no exception. Mention has already been made here of the big fight which Eddie Polo puts up in Episode four. He will have many others. But other members of the cast are fighters as well. In one of the scenes. Morn Light, played by Miss Priscilla Dean, actually has a scrap with the leading man, one Wade Hildreth, played by Emory Johnson. The cut shows how they looked after it, and, by the way, this is the only instance in which a director ever acted as support to his leading man and leading woman.