Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1914)

1070 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD "The Unknown Monster" A Romantic Drama in Three Parts to Be Released by Features Ideal — Has Some "Thrills" and "Punches." OUR sympathy goes out to those who have to pick names for pictures these days. There are so many subjects and so great a demand for a title that will attract attention— and business. Thus "The Unknown Monster," while complying with the requirements of the publicity man, is not as indicative of what follows as some other but possibly less startling title might be. The picture itself is most satisfactory as a feature; it possesses the requisite thrills and punches demanded by the feature buyer, has been well produced and is well photographed. The acting of the principals is above the average. Though no longer a novelty the photographic trick of "double exposure," by which means one person plays two parts in which similarity of feature is the chief requirement, plays an important part. According to the story Dr. Altumara, the son of Count Altumara, is in love with Azucena, a ward of the count. The girl does not love her admirer, but she marries him because her guardian demands it and then refuses to live with him, taking her abode apart in the count's country house. There fecturcsldeal Scene from "The Unknown Monster" (Union Features). she discovers in an old escritoire a story which tells of the betrayal of the old count by his now deceased wife and the birth of an illegitimate son, subsequently raised by a wood• cutter. She corners an old servant of the family and gets the story from him, which story is shown in the picture. With this information Azucena plans to bring disgrace upon the man whose name she bears. Sending for the illegitimate son, whose name is Fifi, she hires him to do her bidding, telling him the story of his origin. Fifi is a dissolute young man and the associate of the worst characters. But Azucena clothes him in the raiment of a gentleman and takes him with her to an important social function. Fifi cannot restrain his thieving propensities and picks the pockets of some of the guests. Azucena, alarmed at this, manages to get away without her companion and later he drifts into a disreputable dive, where he gets into a fight and kills one of the habitues, after which he makes his escape. On account of the marked resemblance of Fifi to his brother, Dr. Altumara, the latter is ostracized at his club the next day because of Fifi's actions. To make matters worse, Fifi, with knowledge of his parentage, visits the count and demands money to enable him to escape from the consequences of his crime. The result of the visit is the death of the count a little later in the arms of his legitimate son and the arrest of that son as the cause of his father's death. Things look dark for Dr. Altumara, but the police find Fifi and bring him to the police station where he is confronted by his brother and the mystery is solved. Here it is that the double exposure comes in and the work is so accurately timed that only the initiated are able to detect the trick. The scene is most effective. Upon Dr. Altumara gaining his freedom, Azucena, terrified at what she has done, comes to him thoroughly repentant and confesses that she now loves the man whose true worth she at first refused to see, and there is a happy reconciliation. Herbert Brenon Still in Hospital Universal-Imp Director Dictates a Letter in Which He Explains His Recent Accident. IN a letter dictated by Herbert Brenon from his bed in the Cottage Hospital, in Hamilton, Bermuda, particulars are given of the serious accident which befell the Imp producer in the bursting, on February 3, of the great tank in which Mr. ' Brenon and Miss .\nnette Kellermann were enacting a scene for the Universal feature "Neptune's Daughter." The accompanying snapshot shows the wreck after the break. "A friend is kind enough to write this letter for me," says Mr. Brenon. "You know I pretty nearly passed in my checks, and am not yet out of danger. My assistant will inclose with this note snapshots of the tank as it was before and after the accident. I had cemented in a glass front 8 by 8 feet, but with eighteen thousand gallons of water violently disturbed by the struggles of Miss Kellermann and myself the glass took the initiative and broke, drawing the two of us through and turning us over and over. The rush of water carried us thirty feet from the tank. Miss Kellermann, I am glad to say, escaped with a minor wound on one foot. "I was torn in six places by the jagged glass, how badly you may judge perhaps when I tell you that when the surgeons got me on the operating table they proceeded to take sixty-three stitches in me. I cannot eat or drink, and in my dreams sometimes I see an. old pal and myself behind two beautiful highballs. (But just now these are only 'such stuflf as dreams are made on'; they are luxuries at least a month away.) I am a little weary now. Please rememlier me to all my friends." $20,000 PICTURE HOUSE. Joseph Hallemann has begun the erection of a $20,000 moving picture theater on Chippewa Street, St. Louis, Mo. The house has been christened the Melvin. Ruins of the Bermudan Tank in the Wrecking of Which Herbert Brenon Was Badly Hurt. The abbreviated and ragged signature of "H. Brenon" indicates only too plainly the extreme weakness of the director-player. In the Bermuda Colonist of February 4 there is an account of the accident. "The scene, which consisted of a struggle under water between Miss Kellermann and Mr. Brenon, was progressing," -;ays the Colonist, "when the spectators were horrified to see one of the glass sides break. The water, then five or six feet in depth, poured out, carrying the performers along in the torrent. It scraped their bodies over the jagged glass. Mr. Brenon's left arm was laid bare to the bone, and his legs and feet were terribly mangled. A medical call was sent out, and as quickly as he could get there Dr. Arton drove to a spot opposite the island, where a motorboat was placed at the disposal of the party and the injured were brought to town." The friends of Mr. Brenon, much as they will regret the serious nature of his injuries, will be glad to get definite information as to his condition. Mr. Brenon, it will be remembered, was in Europe last year for six months, where he produced such Universal pictures as "Ivanhoe." "Absinthe," and many others. In the spectacular subject he was making in Bermuda and in which Miss Kellermann, the famous Australian swimmer, was featured, Mr. Brenon was playing the "lieavy."