Paramount and Artcraft Press Books (1918)

Cast and Story of ‘‘Too Many Millions’’ For Use of Exhibitors in Their House Organs or for General Publicity in the Exploitation of Wallace Reid’s Photoplay A Paramount Picture Wallace lleid’s Latest Photoplay, “Too Many Millions," Has Charming Story, ‘Delightful Humor and Dramatic Thrills Adventures of Book Agent Who Becomes a Millionaire and Who Finds Love and Happiness in Novel Circumstances, Make This Paramount Photoplay Notable. WALSINGHAM VAN DORN a handsome young chap who is ignored by his two uncles, bankers and brokers in Wall Street, makes a precarious livelihood as a book agent. He sells one copy of a work to Desiree Lane, a daughter of the rich, who promises to mail him a check in lieu of cash payment. Van Dorn is spending his last cent in a restaurant when he reads in a newspaper that his uncles have been killed in an automobile accident and that he is heir to forty millions of dollars. Going to the office of his dead uncles. Van Dorn meets Wilkins, the confidential manager, who gives him a roll of money and starts the young man on his career as a millionaire. He goes the pace for a time and is disgusted until Wilkins tells him to settle down and that he has provided a handsome home for him. They go to the place and arrive just as Desiree, whose home it had been, is leaving it sorrowfully. Desiree’s father had been brought to ruin by Van Dorn’s uncles, and the shock when he finds himself penniless and Desiree a pauper, kills him. Van Dorn takes possession of the home without having seen Desiree or learning her sad story. Desiree applies to the restaurant manager for employment and becomes the cashier. She learns from the waitress that Van Dorn dines there and after reading the account of the death of Van Dorn’s uncles in the newspapers she resolves to take the law into her own hands and attempt to recover her stolen property by force if need be. Hence, when Van Dorn awakes in his room the next morning, he finds Desiree seated by “TOO MANY MILLIONS’’ The Cast Walsingham Van Dorn, A Book Agent, Wallace Reid Desiree Lane, A Cashier, ' Ora Care we Wilkins, A Rogue, Tully Marshall Garage Keeper, Charles Ogle Mr. Lane, Desiree’s Father, James Neill Waitress, Winifred Greenwood Bass Brothers, Noah Beery Percy Williams Beverwyck E. Basque Second Friend, Richard Wayne his bedside, demanding that he restore her father’s two millions of dollars to her. Van Dorn agrees to return the money, but at that moment, a clerk from the Bass Brothers’ office, rushes in with the information that Wilkins has decamped with Van Dorn’s forty millions of dollars, all securities having been converted into cash by him. Even the house in which Van Dorn is living has been attached, on the strength of a power of attorney which Van Dorn had foolishly executed to Wilkins. Van Dom decides to hunt Wilkins down and demand restitution. He asks Desiree to join him in the chase, to which she gives her assent. Although detectives are on the watch. Van Dorn and Desiree make their escape in an automobile which they abstract from the garage. The officers follow and when Van Dorn stops to get gasoline, they take possession of the ma chine, leaving Van Dorn and Desiree without means of resuming their pursuit. They are obliged to go to a nearby inn for the night and the structure burns to the ground. Van Dorn carries Desiree to safety and returns to the inn for his personal affects. He is overcome by smoke and is rescued by tfie garage keeper who cannot afford to let the young man die, because he owes him for ten gallons of gasoline. Desiree begs bystanders to restore Van Dorn because she loves him. Van Dorn hears, sits up and says he is all right. The garage man offers Van Dorn a job saying he can thus work out his debt, and realizing his utter helplessness, he accepts. The garage man urges that Van Dorn should marry Desiree in view of the circumstances which are apt to provoke scandal and they seek a minister. The couple, arrayed in blankets, are wedded, and the sympathetic minister and his wife give both of them outfits of clothing. The pair start housekeeping in a cottage and two years later, there is a knock at their door. Wilkins is at the threshold, carrying two heavy bags. He comes in, places the bags on the table and announces that after carrying forty millions with him for two years, he has sickened of the job and has decided to walk straight henceforth. Van Dorn and Desiree look at the money and at each other. They don’t want the money, for they are rich in each other’s love. But to let forty millions be bandied about without a protector— what idiocy ! They appeal to the audience for guidance. Shall we take it or not? What would you do ? 6