Reel Life (1916-1917)

:l V) . HELEN HOLMES in “The RAILROAD RAIDERS famous “ railroad girl" coming in a new and bigger novel of the “ sure money ” kind MUTUAL calls “The Railroad Raiders,” Helen Holmes’ photonovel in fifteen chapters, a “pre-proven product.” Significant statistical facts relating to Helen Holmes andmjer value to the theatres are offered from the Mutual’s accounting department. The lease rec¬ ords and reports indicate that approx¬ imately $2.253.000 was paid to the theatres in admissions to see Helen Holmes in “The Girl and the Game,” her first Signal-Mutual screen novel. The records on the bookings now in progress on “The Lass of the Lumberlands,” second Holmes phptOnovel for Mutual, indicate that the theatres are enjoying a nearly equal success with this production. ■’* These figures are cited to show that Helen Holmes is getting the money for the man who runs her pictures. Miss Holmes’ pictures for Mutual have made for exhibitors something near a total of five million dollars since the release of the first chapter of “The Girl and the Game.” “Demonstrated box office earning power like that is of very distinct sig¬ nificance to the exhibitor and of im¬ portant meaning to the picture indus¬ try,” observes President John R. Freuler of the Mutual. “It is with such statistical evidence before us that the Mutual Film Cor¬ poration is now making its plans, ac¬ cepting and rejecting film distribution propositions and charting the corpo¬ ration’s course. < “We are interested only in proven products, in so far as the photoplay product may be proven. “I say this now in behalf of the coming Helen Holmes production, ‘The Railroad Raiders,’ now being made at the Signal studios under the direction of John P. McGowan, the man who has directed all of the big Holmes successes.” It is of interest to the trade and the public at large to consider the “hard pan” business tests which are thus tending to govern the artistic trends of the pictures. Even the development of minor de¬ tail in the making of the Holmes pic¬ tures, is, by the Mutual’s system of business analysis, being reduced to ap¬ proved and proven formulas of suc¬ cess. “We have done and are doing every¬ thing to insure success,” said Samuel S. Hutchinson, president of the Sig¬ nal Film Corporation, at Los Angeles, the other day. “Art no longer has to be left entirely to chance. “This is the prescription for the big Helen Holmes successes in serials : First, Helen Holmes, herself, the pre¬ mier star of the chapter play type of production; second, John P. Mc¬ Gowan, the man who can find a real story and put it in pictures ; third, the real story; and fourth, but extremely important, the story itself. We have added a fifth strengthening factor by retaining Mr. Frank Hamilton Spear Miss Holmes wearing her hair in curls, being a favorite make up when the strenuous work of the studio day is over. man, the celebrated novelist, to write the syndicated story of ‘The Railroad Raiders.’ Mr. Spearman, it will be recalled, is the author of many suc¬ cessful novels, and is known to films as the author of ‘The Girl and the Game’ and ‘Whispering Smith.’ ” The story of “The Railroad Raid¬ ers” is of the very certain and success¬ ful type of railroad-adventure fiction. The plot revolves about a band of thieves preying upon the railroad, plotting and counterplotting. There are wrecks, hold-ups, hair-breadth escapes, manhunts, battles and perils and incidents of suspense without end. Director McGowan is now at work upon the seventh chapter of the pro¬ duction — with six perfectly good neg¬ atives completed and delivered — a val¬ uable assurance to the exhibitor of the delivery of the pictures on release dates. McGowan has introduced some highly unusual effects in night photog¬ raphy from a speeding train. A very heavy outlay of money and effort have been necessary in this technical seek¬ ing after realism. Lighting plants have been built on trains, special cam¬ era cars constructed and equipment of infinite detail installed. Some of the thrill scenes in the earlier chapters show the train sweeping through the night in a storm, with the wraiths of the rain swept trees weaving through the gloomy backgrounds. Always there is action, action, action. Railway warehouses are seen de¬ molished, box cars are tossed into heaps of blazing wreckage, automo¬ biles are smashed with daring and abandon, engines collide, there are gang fights, fist fights, gun fights — all the kinds of fights there are. Miss Holmes, of course, does a number of sensational things in her accustomed sensational style — leaping from an engine to an automobile ton¬ neau, and stunts of the kind. The fifteen chapter titles are in the*, nature of an index to the swift action j of the story: “Circumstantial Evi ' dence,” “A Double Steal,” “Inside Treachery,” “The Deal in Silks,” “A Woman’s Wit,” “The Overland Dis¬ aster,” “The Yellow Peril,” “The Mil¬ lionaire’s Special,” “The Fight for the Pass,” “The Great Tunnel Disaster,” “The Mystery of the Counterfeit Tickets,” “Total Paralysis,” “The Road Wreckers,” “The Trap,” and “Hearts Are Trumphs.” The cast chosen to support Miss Holmes is almost identical with that of “The Lass of the Lumberlands,” including William Buhler, Katherine Goodrich, Florence Holmes, John Hemphill, Thomas G. Lingham, Leo D. Maloney, Paul C. Hurst, the able villain; William Brunton, Will Chap¬ man and Charles U. Wells. According to the Mutual advance bookings and reservations at a period three weeks before release date, had set a record for totals at a similar period in the history of recent photo¬ novel productions. REEL LIFE— Page One