Universal Weekly (1924-1936)

44 Universal Weekly Vol. 24, No. 22 A PAGE OF SYNOPSES "STRINGS OF STEEL" Ten-Episode Adventure Picture Starring WILLIAM DESMOND No. 7— "Telephone Poles" NED BROWN gets orders to extend the telephone lines into McKeesport before the Bell company's competitors, the Excelsior company, can establish their lines and secure the franchise. Peter Allen, of the Excelsior company, with the same thought in mind, races toward McKeesport in a buckboard with Battling Burns ahead of Ned. Peter's horses take fright and bolt. Ned, who is close behind, pursues at a gallop. A child in the path of the runaway, is struck by the wagon and severely injured. While Ned is carrying the lad to his home, the boy's father is angrily tearing down a telephone instrument that his wife has permitted the Bell Company to install. By attaching an emergency phone to the broken connections Ned is able to telephone for a doctor and save the life of the child, winning the father's gratitude and loyalty to the "talking telephone" company. Battling Bums also repents his crimes and becomes the staunch friend of Ned. Warned by Gloria that Allen has a plot on foot to prevent Ned from getting telephone poles, Ned goes himself, accompanied by Gloria, to bring in a wagon load of poles. He is attacked by Allen's henchmen and battles them aboard the pole wagon while Gloria tries to hold the frightened horses in check. But the unmanagable beasts race along the edge of an embankment. The wagon swerves, the shaft breaks and the whole load crashes down, carrying Ned and Gloria with it. "DO OR BUST" One-Reel Blue Bird Comedy Featuring NEELY EDWARDS NEELY is the watchmaker in the Tick Tock Jewelry store, where he is smitten with a fair customer who leaves her watch to be repaired. The proprietor gives Neely a diamond necklace to deliver to an address, warning him to beware of suspicious characters. As soon as he reaches the street he is followed by a very suspicious looking roughneck, who is shortly joined by two other roughs. He ducks into doorway and takes to back alleys on the run but his shadows can't be shaken. He boards a trolley car and sighs with relief as he sits down, only to be met by the glare of the "shadow" who is sitting across the aisle. There, in another seat, is the pretty customer. He sits with her and exchanges bags with her by mistake. Getting off the car, he is followed by the detectives. An accident happens in which the jewel bag is lost. Neely goes to the house where the necklace was to have been delivered, to confess his loss. It turns out to be the home of the pretty customer who opens the bag she has been carrying which holds her new diamond necklace. The three shadows stalk through the house, throwing Neely into spasm of fear until he calls a cop and learns that they are the detectives who were engaged to protect him. "THE 13TH MAN' One-Reel Blue Bird Comedy Starring CHARLES PUFFY A SUPERSTITIOUS hostess, entertaining a party of women at dinner, notes with horror that one of the guests has failed to arrive and that there are thirteen at table. She stops the dinner while the butler runs out to the street to invite the first person he sees in order to break the spell of the unlucky number. Puffy, who has left his wife in the hope of finding some corned beef and cabbage, accepts the invitation. He sits down to a sumptuous meal, but before he can put the first bite in his mouth the missing guest arrives and he is thrown out, only to be dragged back agam when one of the women is called away, bringing the number of guests back to thirteen. The guest returns unexpectedly and he is thrown out again, only to be carried back as before when another woman leaves. An unexpected guest arrives. It is his wife. She isreaks up the party. Puffy loses her and sneaks back into the house after all the women have gone to the matinee and indulges his appetite on the untouched dinner. "MIXED BRIDES" Two-Reel Stern Brothers Comedy Featuring WANDA WILEY HECTOR, an ambitious country bov, in love with Wanda, bids her goodbye and goes to the city to make his fortune. When he is well on the road to prosperity as a delivery boy in charge of a motor cycle and side car, he sends f oi h s bride-to-be. At the same time the de Jones family have arranged for the marriage of their fat son August to a girl whom they have never seen but who is described as a blushing beauty by her father, an old friend of the "COMING BACK" Two-Reel Mustang Picture Featuring FRED HUMES BARNEY HIGGINS, a young romantic cowboy who imagines himself to be a second Robin Hood, is fired from the Bar K ranch for frittering his time away at archery and then gets himself "wanted" by the sheriff for gallantly saving the life of a woman who was not in danger and who misunderstood his intention. Helen Remlin, returning from the east in a stage with her cousin Raoul, is given a rousing western welcome by her father and the men -who shoot up the stage. Barney, seeing the hold-up, comes to the rescue, knocking Remlin from his horse and snatching up the girl whom he carries to "safety," only to be reprimanded by Remlin, who, upon Helen's urgent plea, decides to take it goodnaturedly. He lets Barney ride in the annual race with the rest of the outfit. He wins the race, and incidentally the job of ranch foreman, but he knows that the sheriff is waiting to arrest him, so he rides through the finish line and out of sight. Raoul steals from the ranch house certain papers which will mean jeopardy to Remlin's water rights. The posse goes hunting for him while Helen goes hunting for Barney, who locates the thief in Boulder Canyon where he battles and beats him and his henchman. The sheriff takes Raoul in custody and decides to forget that he ever saw the romantic cowpuncher who is about to become foreman of the Bar K and son-in-law of the owner. family who wires that she will get off the 10:30 train with a chrysanthemum. Wanda gets off the same train and accidentally gets hold of the chrysanthemum. A de Jones relative asks her if she is the girl who is to be married. She answers yes and is taken to the de Jones home where she is dressed for the wedding, while the buxom blusher, thinking Hector is her future husband, tries to hold him. He escapes on his motor cycle, but she stows away in the side car. When Wanda is led to the altar and takes a look at August, she fiees from the house, followed by minister and family. Hector likewise takes fright when he sees the girl beside him and jumps from the motorcycle. The blushing beauty is thrown into the arms of the de Jones family, while the runaway motorcycle picks up Hector, \\'anda and the minister, who performs the ceremony while the machine goes wildlv down hill.