Universal Weekly (1927-1930)

Vol. 26, No. 3 Universal Weekly 39 Synopses “THE COURAGE OF COLLINS” Two-Reel Mustang Production Starring EDMUND COBB ROSE FOSTER and her young brother, David, left orphans by the recent death of their father, are trying to run the homestead claim which is their only inheritance. Jim Murdock, head of a gang of claim jumpers, but posing as the friend of the orphans, sends them an anonymous warning to leave the country for their “health.” Constable Collins, dressed as a prospector, noses around the neighborhood, looking for the gang. He sees one of Murdock’s henchmen picking on David and goes to the boy’s rescue, knocking Murdock’s henchman out and gaining the confidence of the boy, who introduces the stranger to his sister and then gives him permission to camp on the property for a few days. One of Murdock’s men tricks Rose into going with him to a lonely house where he locks her in. Collins and the boy, missing Rose, ride out to look for her. They see the gang of bullies. Collins, suspecting them of treachery, tells David to watch from a distance and if anything happens to ride and alarm the Mounties. He then rides up to them but they jump and knock him out. As he lies on the ground, Collins hears Murdock tell his men to handle him roughly and throw him in with the girl, as if he were a victim of the frame-up, like herself. Collins is left under guard. When the rest of the men leave, the constable springs up, overcomes the guard and enters the house. He battles Murdock and is about to overcome him when the gang returns and jumps on him. He fights them all and manages to keep his feet until the arrival of the Mounties, headed by the boy. The gang is arrested. With the excitement over, there is nothing left for the constable and the girl to do but marry. “WHAT’S YOUR HURRY?” Two-Reel Stern Brothers’ Comedy “The Excuse Maker” Series CHARLEY and Constance want to be married, but he is afraid to ask her father, who is always temperamental and sometimes rough. He decides to go into the gasoline business to make his fortune, so he can marry the girl without her father’s consent, but the gas tank explodes and puts an end to the venture before it begins. He sees a woman’s head thrown backward out of an open window and rushes to her aid, thinking that someone in the room is chok ing her. He finds that she is drying her hair. While she is explaining, her jealous husband comes into the house. Charley hides behind a curtain. The furious man tears aside the curtain to reveal Charley disguised as a woman. He apologizes for the intrusion. Charley escapes. Later in his girl’s house a racket is heard in her father’s study. The old man is carried out in a sack by two kidnappers and whisked away in a Ford. Charley and the girl pursue, but the world is full of Fords and they get into trouble stopping the wrong car several times. On a mountain road Charley is thrown from the car by a jolt. His coat catches on an overhanging branch and he hangs to the side of the cliff while his car, steered by the girl, races madly down the mountainside and picks up her father as he falls from the kidnapping Ford on the tier above. “THE NEWLYWEDS BUILD” Two-Reel Stern Brothers Comedy “Newlyweds and Their Baby” Series THE rampages of Snookums cause the Newlyweds to be ejected from their happy home. They look for an apartment but are unable to find a landlord who is willing to admit the young tornado to his house. They purchase a portable bungalow which they erect on their plot with many difficulties. When they are finished Snookums saws away the supports and the house sea-saws from side to side. They manage to repair the damage. Their first night’s rest is broken by a great downpour of rain. In the morning they find to their astonishment that the cheap house has shrunk like a ten dollar suit. “LOVE ON A WEAK STOMACH” One-Reel Blue Bird Comedy Featuring NEELY EDWARDS 'VTEELY imagines himself to be very sick. When he sees some spots on his face that were accidentally made by a lead pencil, he runs home greatly alarmed and goes to bed. The news comes to him that he has inherited a valuable property from an uncle. He rej oices because he will now be able to hire a nurse and be sick right. He gets the most beautiful nurse he can find and settles down to a pleasant illness, but his crooked boss, plotting to trick him out of his inheritance, won’t let him rest. The boss offers him $10,000 for his property and Neely is about to sign, when a telegram reaches him with an offer of $100,000. The boss tries to force him to abide by his agreement to sell for ten thousand. A furious running fight follows in which Neely proves to himself that he is not an invalid and “A ONE MAN GAME” Blue Streak Western Starring FRED HUMES Length: 4689 feet DUKE HUNTER, the uncouth and unshaven owner of Black Butte Ranch and one of the directors of the local bank, makes a bitter enemy of Steve Balan when he casts the deciding vote against giving Balan a big loan on slim security. Balan threatens to do him harm. Hunter knocks him down and warns him to leave the county. After the fracas Hunter is introduced to Mrs. DeLacey and her daughter Millicent, sister and niece of Jake Robbins, a neighboring rancher. Both are social upstarts and accomplished snobs. They turn a cool side to the ill kempt Hunter, earning the contempt of Roberta, Jake’s daughter, who is called Bobby and is affectionately referred to as “Jake’s only son.” Just to see how much difference a few clothes will make, Hunter rigs himself out like a Broadway sheik and visits the Robbins ranch under the title, “the Duke of Black Butte.” With a clean shave he is completely disguised. The women fall for the sham and Millicent plays a bold hand for the favor of the “duke.” Hunter is so well pleased with his progress that he determines to win the city girl or bust, much to the distress of Bobby, who is disgusted with his performance, but does not give him away. She discovers that she loves Hunter herself and decides to give the city girl some competition. When she dons girl’s clothes it occurs to Hunter for the first time that Bobby is a woman, but he fails to take her seriously and makes a date with Milly to go riding at night. Vowing to save Hunter from the vixen, Bobby attacks her cousin and locks her in a closet while she puts on the riding togs that Milly has laid out for herself, and then goes galloping off with Hunter, who assumes that the girl at his side is Milly. Hunter now realizes that Milly is not the girl for him. They stop at a spring where he tells his companion that he does not love her — that Bobby is the girl he is going to marry. Just then he is held up by the Balan gang, who have plotted to kidnap the duke and hold him for ransom. Balan is delighted when he finds that he has captured his old enemy. He places Hunter and the girl in charge of two men and then rides to the bank where he forces the president to hand over a wallet full of bank notes. He lays the old man cold and then strides out, to be struck down by Hunter, who has escaped from Balan’s men. The rest of the bandits are rounded up and Hunter rushes Bobby to the office of the Justice of the Peace. that all he needs to make him happy is a wife exactly like the nurse. She is favorably impressed.