Volume II: Filmography

A MESSAGE THROUGH FLAMES

August 10, 1915 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels (the second reel was split with Cupid in the Olden Time at the end)

Character: Drama

Director: John Harvey

Cast: Mignon Anderson (Kate, the blind girl), Carey L. Hastings (Mrs. Folsom), Bert Delaney (John, her son)

Note: The title appeared as A Message Through the Flames in some listings.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, August 7, 1915:

"Kate, a blind girl, is adopted by Mrs. Folsom, whose son, John, a station agent, teaches his foster-sister the telegraph code. Kate soon realizes the importance of many of the messages which she sends, and how, in some cases, failure to transmit the magic signs would mean death to hundreds of passengers. One night she finds John lying unconscious from a fall on the floor of the station, a broken lamp by his side. She also smells burning wood. The telegraph key is clicking insistently, and Kate fights her way through the smoke to the key. She learns that a freight train and the Western Express are in danger of collision. Rushing out of the burning depot, the blind girl unlocks the switch and swings it open. The freight slips into the siding just in time to let the big passenger train go thundering by in safety. Kate is promoted by the officials of the road to a high position in their central office."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, August 21, 1915:

"Mignon Anderson appears in this number as a young blind girl. The scenes taken in the blind asylum arouse the interest and lend plausibility to the story. The girl's heroic work in saving the special train and in the life of the young operator make a tense scene. A good railroad yarn, running about a reel and a half."

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