Volume II: Filmography

THE UNDERTOW

British release title: THE UNDERCURRENT

April 20, 1915 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels (1,996 feet)

Character: Drama

Cast: Ethel Jewett, Ernest Warde, Bert Delaney

Director: John Harvey

Notes: 1. Another film, The Song of the Heart, was originally scheduled to be released on this date but was postponed until May 11, 1915. 2. A synopsis published in Great Britain gave the country boy's name as Bill and a female thief's name as Dolly.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, April 10, 1915:

"Jack, a country boy, falls into evil hands in the city and becomes identified with a gang of thieves. In a fight with the police, the gang is chased over the roof of a house. Jack seeks refuge in one of the apartments occupied by Detective Sergeant Grey and his sister, Florence. The girl takes pity on Jack and hides him while the search, headed by her brother, is going on. Jack promises to reform. His old associates, however, bend all their powers to drag him back. At last they manage to implicate him in a safe robbery and he is arrested. Jack, apparently escaping from prison, goes to the rendezvous of the thieves. They taunt him with his helplessness, and believing that the case against him is overwhelming, they tell him just how the evidence was planted. A detective and several officers, concealed within hearing, rush out and overcome the criminals. Jack, proven innocent, wins Florence for his wife."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, April 24, 1915:

"A two-reel crook story, not very new in plot but abounding in action of a stirring sort. The country youth goes to the city, where he falls in with bad company. He is caught in a police raid, but saved by the detective's daughter. He promises her to reform and tries to do so, but the gang attempts to lure him back. This is a typical crook production. The photography in the first reel was taken on a gray day; it is much better in the second."

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