Volume II: Filmography Volume II: Filmography
a.k.a. THE FLAT ON THE TOP FLOOR
July 13, 1914 (Monday)
Length: 2 reels (reels 7 and 8)
Note: Prints of 32 scenes from this episode were deposited in the Copyright Office on June 9, 1914. (Later episodes of this serial were not copyrighted.)
ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, July 18, 1914:
"Steve Snake is home, but not without a struggle. It required most of the New Rochelle, New York police department, the volunteer lifesaving corps, two motormen, three chauffeurs, a woman's screams and Lila Chester, to corral the 14-foot python and return him safely to the Thanhouser studio. Three weeks ago 'Steve' was especially engaged to frighten Florence LaBadie, the heroine of The Million Dollar Mystery. But he didn't do it. Instead, 'Steve' crept out of his big wicker basket onto the highways and byways of Westchester County."
Note: For more information concerning "Steve," refer to his entry in the biographical section of the present work.
SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, July 11, 1914:
"Working on the theory that Florence Gray, the 18-year-old daughter of Stanley Hargreave, the hunted millionaire, knows where her father's money is hidden, the Black Hundred conspirators determine to trap her in their rooms and there force her to reveal the secret she is believed to possess. In carrying out this plan they are aided by their knowledge that Florence Gray never has seen her father, a circumstance which obviously would enable one of their number to disguise himself to impersonate Stanley Hargreave and thus ingratiate himself into the guileless child's affections and confidence.
"Braine - aptly named, for he is the intelligent, driving force behind the Black Hundred's plot to get Hargreave's fortune - drafts a note calculated to appeal to the father-love of the simple boarding school graduate. The conspirator's note reads as follows:
"'My Darling Daughter: I must see you tonight. Come to 78 Grove Street, top floor, at 8 o'clock. Confide in no one if you would not seal my death warrant. - Your loving father.'
"That night Braine, unwilling to trust any of his fellow conspirators with so delicate a mission, creeps into the park surrounding the house and climbs in his stocking feet to the roof of the veranda upon which Florence Gray's bedroom window opens. Braine makes his way across the shingles until he reaches the window. It does not readily open to give him opportunity to slip the note beneath it, so Braine uses a knife to force the warped sash. Florence, only half asleep, hears someone tampering with her window.
"Too terror-stricken to scream, she nevertheless leaps from her bed into the middle of the room and then to the window. Braine, his object attained, has gone. Florence picks up the envelope and tears it open. Its contents have not the ring of sincerity but Florence is too eager to clasp her father in her arms to long consider what she believes may only be her own false suspicion.
"Down at the entrance to the mansion Jones, the butler, opens the door to find A. Leo Stevens, the aeronaut, with a message for him. Braine, creeping across the lawn, sees the balloonist talking with the butler, but in his hurry to escape attaches little importance to the circumstance. Prevented by the note's caution from confiding her doubts to Miss Farlow, her companion, Florence is undecided as to what to do. Her desire to see her parent wins over her suspicions, however, and that evening a heavily veiled young woman steals out through the grounds of the Hargreave mansion toward the address named in the note.
"She finds 84 [sic] Grove Street an apartment house in a secluded and unpretentious neighborhood. She makes her way from landing to landing until she reaches the door leading into the apartment on the top floor. A knock soon brings what appears to be a venerable old man to the door. Florence is undecided what to do, but as the old man bears a striking resemblance to the painting of her father the girl does not resist when he clasps her in his arms.
"Florence's meeting with the man who purports to be her father is attended by constraint. Something is lacking in the warmth of the other's greeting. Something rings false and the timid girl is quick to sense the dissonance. Her suspicions are verified only too quickly. From commonplaces the conversation, avoiding all personalities, too quickly passes to the subject of Hargreave's wealth.
"'How shall I know you are my daughter if you cannot tell me where my money is hidden?' demands Florence's supposed father. The question convinces the girl that she has been trapped, that the man to whom she is talking is a cleverly disguised impostor. While the latter's back is turned, she stealthily tries the door behind her. It is locked. When she tries another door in the room the stranger leads her away from it, while a benevolent smile plays upon his features.
"Despite her repugnance for the man who has professed to be her father, Florence could not prevent him from embracing her without revealing her suspicion of him. While he had his arms about her Florence was horrified to see in the mantel mirror five faces peering through the door.
"Florence's opportunity to escape came soon after. The false father leaves the room. She hears him planning with the conspirators to torture her into a confession. She sees one of the men struggling with a writhing python which is to be freed in the room with her if she does not tell them what they want to know. Quickly all pretense of friendship or paternity is dropped. The false father seizes Florence by her throat at the moment that the conspirators enter with the writhing python. Florence seizes a chair with which she smashes the only lamp in the room. While the conspirators grope about, the girl quickly shuts herself in a cabinet built into the wall. The gangsters believe, when they discover her absence, that she has thrown herself from the window. But, as they peer out, a noise behind them makes them turn, only to see Florence dash through the open doorway into the hall. She locks the door behind her and flees to safety."
REVIEW (Episodes 3 and 4), The Morning Telegraph, July 26, 1914:
"Episodes 3 and 4 sustain the interest of the audience to a remarkable degree. The plot, as some one has said, thickens with every reel. It thickens so rapidly, in fact, that at times it looks as if it were going to congeal! Which merely means that the mystery grows more impenetrable, not that the action becomes slower.
"Florence LaBadie continues to play the part of a fascinating little heroine with grace and finish. She does not make of her part a medium for great emotional expression, but her interpretation does not read the role in that way. And it is probable that the way in which she is enacting the lead is the best way, although a case could doubtless be made out in favor of more emotion. But no one who has seen Miss LaBadie is likely to quarrel with her over that. Her rendering is individual, and able.
"In the third episode the Black Hundred learn through the papers that Hargreave has been picked up 300 miles out to sea, after the balloon in which he made his escape from the House of Mystery has been wrecked. Believing that he has a large sum of money with him they vainly set a trap for him on his arrival aboard the ship which has picked them up. Norton, the reporter, knows of their intentions and with the aid of a number of patrolmen he succeeds in capturing the gang, though Braine, for whose arrest he was most anxious, manages to escape.
"In the fourth episode Braine writes to Florence Gray, knowing that she has never seen her father, and signs Hargreave's name to the note which asks that she visit him without telling anyone where she is going. Her suspicions that he is not really her father are aroused and soon she is sure that the man is an impostor. When he learns that she suspects him Braine gives himself away and after a number of attempts Florence finally escapes, just as the gang is about to torture her to obtain definite information as to the whereabouts of Hargreave's fortune."
REVIEW (Episodes 3 and 4), Variety, July 10, 1914: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.
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Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.