Volume II: Filmography Volume II: Filmography
a.k.a. THE MISSING HEIR
January 18, 1915 (Monday)
Length: 2 reels (Reels 17 and 18)
Notes: 1. The advertising for this episode is titled Zudora in The Twenty Million Dollar Mystery in Reel Life, January 23, 1915, marking a change in the name of the serial. An article in the same issue of Reel Life noted that the change would be made effective with Episode 10. 2. The Missing Heir was used earlier as the title of an unrelated Thanhouser one-reel film released on November 7, 1911.
ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, January 9, 1915:
"Watch for startling developments in Thanhouser's greatest photoplay - Zudora. The woman of mystery enters in Episode No. 9. Who is she? She is one of the most wonderful actresses in America. She is beautiful. She will hold audiences spellbound."
ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, January 16, 1915:
"In episodes 9 and 10 of Zudora you will find some of the most spectacular scenes ever caught by a motion picture camera. A battleship is blown up at sea. A palatial home is seen all ablaze, and a thrilling rescue follows. Watch for these stupendous scenes."
Note: The scene of a battleship blown up at sea is not mentioned in the synopses for these episodes.
ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, January 2, 1915:
"Two freight trains of 12 cars each will be used in a scene in Zudora, Thanhouser's new serial. The action requires both trains to be running at top speed. When James Cruze climbs over a car on one train, releases a lever and cuts the train in half. In one of the cars is Marguerite Snow and Helen Badgley, who are rescued by Cruze just as the car is sent skyward by an explosion."
ARTICLE, The Morning Telegraph, January 3, 1915:
"James Cruze, Jim Baird in Thanhouser's great serial, Zudora, had three thrilling escapes last week, any one of which would have made a less daring performer forsake motion pictures for good. This is his week's record: Accidentally tossed over a cliff in an automobile; thrown under a train while trying to 'ride the bumpers'; overcome by smoke. From each of the incidents Mr. Cruze emerged smiling, quite in contrast to the excited faces of his co-workers, and the 'I'll get blamed' expression of the director. In the ninth episode of Zudora, there is a mysterious explosion of a powder car, attached to which is a caboose, with Marguerite Snow and Helen Badgley as the captive occupants. Mr. Cruze is racing to free the pair from the peril, and is compelled to catch the rods of one of the cars of the moving train. He then climbs upward and over the cars, uncoupling the caboose and its precious occupants just as the explosion sends the next adjoining car skyward.
"This is excitement enough in itself. But Mr. Cruze's hand slipping lends an additional thrill, for he seems to be hanging by a thread to safety, when a sudden jerk of the car sends him free. Mr. Cruze's succumbing to smoke was also in the interests of Zudora. The scene required the rescue by him of Miss Snow from the second story of a burning building. In order to reach the young woman, Mr. Cruze slid downward from the ridge of the roof and lowered himself by a rope to the window of the room in which Zudora was imprisoned. As he broke the glass window a burst of flame and smoke rendered the youthful rescuer unconscious and he toppled into the fire-filled room. An emergency crew rushed in and carried both Mr. Cruze and Miss Snow out into the open air. Fifteen minutes later the scene was taken."
ARTICLE, Reel Life, January 9, 1915:
"Some of the most spectacular scenes ever caught by a motion picture camera will be shown in Episodes Nine and Ten of Zudora, the great Thanhouser serial. Among these is the blowing up at sea of a battleship of the superdreadnought type and a thrilling rescue from a burning mansion presented in startling fashion. James Cruze, famous as the reporter in The Million Dollar Mystery, and thus far appearing in Zudora as Hassam Ali, her sinister and mystical uncle, will appear in a new and dashing role. A beautiful and dangerous woman of mystery appears, whose influence is at once apparent in the development of the story."
Note: The scene of a battleship blown up at sea is not mentioned in the synopses for these episodes.
ARTICLE, Reel Life, January 16, 1915:
"Helen Badgley, 'the best known baby in the world,' will take a leading part in the ninth episode of Zudora. She is the first child actress to be given a stellar role in a motion picture serial of such immense calibre."
ARTICLE, Reel Life, January 30, 1915:
"Two freight trains of twelve cars each were used recently in a scene in The Twenty Million Dollar Mystery. The action required that both trains should be running at full speed, and that after they have been suddenly cut in half, Marguerite Snow, as Zudora, and little Helen Badgley should be rescued by James Cruze just before the cars are thrown into the air by an explosion. The cost of this scene was $5,000. Another set cost $11,000 to build, and is fitted with more than $30,000 worth of antiques. A special insurance policy had to be taken out to cover the property during its use in the picture, as the entire collection has been sold to a European woman, whose collection was destroyed, when her home in Belgium was burned during the fighting before Antwerp.
"A special train carried the company to Long Island to make the train wreck scene. Those who took part were Marguerite Snow, James Cruze, Harry Benham, Elizabeth Forbes, Helen Badgley and fifty other persons. Director Fred Sullivan and his assistant, Al Mayo, were in charge. The railroad company had the two trains for picture purposes waiting, in addition to a complete wrecking outfit which had to go into operation immediately after the scene was finished in order that the scheduled traffic should not be interfered with."
SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, January 9, 1915:
"Soon after Zudora's thrilling escape from the clutches of Chang, the Chinese hypnotist, in which John Storm and the mysterious Jim Baird played no small part, the sudden, strange disappearance of a child, destined to inherit millions, became the talk of the town. Zudora, like everyone else, became interested in the case and determined if possible to solve it, although her uncle Hassam Ali, busied himself with other things, often being mysteriously absent from the house for days at a time.
"It was at this time that a certain Madame Duval, the beautiful but somewhat mysterious woman, who was in the confidence of Chang in Episode Eight, was introduced to Zudora. Oddly enough, the girl, having been under Chang's hypnotic influence at the time, did not recall ever having seen her. Feeling a strange attraction for her new acquaintance, Zudora returned her call, although had Jim Baird known of it, the friendship of the two might have awakened some misgivings in his breast, for he evidently distrusts the charming fair one.
"During Zudora's visit at Madame Duval's she was much puzzled at the coming and going of many strange guests, the mysterious conferences held and the frequency with which her hostess was away. It was during one of these absences that Zudora idly glanced at a newspaper on the table before her. An item in the personal column caught her eye and her fertile brain did the rest. Hardly waiting to say goodbye to Madame Duval, she sets forth on what she believes is a clue to the whereabouts of the missing child. Nor is she far off the scent, for the hint she had received from the 'personal' leads her to a deserted freight caboose in a little used railroad siding. Listening at the door she overhears the kidnappers discussing plans to get their victim in a safer place.
"In the meantime Jim Baird has also been investigating certain clues, which have come into his possession. John Storm, also, informed by Zudora in a hasty note, of what she has learned, begins an investigation of his own account. Thus all three are eagerly hunting for the missing heiress. But it is Zudora who first learns the whereabouts of the stolen child. Watching her opportunity, she is about to liberate the little one, when three members of the gang, returning suddenly to find her, seize both Zudora and their captive and imprison them in the old caboose, where Zudora had first overheard their plans.
"Meanwhile Madame Duval, who has some mysterious connection with the forces that are opposing Zudora, becomes worried at the delay in bringing her plans to a successful issue. Acting under instructions evidently, the members of the gang are seen placing an infernal machine in a car filled with gunpowder, which is next to the old caboose in which Zudora and the child are imprisoned. An engine hooks up with the train and slowly moves off, hauling the caboose with it. In a few moments, the explosion is certain to take place, and it seems that nothing can save the kidnappers' victims, unable to get out, from being blown to atoms.
"But it is not to be. Jim Baird, who by some psychological instinct or perhaps because he is never really out of touch with Zudora's doings, always seems to be on hand at the time of Zudora's direst need, appears on the scene, just as the train is starting. Instinctively, he seems to sense the danger. Running swiftly forward, he makes a flying leap upon the rods at the side of one of the freight cars, climbs upon the roof of the powder car and makes his way to the caboose. He sees Zudora's terrified face at the window, and the sight lends him wings. Clambering down between the cars he uncouples the caboose from the train. And not an instant too soon. For hardly has the train gone half a city block before there is a tremendous explosion and the powder car disappears in a great cloud of white smoke.
"It is but the work of a moment for Baird to batter in the door of the caboose and assist the frightened Zudora and her helpless companion to the ground. He dashes into the caboose again, hoping to find some evidence against the kidnappers. He has hardly finished his hurried search, when there is a sudden explosion. Down the track comes running John Storm, too late to aid his sweetheart and frantic with apprehension. He comes up just in time to see Zudora and her little charge descend from the caboose and the next instant he holds her close in his arms. When they turn to thank Jim Baird, the man to whose heroism and resourcefulness they owed their rescue, it is to find him gone. He has vanished as utterly as the destroyed powder car."
REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, January 16, 1915:
"The ninth episode is Kidnapped. There is an abundance of incidents which gives cause for thought to Zudora, the girl whose mind turns naturally to problems in which detectives delight. She joins the hunt for a missing child heiress, accounts of whose disappearance fills the newspapers. Zudora is in a fair way to restore the child when she, too, falls into the hands of the kidnapers. She is imprisoned in the caboose of a freight train standing on a siding. The conspirators place an infernal machine in a powder car adjoining the caboose. It is Jim Baird, the dual character played by James Cruze, who saves the situation, when by a flying leap he gets aboard the moving train. He runs across the top of the intervening cars, climbs down and uncouples the caboose just before the explosion takes place. Zudora and the child are rescued.
"James Cruze does good work as Hassam Ali, as do the other principals, Marguerite Snow as Zudora and Harry Benham as John Storm. The staging is elaborate. There are, for instance, the many secret ways of getting about the home of Hassam. One of the features of Zudora is the attention given to the furnishings of Hassam's home. Certainly there is no material which in richness seems so strongly to appeal to the camera as teakwood."
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Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.