Volume II: Filmography

WON BY WIRELESS

July 14, 1911 (Friday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Cast: William Garwood (operator)

Locations: Some scenes were filmed in Long Island Sound; certain others were taken in the harbor of New York City

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, July 8, 1911:

"The story of the wireless that is accurate and true, where everything is real from the clicking of the key to the flash of the transmitting coil. Likely there has never been another Thanhouser story that carried so much thrill as this does. From the time that the wealthy broker and his daughter set foot on the schemer's yacht until the police boat arrives with rescuers the reel is a constant round of excitement. When the police tug, summoned by wireless by the daughter, finally overtakes the runaway yacht, your house will be in genuine uproar."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, July 8, 1911:

"A millionaire broker reposes confidence in his chief clerk and does not realize that the man is waiting and watching for a chance to ruin him. The clerk is jealous as well as deceitful, and deeply resents any display of authority on the part of his employer. He is soon convinced he could soon be a millionaire himself. Therefore, he easily falls a victim to the wiles of a rival broker, and promises that when the time comes, he will help to 'do' his employer. And the second broker is equally to blame, for he poses as a friend of the man he is determined to ruin. Fortune aids the plotters, or at least they think that it has. The broker's daughter falls in love with a young man who has established a wireless company, but it is a struggling concern and the old man does not see how the promoter can ever establish himself in a proper financial position to care for his daughter. So he refuses to let him wed her, and becomes furiously angry when he discovers that his daughter is determined to wed the young man.

"The other broker owns a yacht. He suggests to the father that he take the girl for a short cruise, where she will be away from her heart's influence. He adds that the father can attend to his work just the same as though he were on shore, because the boat has an excellent wireless equipment, which is at its service. The dupe accepts, and the couple, with their host, sail away. Only by accident was the father saved from ruin, for he never realized that the messages he sent to his office were being destroyed and that the properties in which he was interested were being hammered unmercifully. It is the daughter who saves him. She learns by accident that his messages are being destroyed, and the villain laughingly admits his guilt when he finds that he is discovered. But it is his boat and he declines to allow them to land until he is ready, so they are as badly off as ever. But the girl is resourceful. She has studied wireless operating with her sweetheart, and this knowledge now comes into play. By a ruse, she tricks the regular operator into deserting his post, then sends in a call for help, which is picked up by the man she loves. The sweetheart loses no time in sending aid, and the dishonest broker is lead away to prison. The crooked chief clerk never realizes his dreams of becoming a millionaire, but is kicked into obscurity. And the father realizes that it is sometimes very fortunate for a broker to have a wireless operator in his own family, who is interested in his fortunes."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, July 16, 1911:

"There is one striking fault in this otherwise exceedingly fine photo play, and the fault could so easily have been avoided that it is all the more glaring. Fine photographic views are taken from the steam yacht, moving along the harbor of New York, giving pictures of the buildings of the metropolis, but each time when we revert to the characters and the story the yacht is plainly seen standing still at anchor. The photography of the harbor was all too rapid, for no boat could possibly move so fast. Forgetting these things, however, we find ourselves interested in a story somewhat out of the range of the average camera play, and one which carries the spectator along with complete ease. The interior scenes are very well put on, especial praise being due the makers for the way the wireless rooms are shown.

"A stock broker has a partner who is a crook and who endeavors through a wealthy friend to 'do' the old man out of his fortune. The daughter of the broker falls in love with a young wireless inventor, but the father forbids their marriage because of the youth's poverty. Father and daughter go on a yachting trip with the friend of the partner. On board the father decides to communicate with his home office via wireless and orders his partner to buy a certain stock. The host destroys the message and orders the other to sell, which both had planned. The daughter observes his act and hastens to her father, but the host makes them his prisoners. Then the girl gets into the wireless room on a pretext by sending the operator away and wires her lover for help, she having learned the intricacies of the mechanism through him. Police arrive in a motor boat with the lover just as the father is about to be thrown into the water, and all ends joyously. Secure the film, for it is well worth seeing."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, July 29, 1911:

"This is a most melodramatic story of what happened on a stationary yacht supposed to be sailing up the Sound. The great financier was kidnaped by the villain and would have been ruined by his dishonest partner had not the heroine, his daughter, known how to send a wireless message and also how to outwit the operator. The hero gets the message and brings the police out on a launch. The old man in the final scene kicks his partner out of the office and then withdraws his objections to the daughter marrying the wireless telegraph hero. It couldn't possibly be humanly acted, and certainly it wasn't."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, July 19, 1911:

"The feature of this film is that it introduces a wireless station, and indicates the process thereof. A yacht is also conducted about New York harbor in the course of the story showing interesting views along the waterfront. It is a melodrama and inclined to be a little too 'melo' in its acting. In order to further his ends the villain gets the father and daughter on board his yacht, while he is league with this broker's partner, and plots to ruin him in stocks. His daughter, however, has learned wireless telegraphy, and becoming a prisoner on the yacht wires her lover. He arrives with officers in a police boat. The villain is arrested, and the father back in his office kicks out his partner, which seems a rather undignified procedure. The film is strikingly entertaining from its features."

# # #