The Exploits of Elaine (1914)
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Collection: Moving Picture World, January 1915
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Pearl White | Louis J. Gasnier (Director) | George B. Seitz (Director | Producer | Screenplay) | Leopold Wharton (Director | Producer) | Theodore Wharton (Director | Producer)
Rest of cast:
Arnold Daly | Creighton Hale | Raymond Owens | Sheldon Lewis | Edwin Arden | Leroy Baker | Bessie Wharton | Riley Hatch | Robin H. Townley | Floyd Buckley | Lionel Barrymore | M. W. Rale | George B. Seitz | Howard Cody | Paul Panzer | Archelaus D. Chadwick (Art Director) | Frank Brownlee (General Manager) | Charles W. Goddard (Screenplay) | Arthur B. Reeve (Novel) | Basil Dickey (Screenplay)
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“The Exploits of Elaine.”
Episode 9, in which the indomitable Craig Kennedy still battles with defeat and is again the victor.
Reviewed by Margaret I. MacDonald.
Again the great detective demonstrates his remarkable resourcefulness in the conflict with the “Clutching Hand” that has made us all sit up and hold our breath through episode after episode of this unusually live serial. And we must all admit to being beautifully deceived by him when at the carrying out of the dreadful threat of the master criminal each hour a pedestrian falls dead at his door, he at last gives the signal of his consent to leave the country, by placing, as requested, a vase of flowers in the window. We see him board the ship which is to convey him to South America, while pretty Elaine bids him a sorrowful good-bye; and when the express drivers bring to Elaine’s home a box of valuable scientific instruments (so it was marked at any rate) belonging to Kennedy, and which was too late in arriving at the pier to gain a passage with its Blaster, we believe that we are tremendously surprised to discover beneath the unkempt appearance of the two men the personalities of Kennedy and his friend Jameson.
The big thrill of this episode takes place when again everybody concerned, meaning the three main characters of the story, are again captured and are about to have their lights extinguished by another scientific death-dealer, the Infra-Red Ray, the power of which is cleverly diverted to the room above in which the powerful instrument is placed, by means of a diverting shield which Kennedy in his experimental work has learned to make use of. The police are raiding the place, and everybody is in safety, including the inmates of the place (that is so far as we know) when the curtain is drawn.
Regarding the action of the play there is little to be said that has not been said before. Suffice it to say that the Pathé–Hearst serial continues to hold interest.
Scene from The Exploits of Elaine (Pathé).
Collection: Moving Picture World, March 1915