File No. 113 (1915)
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Louise Vale | Ivan Christy | Franklin Ritchie
Rest of cast:
Laura La Varnie | Jack Drumier | Gretchen Hartman | Alan Hale | William Jefferson | Hector V. Sarno | Émile Gaboriau (Story)
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“File No. 113”
Biograph’s two part adaptation from Émile Gaboriau’s novel is a strong picture.
Reviewed by George Blaisdell.
The release of the Biograph Company for January 26 forges another link in the chain of two-part adaptations from fiction and stage classics which are proving so popidar with picture followers.
File No. 113 is taken from the first of the novels of Émile Gaboriau, whose untimely death, in 1873, at the age of thirty-eight cut short the writing of a series of detective stories that in the half dozen years they had been before the public had brought international fame to their author. M. Lecoq, the noted predecessor of Sherlock Holmes, enters the story in its last quarter. Plainly his crime-detecting methods are of the simple, common sense sort used by the policeman of the world of fact — and are none the less interesting by reason of it.
File No. 113 is a well-told story and well staged and acted. Louise Vale has the role of Valentine, who as a young woman brings into the world a son, who immediately is taken from her by her mother, the Countess. Hers is a skillful portrayal of the woman who loses prospective husband and is robbed of her, or their, son, only to be confronted twenty or more years later with a reminder of her early misfortunes in the guise of the real son, but actually a swindler, trading on both her maternal love and her fear of discovery by her banker husband and young daughter.
Franklin Ritchie is Louis, who becomes master of the family estate following the death of his father and the disappearance of his brother, Valentine’s lover, when in self-defense he has too vigorously taken his own part against his rival. It is Louis who aspires to rob Valentine through imposing on her one of his confederates when later in life, after dissipating his fortune, he has fallen into evil ways. William Jefferson is Raoul, the bogus son. Jack Drumier is Fauvel, the husband of Valentine. Hector V. Sarno is Lecoq. Alan Hale is Prosper, the clerk of Fauvel, wrongly accused of robbing his employer’s vault. Gretchen Hartman is Madeleine, the daughter of Fauvel, and in love with Prosper.
There are dramatic situations. One that particularly stands out is where the smooth Louis brings Raoul to the home of Valentine and introduces him to the matron as the son she had not seen since the hour of his birth. Here is a real opportunity for strong acting — and it is accepted.
A thrilling scene is the battle with pistols when the two thieves quarrel over the spoils. The lamp is extinguished; the flashes vividly show what is happening. The ending is a happy one. Lecoq, in the office of the police chief, tells Valentine Raoul is not her son; furthermore, Fauvel continues to believe Raoul was only a nephew — Valentine’s great secret remains a secret.
It is interesting to note that the principals are introduced on the screen — not the whole cast at the beginning, but in the more logical form of announcing each one just prior to his entrance into the story.
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Scene from File No. 113 (Biograph).
Collection: Moving Picture World, January 1915
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see also