Acting
The War Bride's Secret is a 1916 American silent drama film.
Karl "Curly" Casterline, a wrongfully discharged New York City policeman, finds work on the Midwestern farm of Adolf Bauerle to help the war effort. Curly is attracted to his boss's niece, Mina, but also realizes that Adolf and his cohort, Kurz, plan to blow up a troop train. Curly kills the two saboteurs and saves the train, but he is jailed by the abusive Sheriff Herman Lindig. Although Mina praises Curly for saving the soldiers' lives, he is sentenced to death and is denied a pardon from the governor. After the case attracts national attention, the governor explains that he prolonged Curly's incarceration to draw attention to the danger of German propaganda.
When the body of Wall Street broker Norman Temple is found dead in his office, the police arrest contractor James Borden for the crime on the testimony of Temple's secretary that Borden had threatened her employer over an unpaid note. Also under suspicion is Temple's Japanese valet, who quarreled with his employer the day before the murder. Tex, a detective, enters the case, following his own leads which prove the valet innocent. Tex finally deduces that Minkin, one of Temple's clerks, shot his employer when he interrupted the clerk robbing his safe. With Tex's revelation, Minkin's room is searched, the stolen bonds found and Borden is freed.
When Jessica Dale, a companion to wealthy Hortense Bates, is found dead and her valuable earrings missing at a masked ball being held at the Bates's home, the only clue is that of a crushed cigarette found beside her. Because the brand of cigarette matches that found in a similar crime being pursued by Tex, the famous criminologist is called in to investigate.
Steve, a young college chap who has been unfortunate in his business career, after a life of dissipation, concludes that life is not worth living and contemplates suicide.
A member of a counterfeiting gang gives a forged note to his daughter. When she spends it on a dress the note ends up in the hands of the secret service, who then bring the entire gang to justice.
Deserted by her husband, John Madison, because he incorrectly accuses her of having an affair, Mary Madison goes to her aunt's house to have her baby, and then loses her memory in a train wreck. John, however, hears that she has died, so he takes possession of their infant daughter.
20 two reels episodic dramatic serial now lost. (1) Liquor and the Law (1915); (2) The Tenement House Evil (1915); (3) The Traction Grab (1915); (4) The Power of the People (1916); (5) Grinding Life Down (1916); (6) The Railroad Monopoly (1916); (7) America Saved from War (1916); (8) Old King Coal (1916); (9) The Insurance Swindlers (1916); (10) The Harbor Transportation Trust (1916); (11) The Illegal Bucket Shops (1916); (12) The Milk Battle (1916); (13) The Powder Trust and the War (1916); (14) The Iron Ring (1916); (15) The Patent Medicine Danger (1916); (16) The Pirates of Finance (1916); (17) Queen of the Prophets (1916); (18) The Hidden City of Crime (1916); (19) The Photo Badger Game (1916); and (20) The Final Conquest (1916).
This film is a very loose film adaptation of the 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo and presumed lost: The wealthy girl Esmeralda is kidnapped by gypsies at birth and becomes, as one might assume, the darling of Paris. She is loved by the bell ringer and former hunchback Quasimodo, Frollo, the wicked surgeon who cares him, and an equally wicked Captain Phoebus.
The insurance companies, organized in one mighty trust, have been using the policy holders' money to speculate with. Tom Larnigan has announced that he will investigate and proceed against the trust. 9th episode of the Graft serial.
A French artist in love with his model, but is abandoned by her because he is addicted to absinthe. He dreams about how his life is going downhill as he continues to drink.
Desperate to change her vixenish image, Theda Bara was called upon to play a sweet young thing (she was nearly 30) who sacrifices herself for the happiness of her sister (Claire Whitney).
All her life the old teacher had been smoothing over the rough places, but when the great need came in her own life all forgot her except one; that was the little girl whom she had last befriended. What mattered then the dastardly plot of the scheming brokers?
A story of treachery and intrigue, with the outcome of the story contingent upon a packet of "secret papers."
Tex, a famous detective, recounts the story of how he went into the crime business: While visiting his old friend, Jack Nelson, a dispute breaks out between Nelson and his butler. Later that night, Nelson is murdered, and the next morning the murder weapon, a knife, is discovered next to the body. Edna, the victim's wife, seizes the knife, and Tex, fearing that she is about to kill herself, throws the weapon out the window. Interpreting Tex's actions as incriminating, the police arrest him, and he is sentenced to prison. Two years later, a fire breaks out at the penitentiary, and Tex's bravery in saving the warden's wife and child wins him a pardon. Determining to solve Nelson's murder, Tex searches for the butler but discovers him to be innocent. Summoned to Edna's deathbed, Tex hears her confess to the crime, thus causing him to devote his life to solving crimes and saving innocents from being convicted on circumstantial evidence.
Tom Larnigan, encouraged by his victory over the Textile Trust, turns his attention to the Railroad Monopoly. Tom receives warning from the Graft Trust to cease his activities or suffer the fate of his father and brother.
Vere Herbert lives with her wicked mother, Lady Dolly (Marie Curtis), who is living in sin with Lord Jura (Glen White). Although Vere is in love with an opera singer, Lucien Correze (Harry Hilliard), Lady Dolly convinces her that marrying the dissolute Prince Zouroff (Walter Law) will save her father's honor. But the Prince makes her miserable and insists on having his mistress, Jeanne deSonnaz (Caille Torrez), live with them.
Theda Bara's vamping is at its most evil here. She plays the Russian Princess Petrovitch, who loves only her pearls. Her husband, the Prince (E.F. Roseman), sells state secrets to a spy to pay her exorbitant bills, and her response is to report him to the secret police. Then she runs off to Monte Carlo with her lover, Count Zerstoff (Emil deVarney), but she poisons him after he racks up a load of gambling losses.
The plan is this: a foreign man of war is interned in the harbor. By blowing up this boat, Carney figures that strained relation existing between this country and warring nations will snap and the United States will be drawn into the conflict. This would mean untold orders and profit for the Steel Trust. Stone and Carney plan to carry out the plot with aid of an eccentric inventor named Bill Bean. #7 in the Graft serial.
Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hopes of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.
