Mrs. Hilton’s Jewels
(1913) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by E.A. Martin
Cast: Henry W. Otto [Frederick Hilton], Kathlyn Williams [Mrs. Frederick Hilton], Al W. Filson [William Jones, the money lender], Wheeler Oakman [the safecracker]
The Selig Polyscope Company, Incorporated, production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Scenario by Maibelle Heikes Justice. / Released 18 June 1913. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama: Crime.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Frederick Hilton, a stock broker, is on the verge of failure, but he keeps his sad secret to himself. His wife, a lover of all the gleam and glitter of life, further imperils him by her extravagance. She has a gorgeous set of jewels she desires to have expensively reset. He asks her to defer this for the present. She is perverse and impetuous, and does not understand such delay. He leaves the door of the private vault in their palatial residence open. She has just taken out the jewels and steps back into the vault to escape him, when he returns and closes the door with a bang, unwittingly imprisoning her. During the day the market swings in his favor, and he recovers from the cowardly thought of desperate suicide, to find his fortune safe. When he comes home, elated with the good news, he cannot find his wife, and at once jumps to the conclusion that the butler has made away with her in order to get the jewels. As they are struggling at the door of the vault, he hears a faint tapping on the inside. During the rush of the day he has lost his memorandum of the vault combination. Spurred by desperation, he secures the aid of two safe blowers, who finally open the iron-room and the imprisoned woman is released, bringing new hope and happiness to his arms.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 5 July 1913, page ?] A good story, written by Maibelle Justice Heikes, that is, if we may qualify the statement. It is likely that if Kathlyn Williams, who plays the lead, really were shut up in a vault for fifteen hours she would not, when taken out, revive in a moment, or for that matter, revive at all. Again, if when the husband, who could not open a safe in his own house; it might have been a time lock, although that would indeed be singular, should go out into the street for help, it is hardly likely he would run into two hold-up men who were also burglars with their complete kit with them. Aside from the overacting of Henry W. Otto, who plays the husband, the picture was well made; undoubtedly it will interest any audience.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 10 June 2024.
References: Lahue-Selig p. 153 : Website-IMDb.
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