The Million Dollar Mystery is a 23-chapter film serial released in 1914, directed by Howell Hansel, and starring Florence La Badie and James Cruze. It is presumed lost.
Plot
A prologue for The Million Dollar Mystery introduced the characters and groups. After the opening title card shows "hundreds of hands" grasping for the money and then a shot of the check for $10,000 the solver of the mystery is shown prior to the beginning of the first reel. Baby Florence is left at a boarding school with a note and half a bracelet instructing that her father will come to take her back upon her eighteenth birthday. Hargreaves, here played by Alfred Norton, is chased by the Black Hundred, but he receives a note and money before attempting to escape by balloon on the top of a building. The balloon is shot down and the first chapter ends.
Cast
Florence La Badie as Florence Hargreaves raised under the name "Florence Gray" Albert Norton as Stanley Hargreaves, Florences' father. Sidney Bracey as John - Hargreaves' Butler Marguerite Snow as Countess Olga Petroff James Cruze as Norton, a newspaper reporter Frank Farrington as Braine, the leading conspirator. Lila Chester as Susan, friend of Florence. Donald Gallaher in Bit Part (possible cameo as himself) May Wallace as the wife.
Important figures cast in scenes included William Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester. The Duke of Manchester was cast in a scene aiding Florence in escaping from Countess Olga and her "band of conspirators".
Filming and $10,000 prize
Filmed in New Rochelle, New York, The Million Dollar Mystery was produced by Thanhouser Film Corporation and was that company's biggest success, largely due to the popularity of La Badie, who performed her own stunts. Publicity gimmicks, including a monetary prize to anyone who submitted the best idea for a conclusion to the serial, were used to boost the serial's success. The Million Dollar Mystery was the new serial project from the Chicago Tribune following the success of The Adventures of Kathlyn. The serial was released with the gimmick that the last chapter was unwritten. Twenty-two chapters were written based only on the title, while the serial was left purposefully unfinished with no final chapter.
A prize of $10,000 was offered for the best suggestion (advertised as "$10,000 for 100 words"). Thousands of letters were received by Thanhouser in response to this promotion, and Ida Damon, a secretary in St. Louis, Missouri, won the prize. In a further publicity stunt, the character Florence Hargreaves was actually reported missing. Details of the plot were fed to newspapers and the police as if they were real events. Seven days passed before this story was exposed as fiction.
Chapter titles
The Airship in the Night
The False Friend
A Leap in the Dark
The Top Floor Flat
At the Bottom of the Sea
The Coaching Party of the Countess
The Doom of the Auto Bandits
The Wiles of a Woman
The Leap from an Ocean Liner
The Elusive Treasure Box
In the Path of the Fast Express
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