The Klondike Bubble (1914)
Hungerford Wolf, a mining promoter, is without funds, and can see ahead a postponement of the marriage between himself and Hattie Lamb, daughter of a staid old professor. The professor is comfortable in his position as Professor Literature in Columbia College, and provides his wife and daughter with all the comforts of a respectable home. But his wife and daughter are socially ambitious, and while Hattie is fond of Wolf in a way, she is somewhat suspicious of the precariousness of his business. This is the condition of affair when we find Wolf brooding in his office. His reveries are interrupted by the appearance of one Dawson, from the Klondike, who has a mining property of promise which he wishes promoted and the stock placed on the market. Anxious to take hold of anything in the way of promoting, Wolf assures Dawson that he can control the capital to successfully float his enterprise. But capitalists have several times been caught in wildcat affairs and refuse to listen to him. Suddenly he happens to think of the social ambitions of the Lamb wife and daughter and believes that through them he can get his hooks on the Lamb nest egg. Accordingly he sets his project before them; they in turn place it up to Lamb, and he is finally induced to invest in a venture that, at least in the roseate verbiage of Wolf, will make him many times a millionaire. Lamb places himself entirely in the hands of Wolf, who at once begins to groom him to look like a real Wall Street blood. He is fashionably attired, taught to smoke cigars and is introduced to the allurements of cafés and theaters. The Klondike venture owing to the clever manipulation of Wolf, is at first a great success. The professor's women folk become social lionesses. There is never anything to interrupt the moral smoothness of things, until Wolf assures his pupil that he cannot be a real blood of finance until he has had a scandal, and this is brought about through an introduction to Mrs. Wall Street. But in the midst of the general elation the Klondike bubble is suddenly pricked. Through the machinations of a broker named Singe, whom Wolf has turned down in a business deal, the firm of Wolf and Lamb is so viciously attacked in a yellow newspaper that there is a sudden crash in Klondike shares. Wolf goes to the editor for the purpose of giving him a thrashing, when he is beaten to a pulp himself and devises a master stroke of diplomacy by inducing Lamb to fight a duel with the editor. The duel turns out to be a ludicrous farce for, in terror under fire. Lamb proves himself an errant coward, and the only one hit is his second, Wolf, who is struck in the leg by a bullet. Matters then go to the dogs. Hattie breaks her engagement with Wolf, since he has brought about all the trouble, and the Lamb home is on the verge of being sold at auction, when news comes of a real strike in the mine and all ends happily, except that the professor decides to go back to his teaching.
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GenresDrama
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Clay M. Greene | Writer |
| Siegmund Lubin | Producer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| Edward Peil Sr. | |
| Ormi Hawley | |
| Edwin Barbour | |
| Eleanor Barry |
