The Kidnapped Heiress (1914)
The wealthy Monsieur Dabreuil had just breathed his last. He was the richest man in all of France, and now Jeanette, his granddaughter, and only heir, was the sole possessor of his vast fortune. Jeanette had just passed her seventh birthday. Her mother and father had died when she was a baby. Under the care of an old governess, Jane Delcot, the child had grown and thrived. And now Mlle. Delcot was the only person in the whole world who loved Jeannette, not for her money, but for herself alone. The life of the heiress was one of great joy and her aged governess would have been perfectly happy too if her ne'er-do-well brother had not appeared upon the scene. Henri Delcot had begun his life of crime at an early age, and had just completed serving a long term in prison for wrong doing. Learning of the changed condition of his sister he went to her to demand money. She refused and orders him to leave the mansion. Stung to the quick he determined to force her by desperate measures to accede to his demands. That night under coyer of the darkness aided by a band of the most notorious criminals in Paris he returned to the mansion, and stole the child, intending to hold her for ransom. The old governess was prostrated by worry lest serious harm befall the child. She was positive that her brother was implicated in the outrage, but the memory of their childhood days reminded her that even though he was a hardened culprit, he was still her brother. She shrank from denouncing him, and sending him to end his days behind prison walls. Torn by her conflicting loves she remained silent. This strange silence caused Jeannette's legal guardian to suspect Mlle. Delcot. He immediately hired the great detective, Dashwood, to unravel the mysterious disappearance of the kidnapped heiress. The great detective arrived at the mansion. With few words he examined the servants, including the governess. Then he turned his whole energy to discovering the whereabouts of Jeanette. In the meantime Jeanette had had exciting experiences with her abductors. With Dashwood and his men close at their heels they fled to the Montmartre quarries to seek refuge in the network of dark underground passages. Dashwood with his fleet of autos filled with picked men of the Paris Detective Bureau, arrived at the quarries. At the bottom of the excavation a thousand feet deep were seen the kidnappers, and nearby the missing heiress. Dashwood with his usual almost foolhardy courage decided to let himself down the steep sides of the quarry, and single-handed rescue the child. Landing at the bottom he crawled under cover of the rough hewn blocks of granite to within speaking distance of the child. Leading Jeanette the detective retraced his steps to the rope. Tying it about her he signaled for his men to pull up. The kidnappers opened fire, but the detective's forces soon silenced them. Dashwood climbed the steep quarry sides clutching the bushes and projections and had reached a large apron of rock half way up when the outlaws by a secret path reached another apron just above him. Here they planted a charge of dynamite, ignited it, and fled, leaving the detective to be crushed to death under the falling boulders. But Dashwood, by a daring leap jumped to an overhanging crag. A deafening explosion split the air, and tons of granite were hurled down to the very bottom of the quarry. When the dust and smoke cleared away the detective saw the heiress dangling helpless in mid-air and one of the outlaws cutting the rope to send the innocent child to her death. Seizing his automatic revolver, Dashwood sent the full number of bullets in the magazine with unerring aim into the outlaw. The knife fell from the wretch's hand and he plunged to the depths below. The detective with torn and bleeding hands, struggled up the side of the chasm, arriving there just as the haggled rope was about to part. Leaning far out over the precipice he grasped the little hand and rescued the girl from her perilous position. At another signal his men fully armed clambered down into the huge quarry pit. A battle ensued. The kidnappers, after a fierce resistance, were overpowered and captured. Jeanette, none the worse for her adventures, was restored to the arms of her weeping governess.
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GenresDrama
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Guglielmo Zorzi | Director |
