#676) The Exploits of Elaine (1914)

#676) The Exploits of Elaine (1914)

OR “Clutch of Evil”

Directed by Louis J. Gasnier, George B. Seitz, Leopold Wharton, and Theodore Wharton

Written by Seitz, Charles W. Goddard, Basil Dickey, and Arthur B. Reeve. Based on the “Craig Kennedy” stories by Reeve.

Class of 1994

Today’s post is perhaps the biggest placeholder post I’ve ever written. Of this serial’s 14 episodes, I was only able to track down four online. As always, if and when the other 10 episodes show up, I’ll update this post.

The Plot: Elaine Dodge (Pearl White) is an amateur sleuth who teams up with scientific detective Craig Kennedy (Arnold Daly) to find out the real identity of The Clutching Hand, a mysterious masked man who killed her father. Both Kennedy and the Clutching Hand have state-of-the-art gadgetry at their disposal; Kennedy has such things as the Detectascope and the Telegraphone to help solve the case, while the Clutching Hand has things like the Death Ray for…death. Can Elaine solve the case without becoming the Clutching Hand’s next victim? I genuinely don’t know, because most of this serial is not readily available online.

Why It Matters: The NFR gives the usual rundown, and calls the serial “superior” to its predecessor “The Perils of Pauline”, citing its “sophisticated camera work and production values.” An essay by silent film expert Margaret Hennefeld gives a more thorough synopsis, which is very helpful in this case.

But Does It Really?: We have a rarity on the blog: my judgment on this film’s NFR standing is inconclusive. I do not have enough available footage for me to make the call. This is not helped by my decision to watch this so shortly after “The Perils of Pauline“, giving this serial a feeling of sameness. Befitting a placeholder post, I’ll give “Exploits of Elaine” a placeholder pass: I’m sure it has enough value to warrant its early spot on the NFR, but only watching the rest of this will tell me for sure.

Everybody Gets One: Although all but forgotten today, Arthur B. Reeve was a celebrated mystery writer in his day, with Craig Kennedy being hailed as “the American Sherlock Holmes”. Reeve wrote the Craig Kennedy short stories from 1910 to his death in 1936. “Elaine” was one of Reeve’s first film projects, and he concurrently wrote a book adaptation to coincide with the release of the serial. While filmmaking was on the move from New York to Hollywood, Reeve opted to stay behind in New Jersey, pivoting to anti-racketing campaigns and covering such news events as the murder of William Desmond Taylor.

Other notes

The four episodes I was able to track down for this viewing were “Chapter Two: The Twilight Sleep”, “Chapter Nine: The Death Ray”, “Chapter Ten: The Life Current”, and “Chapter Fourteen: The Reckoning”. This means that I wasn’t able to watch the first episode, so I don’t get any of the proper setup to fully enjoy this serial.
Also not helping is that three of these episodes are only available online via a French print, meaning that all intertitles and exposition are in a language I can only comprehend on a rudimentary level. It’s times like this I wish I had paid more attention in my high school French class. The one episode that was in English was in such poor quality that I couldn’t read much of those intertitles either. Given the lack of visual storytelling in early film, you can imagine how frustrating this whole experience was for me.
“Elaine” has at least one improvement over “Pauline” in that the cliffhangers are actual cliffhangers, with Elaine still in peril at the end of each episode. The final shot of every episode is a close-up of the Clutching Hand’s clutching hand; which looks remarkably like the hand on the “Greed” poster.
Chapter 10 is noteworthy because Elaine actually dies at the end! Though she is brought back to life in Chapter 11, or so I’m told.

I gotta say, from what I’m seeing, very few of these exploits are Elaine’s. I would argue they belong more to Craig, with Elaine being a passive “damsel-in-distress”. But then again, that is to be expected in a 1910s serial.
In Chapter 14 we at last learn the identity of the Clutching Hand when his mask is taken off and he is revealed to be…who is this guy? I assume it’s someone who was in an earlier episode, but without the right context I don’t know who this is or why he’s the bad guy.

Legacy

“Elaine” was a hit with audiences, prompting two sequel serials in 1915: “The New Exploits of Elaine” and “The Romance of Elaine”.
Will the missing episodes ever be uploaded online? And if so, will they be in English? Tune in next time for what I’m calling “The Lost Exploits of Elaine”!