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The Great Gold Robbery
(1913) England
B&W : [?] Two? reels
Directed by Maurice Elvey
Cast: Douglas Payne [Walter Hyde], Babs Neville [Dot], Sydney Smith [the diver]
Motograph Film Company production; distributed by [?] Motograph Film Company? / Produced by Joseph Bamberger (Joseph Jay Bamberger). / Released November 1913. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Elvey’s first feature film. The film was released in the USA by Greene’s Feature Photoplays in April 1914.
Drama: Crime.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Four crooks are planning a raid on a huge consignment of gold from South Africa, which is to be unloaded at a Thames wharf. Two dress themselves as policemen and wait in ambush. When the treasure van comes along with a policeman on guard, a clever trick is pulled by which the driver and the policeman guard are gotten out of the way and the treasure van driven off by the disguised crooks, who hide the gold in the river. Walter Hyde, a Thames River guard, attending the police boat at the water’s edge, overhears the plotters and tracks them. Detected, after a hard battle, he is captured and tied up. The crooks put him in the basket of an enormous crane and swing him high aloft. Dot, Hyde’s sweetheart, and her father wait vainly for Walter to keep his appointment with her at the wharf. An hour passes and Walter is still missing. Dot sees a handkerchief waving at the edge of the huge crane basket. It is Walter, weak from his rough handling, signaling for help. Scenting a mystery, Dot dispatches her father for the police and herself crosses the river and daringly climbs the crane’s framework. A slip would mean death, but up and up she goes till she is in the basket. Meanwhile Dot’s father has summoned the police, who operate the machinery which brings the basket down. The great gold robbery is the talk of London. No trace of the thieves is found. Hyde, patrolling the Thames with his comrades, recognizes the crooks as they drift down stream on a bulky craft. The police board the boat and then begins a desperate fight in the shadow of Westminster Bridge. One of the police is thrown overboard and not being a swimmer, is perishing when a man on the bridge dives daringly from the dizzy height and rescues him. The crooks are finally subdued and Walter returns to enjoy the reward of money and Dot’s affections.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: (unknown)
Listing updated: 16 May 2020.
References: Perry-British p. 315 : Website-IMDb.
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