Charles Christie and Scott Sidney | 813 / 1920 [Lost film]

mass masquerade

by Douglas Messerli

 

Scott Darling (screenplay, based on a story by Maurice Leblanc), Charles Christie and Scott Sidney (directors) 813 / 1920 [Lost film]

 

No source that I encountered knew the status of 813, directed by Charles Christie and Scott Sidney, and several seemed to suggest it may now be a lost film. I could find no source for a copy or an on-line viewing in any event and, accordingly have been forced to use the summary provided by the film daily Wyd’s Films and Film Folks from January 12, 1921, even though the film is listed as a 1920 release.

 

   As a kind of early version of the James Bond villains, Robert Castleback (Ralph Lewis) has developed a mysterious power and is now making plans for worldwide control. The crafty gentleman Arsene Lupin (Wedgwood Nowell) may be a master thief but he is also a loyal Frenchman and knowing about Castleback’s secret, attempts to obtain state papers held by the power-hungry evil genius. Two German agents in the employ of the Kaiser, however, are also after the papers.

     Castleback is suddenly murdered, and, of course, Lupin is a prime suspect, but he declares his innocence by his stated intentions to catch the real killer. Disguised as the Chief of Police, and working alongside police officials, he comes in contact with another master criminal Ribeira (Wallace Beery) who is masquerading as Major Parbury. Lupin believes Parbury/Ribeira is involved in the crime.

      Meanwhile, Lupin falls in love with Castleback’s widow, Dolores (Kathryn Adams). Knowing that Lupin is on his track, Ribeira attempts to get rid of Lupin by kidnapping his daughter and informing Lupin that to obtain her release he must go alone to a deserted house. Despite his realization that it’s a setup, Lupin takes the bait and foils the plot to kill him, escaping through an underground tunnel which amazingly ends in Dolores living room. In the mantelpiece over her chimney, moreover, he finds the state papers, but as he turns back to the room, he suddenly is aware of the mysterious man whom he has long been trailing facing him. To his horror he quickly realizes that the man is, in fact, Dolores, who in reality is a German criminal who kills herself rather than be taken to custody. Shocked by the turn of events, Lupin escapes.

      Presumably, Dolores has been appearing in drag, either as a woman dressed as a man, or—since the source does not make that important distinction—as a man who dressed from time to time as Dolores. 

     What is clearly apparent from the plotline as described is that everyone in the film is pretending to be someone other than who they truly are, including Lupin himself.

 

Los Angeles, March 1, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (March 2023).