Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1915-05-29
SEALED ORDERS
Seven Reel Feature at Temple
Theatre Next Wednesday.

dicted on all sides will usher in a new
era in that form of entertainment, is
underlined as the next attraction at the
Temple Theatre "Sealed Orders,
Wednesday, June 2nd.
This European masterpiece is prob
ably the first really big dramatic work
designed primarily for cinematograph
production. In the past, numerous
big plays that have achieved stage sue
cess have been reproduced in motion
picture form, subsequent to their stage
popularity. In this instance, the story,
dialogue and situations were all design
ed for the most effective results pos
sible on the screen, in consequence of
which the production enjoys an ad-
vantage that none of its predecessors
have had.
Sealed Orders" is particularly time
ly as it is naval play. The fact that
the locale is Europe means nothing, for
the story is one quite as comprehensi-
BILE to the average American as to the
Continental. A fleet of dreadnaughts,
and two armies were employed in the
making of the picture, in addition to a
remarkable cast of principals.
The story deals with two nations on
the verge of war. A titled traitor is
watching the movements of the home
government for the enemy, and report
ing to his masters through the medium
of carrier pigeons. The head of the
home navy is Admiral Van Houven,
whose son is Lieutenant in the same
service. The wife of young VanHouven
had had perfectly harmless filtration
with the Spy, Count Spinelli. The latter
persists in his attentions to an en-
barassing degree, and when war actual
ly breaks out and the young Lieuten-
ant has been entrusted with the first
attack, governed by sealed orders, the
spy, believing himself absolutely safe,
forces visit on the Lieutenant's wife
at her home.
A second later the husband himself
appears to bid his family farewell. The
wife does not dare to tell him of the
presence of the spy in the room, and
goes with her husband to the nursery,
where he takes leave of his children,
while the Count remains in hiding in
the reception room. In turning from
his children, the Lieutenant picks up a
paper elephant that the nurse has made
for one of the babies, and laughing at
its grotesque outline, he is Mortified to
find it fashioned from letter address,
ed by Count Spinelli, to his wife. 1t
had been a most cunningly insinuating
missive, and the part cut away by the
nurse left it most damaging document
During the intense scene that follows,
the spy takes advantage of their
absence to seize the bag with the seal
ed orders, opens it, copy the latter, and
return it to the portfolio.
On returning to the reception room,
the young officer looks for his bag, and
discovers the spy Kidding behind the
mantel. His determination to wreck
vengeance is interrupted by the ap-
pearance of another officer from his
ship, who comes to urge him to hurry
away. He suppresses his fury and
turns away with his brother officers
rather than expose what he regards the
betrayal of his home.
The spy, too, leaves, and having
copied the order ATTACK at Sunrise"
SETS about to transmit it to his masters.
For this purpose he repairs to an old
windmill on the crown of hill on his
estate, where his pigeons and para
phernalia are concealed After hiding
the message under birds wing, and
turning it loose on its fateful mission,
the spy repairs to pit under the
ancient structure to hide away his
equipment. A burst of wind sways
the door which closes the trap over the
pit, and wedges it beyond all power of
the prisoner to dislodge. Nemisis, too,
over takes the mute, feathered mes
senger. The bird is shot by a man in
Van Houven's division before it reaches
the lines of the enemy. The fact that
the sealed orders have become known,
causes an investigation, resulting in the
arrest of Van Houven, his trial and
condemnation to death.
Count Spinelli, realizing that his end
is near, writes out a. confession in his
death pit, where he and it are found,
almost on the hour of the innocent
Lieutenant's execution. A race for
life saves the latter, and the tangled
web of circumstances straightens out
with the result that the distressed fam
lily is reunited and everything made
perfectly clear.
Throughout this action the parts play
ed by the children stand out as one of
the most appealing and beautiful things
ever introduced into cinematograph
production.
'Sealed Orders" is the work of
Danish Director and company, and has