The Intrigue
About The Intrigue
American inventor Guy Longstreet builds an X-ray gun that can kill at more than 25 miles. Washington will not buy it, so he sails for Europe to sell the patent. Baron Rogniat is sent to buy the weapon or, if he cannot, to kill Longstreet. Countess Sonia Varnli, working for another power, puts a maid in her place, boards the ship as a poor emigrant, and enters the Baron's house as a servant. She warns Longstreet of the murder plan. He destroys the gun to prove he loves her, and they leave together.
Cast & crew
More about The Intrigue
Frank Lloyd directed. Julia Crawford Ivers wrote the scenario. Her son James Van Trees photographed it. Pallas Pictures produced it and Paramount released it on October 9, 1916. Lenore Ulric, then billed as Lenore Ulrich, plays Countess Sonia. King Vidor appears unbilled, one of his earliest screen roles. A print is at the Library of Congress.
Themes
Background
The United States was still neutral in October 1916. The film sends an American inventor into a European arms sale and ends with him wrecking the weapon.
Making
Ivers wrote the script and her son shot it. Ulric was still using the spelling Ulrich on screen. King Vidor, not yet a director, is an uncredited extra.
Look
James Van Trees, son of screenwriter Julia Crawford Ivers, photographed the five reels.
Preservation
A print is at the Library of Congress.
Notes
- Cecil Van Auker plays Guy Longstreet. Howard Davies plays Baron Rogniat. Florence Vidor plays the woman who impersonates the countess. Herbert Standing plays the emperor.
- The countess has just come back from a wartime hospital, and that experience is why she wants the gun destroyed.
- Trade papers in 1916 avoided the word war when writing about the film.
- The Library of Congress holds the print along with other Frank Lloyd films of 1915 and 1916.
Scenes
- Sonia boards the ship dressed as an emigrant while her maid plays the countess.
- Longstreet wrecks the gun after she asks him to prove he loves her.
