An Hour Before Dawn (1913)

Prof, Wallace, a scientific authority, strenuously objects to his son Richard's romance with Violet Dane, a chorus girl in "The Red Rose" Company. Prof. Wallace tells the girl that unless she abandons every relationship with his son, he will completely disinherit him. That night the servant overhears a heated altercation between father and son, and the next day the professor was found dead with a mysterious wound in his side. Kate Kirby, the girl detective, is engaged. All the arts of modem criminal detection and many unique methods are introduced, which prove futile until Miss Kirby finds a carbon sheet, the impression on which is a letter from the professor to Violet, asking her to call after the performance, as he wishes "to settle." Bloodstains are discovered leading to the observatory, where other disclosures prove the professor was shot. A notebook found in the professor's pocket indicates that he had been engaged in an experiment until an hour before dawn, which stamps the time of his death. The son is arrested on the strength of motive. Following the clue disclosed by the carbon, Miss Kirby secures a position in "The Red Rose" Company and becomes intimate with Violet in an effort to gain her confidence. The son is subjected to a grueling third degree, and collapses under the ordeal. These facts are graphically told in the evening paper, which Miss Kirby reads in an intensely dramatic manner to Violet in the hope that she will admit her guilt. Later, Miss Kirby overhears her praying for the fate of Richard so earnestly as to force the conclusion that she is innocent. But Miss Kirby is absolutely mystified when she receives a telegram from police headquarters advising her that Violet has confessed to the murder. Miss Kirby suspecting Violet's motive, cross-examines the girl, who adheres to her confession. The boy is released, in Violet's presence. It is the first time that the two have met since the professor's death, and the pathos of the meeting, tragic in the extreme, is intensified when the boy hears the confession and recoils in horror, renouncing Violet, who, with stoic fortitude, abandons herself to her fate. Miss Kirby reexamines the effects of the deceased professor, and discovers a note referring to the perfection of a wonderful invention an hour before dawn. A gleam of new hope enters the mystery, she enlists the interests of her father, a paralyzed detective introduced in "Chelsea 7750," and they discover that the professor was killed by a terrific explosive force (technically known as infrared ray, the discovery of which by Signor Ulivil, an Italian engineer, has so lately startled the scientific world.) Miss Kirby at once apprises the police and the deadly machine demonstrates the manner of the professor's death. Whose hand operated the wondrous contrivance that caused automatic and instantaneous death, is, however, left to the imagination of the audience.