Lot of 2 (two) vintage original 5 x 7. in. US single-weight glossy black-and-white photographs from the lost teens secret weapon-themed silent film action drama, THE FLYING TORPEDO, released in 1916 by Triangle Distributing Corp. and directed by John B. O'Brien with action scenes directed by Christy Cabanne. Set in the future of 1921, an alliance of several foreign countries plot to attack the US. American officials, coming to the realization that the country is basically defenseless, offer $1,000,000 to anyone who can come up with a weapon to defeat the invaders. Winthrop Clavering, a writer and inventor, hears of the reward and tells his friend Bartholomew Thompson, a scientist and inventor who has been working on developing flying torpedo. However, enemy agents have also heard about Thompson's project, and set out to kill him and steal his plans.
The first of two photographs depicts an interior scene as two men work the controls on the panels of The Flying Torpedo. Affixed to the other side of an album page is a scene most likely from the film's climax as the good guys round-up the bad guys. These vintage original photographs came from a large collection of original photographs from the Triangle Film Corporation. These two were mounted in an album and are in overall fine condition as shown with random areas of light waviness. The photograph with the tank has the right border trimmed.
The Flying Torpedo is a lost silent film, as no prints are known to exist.
John Emerson had previously portrayed the role of Winthrop Clavering in the play, The Conspiracy, from December 1912 to March 1914. The film was produced by D. W. Griffith's film production company Fine Arts and was distributed by Triangle Film Corporation. Griffith also helped to write the film's scenario with lead John Emerson and Robert Baker. Griffith was also responsible for casting a teenage Bessie Love in the film, whom he discovered and cast in several of his films in 1915. Filming began in July 1915 under the working title, The Scarlet Band. Christy Cabanne directed the battle sequences.
Set in the then-future of 1921, novelist Winthrop Clavering (Emerson), known as "The World's Greatest Detective", befriends young inventor Bartholomew Thompson (Spottiswoode Aitken), who has just invented a radio controlled flying bomb (weaponry that would come to be known as guided missiles). Bartholomew is soon murdered by spies, described as "yellow men from the East" in the film, who steal his new invention. Clavering and his Swedish maid Hulda (Bessie Love) set out to find the spies who have been invading the United States. Clavering and Hulda catch-up with spies just as they invade California and force them out of the country with the same device they stole.