The Brass Check (1918)
Comedy-drama | 11 March 1918
A Metro Pictures press release in the 2 February 1918 Moving Picture World announced that director Will S. Davis, assisted by Harry Franklin, had begun work on The Brass Check, the latest Francis X. Bushman-Beverly Bayne comedy-drama, and had cast all the major parts. The 9 February 1918 Motion Picture News added, "Besides the principals there is a large cast of minor players, who will appear as farmers, detectives, tramps, lunatics, and so forth."
A large company of cast and crew "have returned to the Metro studio in New York [at West 61st Street], after spending a strenuous week in storm-ridden Baltimore and its suburbs staging scenes for their new Metro production, The Brass Check," according to the 2 March 1918 Moving Picture World. "Scenes were also staged [near Baltimore] at 'Bushmanor,' the country estate of Mr. Bushman, which is ideally suited for the big estate called for in the story....The Metro players worked in one of the worst snowstorms experienced in Maryland since 1909. The weather, however, aided rather than hindered the work, as Director Davis got some of the most striking scenes ever taken by a camera."
The 23 March 1918 Motion Picture News noted that Bushman and Bayne had finished The Brass Check and moved on to their next picture, With Neatness and Dispatch (see entry).
"Favorite stage ingenue" Ollie Cooper, a product of "distinguished theatrical stock," made an auspicious film debut in The Brass Check, the 16 February 1918 issues of Motion Picture News and Moving Picture World reported. It was ...
A Metro Pictures press release in the 2 February 1918 Moving Picture World announced that director Will S. Davis, assisted by Harry Franklin, had begun work on The Brass Check, the latest Francis X. Bushman-Beverly Bayne comedy-drama, and had cast all the major parts. The 9 February 1918 Motion Picture News added, "Besides the principals there is a large cast of minor players, who will appear as farmers, detectives, tramps, lunatics, and so forth."
A large company of cast and crew "have returned to the Metro studio in New York [at West 61st Street], after spending a strenuous week in storm-ridden Baltimore and its suburbs staging scenes for their new Metro production, The Brass Check," according to the 2 March 1918 Moving Picture World. "Scenes were also staged [near Baltimore] at 'Bushmanor,' the country estate of Mr. Bushman, which is ideally suited for the big estate called for in the story....The Metro players worked in one of the worst snowstorms experienced in Maryland since 1909. The weather, however, aided rather than hindered the work, as Director Davis got some of the most striking scenes ever taken by a camera."
The 23 March 1918 Motion Picture News noted that Bushman and Bayne had finished The Brass Check and moved on to their next picture, With Neatness and Dispatch (see entry).
"Favorite stage ingenue" Ollie Cooper, a product of "distinguished theatrical stock," made an auspicious film debut in The Brass Check, the 16 February 1918 issues of Motion Picture News and Moving Picture World reported. It was her only picture.
A summary of The Brass Check in the 30 March 1918 Moving Picture World called it a "Seven-Part Detective Story." The 27 April 1918 Motography listed the film as a 13 April 1918 release.
According to the 6 April 1918 Exhibitors Herald, the Chicago Board of Censors demanded the following changes: "Reel 2, boy picking up pocketbook and running to corner with same. Reel 4, closeup of man taking rings and following view of his putting them into pocket; closeup of open drawer showing money and following scene of burglar putting same in pockets."
The 15 March 1918 Variety complained that Davis did a poor job of creating the interiors for the rubber trust headquarters. "For what was supposed to be so wealthy a corporation, more modern and elegant quarters would be expected. That lack of finished detail took away from the illusion that the men were of the predatory rich class."
Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne made over two dozen movies together, beginning in 1915. They married in 1918 and divorced in 1925.
The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this film on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021.
Henry Everett is confined to an insane asylum when he refuses to sell his synthetic rubber process to a company of powerful rubber barons for the pittance they offer. Meanwhile, Richard Trevor, the son of trust magnate Silas Trevor, is ordered out of the house when he refuses to marry the homely heiress his father has chosen. Richard becomes involved with Henry and his sister Edith when he mistakenly picks up a baggage claim check meant for the detective whom Edith has hired from the Dexter Detective Agency to help her brother, and decides for the sake of adventure to assume the detective's identity. After a series of daring adventures, Richard discovers that his own father is at the bottom of the scheme to steal Henry's invention. He secures freedom and financial recompense for Henry, and then introduces Edith as his fiancé to his ...
Henry Everett is confined to an insane asylum when he refuses to sell his synthetic rubber process to a company of powerful rubber barons for the pittance they offer. Meanwhile, Richard Trevor, the son of trust magnate Silas Trevor, is ordered out of the house when he refuses to marry the homely heiress his father has chosen. Richard becomes involved with Henry and his sister Edith when he mistakenly picks up a baggage claim check meant for the detective whom Edith has hired from the Dexter Detective Agency to help her brother, and decides for the sake of adventure to assume the detective's identity. After a series of daring adventures, Richard discovers that his own father is at the bottom of the scheme to steal Henry's invention. He secures freedom and financial recompense for Henry, and then introduces Edith as his fiancé to his father.
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