AustLit

Described as 'a drama in four acts depicting the adventures in the life of a girl telegraphist' ('West's Pictures', Sydney Morning Herald, 15 April 1912, p.4).

Divided into four acts:

1. Pangs of Jealousy

2. Bad Blood

3. The Distress Call

4. The Eleventh Hour

Chapter headings via an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald (13 April 1912, p.2).

Contemporary reviews describe A Silent Witness as a detective drama, and the Muswellbrook Chronicle adds that it 'suited the tastes of all, as the plot was not too deep to follow' (20 November 1912, p.2), but otherwise newspapers give little information on the actual plot.

According to the Townsville Daily Bulletin, this was 'a story of a couple of daring thieves' attempt and their failure to steal an actress's black pearl necklace.'

The Sunday Times offers a slightly more detailed synopsis:

'The Mystery of the Black Pearl,' described as a thrilling story of crime and detection, will be presented for the first time. The plot deals with the robbery of a jewel, and, during the search for the criminals, many sensational incidents are portrayed. A well-known detective is bound and left to watch a tallow dip slowly burning in a keg of gunpowder, while just before the capture of "the gang" a fight in mid-air is presented.

Source:

'Australian Actors in Pictures', Sunday Times, 24 March 1912, p.2.

'"The Strangler's Grip" is a sensational story of a woman's encounter with a tramp. It shows John Dalton, a squatter, having a quiet evening with his wife, when he receives a telegram calling him from home on urgent business. His wife implores him to stay, as she has a presentiment of danger to herself. He assures her all will be well, as she can ring him up on the 'phone. Besides, old Simon, the butler, will protect her. Some time after John's departure a tramp makes his appearance. Then the sensational aspect of the story is illustrated. It is a picture full of excitement.'

Source:

'Bijou Pictures', Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 28 March 1912, p.2.

'The film begins with the meeting of "Glory" with 'Lord Robert Ure"' and the "Hon. Francis Drake." Both men fall violently in love with her, and the former induces her to follow the stage as a profession. In the mean-time, "John Storm" has become a clergyman, and decides to devote himself to mission work in the slums of London. He entreats "Glory" to give up the idea of the stage, and go with him, but this she refuses to do. She goes to London and secures an appointment as a nurse, but after a time she resigns out of sympathy with another girl, who has been dismissed, through the influence of "Lord Robert Ure." Eventually she secures an appointment on the stage, and is present at a dinner party given in her honour by "Lord Robert." "John Storm" makes another endeavour to convince her to give up the stage, but this she again refuses to do. High words are exchanged between "Storm" and "Ure," and the deadly hatred of the latter crystailises into an attempt to get rid of "Storm." He pays an unscrupulous scoundrel to fire the mission hall, leaving "Storm" unconscious in the burning building, from which he is rescued in the nick of time. He goes to "Glory's" flat with the intention of killing her, his objective being the saving of her soul, but her passionate pleading awakens into fresh life the love that he has always had for her, and the film closes with both kneeling before a shrine and giving their lives to each other.'

Source:

'West's Pictures', Queensland Times, 6 December 1911, p.4.

When Jack Cardigan strikes gold, he writes to his girlfriend Nora in Sydney to give her the good news. But he entrusts the letter to an untrustworthy friend, Ralph Blackstone, who poisons Jack in order to jump his claim. Nora catches wind of Ralph's villainy, and pursues him back to the mine, first by a speedboat across Sydney Harbour and then by racing his train in a fast car. In the goldfields, she finds Jack alive, and the two are reconciled both with one another and with Jack's gold.