The Vitagraph's latest production is "413," an unusual title for a distinctly unusual play, that has all the real thrills that could be crowded into a work of this sort. "413" is a detective play of the red-blooded kind. It has to do with smuggling and the Secret Service. It evolves a plot that is particularly clever and that holds the attention of those who view the drama from the very beginning. It is clearly set forth every minute, and it depends for its interest upon a logical story in which the wits of master minds are set in keen defiance.
But it draws to a climax that is the last word in moving pictures. It is a train wreck that brings the action and the excitement of those in the theatre to fever pitch. A great many things have been attempted by the makers of photoplays that depend upon a brilliant piece of scene work, but none have ever been accomplished that has surpassed this remarkable scene when the great locomotive and the train become an actual wreck before the people's eyes.
There was not a breath drawn when that train plunged off the embankment. They are wonderfully clear and vivid pictures that were caught of this action, and it is well placed in the story, of which it is a part. Sometimes when a big scene is given in a play of this kind there is the appearance of a little forcing to work up to it, but in this instance it is not so. The wreck comes as a surprise, if you are not waiting for it, and not an inch of it seems other than the most real and natural.
But "413" is a good play, even without the wreck scene. It tells a love story that is intense and pretty, and it is well worked out to a happy conclusion.
Withal, it is splendidly acted. You cannot imagine a better group of players for such work than those in the cast. Anita Stewart, as the daughter of the smuggler chief, is always pretty and attractive, and she enters into the scheme of the play in a most fascinating way. Her love story seems a real one. And you are always in sympathy with her. She is a natural heroine, whom the viewers of the play cannot help but applaud. As the Baron Barcellos, Harry Northrup sustains his splendid reputation, and Harry Davis, Paul Scardon, Julia Swayne Gordon are good every minute.