Unmasked

The speed demon receives an invitation to Mrs. Montague's ball. She has a celebrated necklace. He drops the card and it is found by Francis, a crook. Meg, another thief, sees him read it. They both resolve to have a try for the jewels. Meg goes to the ball in a mask, but Francis goes as a guest. He gets the jewel. Two detectives follow him. He jumps from his moving automobile, leaving his cane behind. Meg has followed him. She now goes to his rooms and they see each other unmasked for the first time. She steals his watch to get even. The detectives find his cane and see a monogram on it. They go to the jeweler who made it and he identifies it. He is arrested, tried and pronounced guilty. Meg hears of this. She visits him in jail, and he tells her where the necklace is hidden. She returns it to Mrs. Montague, who then thinks that it was only mislaid. Francis is released. The two crooks marry and resolve to reform. Moving Picture Weekly, April 1917.

Francis Ford and Grace Cunard were major co-stars for Universal in many short films and serials at this. In this one, they play a couple of society thieves. When he is caught out, she returns some stolen jewelry to cover him.

Although this story is complete, there are a couple of unexplained gaps in the story line that leave me slightly puzzled. At one point she visits him in jail without any clear indication of how. However, there is a clear chemistry between them that stands out, even almost a hundred years later.

Miss Cunard married and continued to work in smaller and finally bit roles at Universal for almost a quarter of a century. Mr. Ford, who started out working for Georges Melies' brother, Gaston, in his American films, directed as well as starred. Nowadays he is best remembered for getting his brother John his first job in Hollywood. After his major career ended, he continued to play small roles in his brother's films, and may best be remembered as the man who rises from his deathbed to witness the climactic brawl in THE QUIET MAN.