Among the Counterfeiters

Nick Carter was probably the foremost American competitor to Sherlock Holmes in the world of fictional detectives, circa 1900. He featured in hundreds of stories. At one time he appeared in his own weekly magazine, a comic strip, radio and TV programmes. Such a character would find movies a natural destination, and many such productions have been made, most famously the Walter Pidgeon version, but the film here under discussion seems oddly unfitting for such a famous property.

This one has unremarkable, obscure stars, production staff, and studio. "Pioneer Film Corporation" put together a series of two reel stories of Nick Carter, and a few are still extant, This being the third of fifteen. There were, in the WWI era, underfunded movies made outside of California and New York City, in unlikely places like Wilkes-Barre, Penna. And Ithaca, NY, that could be picked up for wide distribution, usually by states-rights companies. "Pioneer" films were made in Massachusetts. The action, a pretty pedestrian counterfeit money ring story, has little of the attraction that the Nick Carter stories were famous for, which was that Nick used new, scientific detection methods. Perhaps it was deemed that too much "crime lab" stuff would be dull, so it shows a lot of action, with nice camera movement, but it seems there's just not enough time spent on fleshing out the characters and story development, and in some spots, they don't seem to convey proper passage of time- Is this now to be hours later? Has this character in the next room been standing there waiting for hours, though it looks like minutes? Wouldn't this next thing happen later instead of now? The addition of the baby girl seems utterly pointless, just there for women in the audience to say "aww!' for.

Nick Carter is probably just not a good fit for a silent two reel format. Feature-length is really the best way to go for any good detective film.

Thomas Carrigan plays Nick Carter, the detective hero of many a Dime Novel -- on temporary suspension since publisher Street and Smith had gone in for the new pulp line of DETECTIVE STORIES; Nick wouldn't receive the first of at least three revivals until 1924. In the meantime, there was enough nostalgia to make the producers of this series of short features -- about 30 minutes each -- think him a viable movie hero.

Maybe, but this wasn't a movie to do it in. When Nick decides to help an old actor dragged off to jail for passing forged money, he winds up in the right place at the right time, and is promptly captured by the bad guys. While he sits aorund, smoking cigars, his girl assistant does all the footwork and leads the police to his capture. The story is largely advanced by means of the titles, although there are a couple of fights -- the first one looks good, but the second is silly.