The Lost Express

Please note this review is based on the 4-reel cutdown that was made available in the 1960s; the original version was five reels. Neither should it be confused with the 1917 THE LOST EXPRESS, which was also directed by J.P. McGowan and starred Helen Holmes.

Railroad magnate Henry Barrows is traveling in his private train to his country place. There he will deal with the break-up of his elder son's marriage and receive his grand daughter, Lassie Lou Ahern. Then his train goes missing! It's up to the day manager of the station, Helen Holmes, to figure out how that happened, recover the baby, and win the boy.

Miss Holmes had risen to prominence as one of the "action girl" serial stars of Kalem in the mid-1910s, and she continued to star in serials and features like this, directed by her husband J.P. McGowan. Unfortunately, about this time, their marriage was coming apart. they would make four more features after this, and then Miss Holmes would retire.

Part of the reason is that she may have gotten tired of leaping on and off trains after she reached her 30th birthday. While she does some scrambling on top of a moving car, the way her leaps are shot -- from afar, with her back to the camera, while she wears a hat -- makes me think a stunt double may have performed the jumps.

Although there are one or two events in this film that made my eyebrows go up -- having recovered Lassie Lou Ahern, a clue to the vanished railroad results in her handing the youngster over to a random swamp rat -- this short feature has the required thrills, mysteries and railroads that Miss Holmes' fans had come to expect.