Under the Lion's Paws's primary photo
  • Under the Lion's Paws (1914)
  • Short | Short, Adventure
Under the Lion's Paws (1914)
Short | Short, Adventure
The drama opens in an engineer's office when business is about to close for the day. Hans, the spy, who wishes to obtain possession of the documents, plans to kidnap under false pretenses Frances Dagmar, the typist, who holds the keys of ...See moreThe drama opens in an engineer's office when business is about to close for the day. Hans, the spy, who wishes to obtain possession of the documents, plans to kidnap under false pretenses Frances Dagmar, the typist, who holds the keys of the safe where the plans are stored. She is led to take a ride in an auto; she is bound and gagged and thrown into the woods. Fortunately, she recovers quicker than the plotters thought, and races to the nearest telephone to give to the engineer an account of her experience. The message is received just after the burglary has been committed, and the thief is seen escaping by means of climbing a roof. His retreat is cut off, with the exception of one means of escape, and that is, by jumping on to the telegraph wires that run across the street, landing on the roof of the adjoining property, and thereby effecting his escape. This is a nerve-wrecking incident for one who is expecting the wires to break and let him down at any minute, but he successfully escapes. It is expected that he would take a train and leave the city immediately, so the engineer and his typist decide to take this train, hoping that they may see him. To avoid creating suspicion, the typist is disguised as a man. They quickly find that they are on the very same train as the thief himself, and make preparations to hold him up at the point of the revolver. Unfortunately for them, the thief sees them in earnest conversation and suspects their intention. Divesting himself rapidly of his overcoat, he lays in wait for the attack, wrestling the revolver from the engineer. They have an extremely excitable and fierce struggle on the rear of the train, where ultimately the engineer is thrown clean off the boards onto the railway siding. The typist, who has witnessed the struggle, runs up to the rescue. The thief seeing her with the revolver and about to shoot climbs up into the top of the train, where he is followed by the woman. Just at the moment when she reaches the top of the carriage, she loses the revolver. The thief, quick to realize his opportunity, rushes at her, and they have a fierce struggle on top of the train, which is still going at full speed. After biting, kicking and wrestling, he is able to throw the woman off the top of the train. The thief escapes and advises his employers of his success and his experience. Realizing the still greater danger now from the discovery of the theft, they decide to get rid of the woman at all costs. Knowing that she is due to keep an appointment at a place adjoining a building used for the storage of lions, they fix ropes to the cage doors and thread the same up to the roof. Having locked the door and made sure that the woman could not escape, they climb onto the roof of the building, pull up the ropes and thus free a number of wild lions, which bound out into the room and confront the typist. She is terror-stricken for some time and escapes into another room, but discovering a prong used by the lion-keepers, she is enabled to drive back the lions out of the room, and after a desperate struggle closes the door after them. While this is going on she fails to see one lion that escapes into the anteroom. Thinking herself free, she swoons away. While in this state, the lion that she had not counted upon, bounds into the room by smashing the door and immediately attacks her. She is mauled for some few seconds before she recovers. Then a fierce struggle takes place, and only in the nick of time does the engineer come upon the spot and shoot the lion. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less
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Director
Jean Durand
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Status
Edit Released
Updated Jun 17, 1914
Release date
Jun 17, 1914 (United States)

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6 cast members
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