But there are always legitimate uses of slow cranking—as in the case of the train and the automobile.
At one time a company was filming an episode that occurs in the story of a cross-country automobile tour. In the story, the girl, who is driving to the Pacific Coast with her father, stops the machine and gives a lift to a tramp. This tramp proves to be a bad man, and decides to hold up the defenseless girl and her invalid father. He is standing on the running-board, beside the wheel, and threatens to turn the car over the steep embankment at the side of road if the girl doesn’t do just as he says. This keeps her from slowing down, or giving any signal for help to machines that pass in the opposite direction. The tramp evidently means what he says, and would be able to jump safely off as he sent the car smashing to destruction. It would look like a mere accident, and with the girl and her father killed nothing could very well be proved.
Courtesy W. W. Hodkinson Corporation.
Roping an Auto Bandit.
According to moving-picture custom, this “action” was posed for the “still,” or publicity photograph. The photoplay shows the scene described on [page 28].
Courtesy W. W. Hodkinson Corporation.
Taking “Close-ups” on a Moving Auto.
In order to have the background in motion, it is necessary to have both actor and camera travelling forward at the same speed, as shown above. Note the mountains in the background. The company travelled more than two thousand miles to secure this “location.” (See [page 29]).