A Matter of High Explosives - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

Mr. Leonard, a rising young chemist, has invented a remarkable explosive so powerful that a small amount would demolish an entire village. When Mrs. Leonard enters the laboratory one day and learns the nature of this death-lurking compound...See moreMr. Leonard, a rising young chemist, has invented a remarkable explosive so powerful that a small amount would demolish an entire village. When Mrs. Leonard enters the laboratory one day and learns the nature of this death-lurking compound, she declares against its being made or kept in the house. Her husband tries to reassure her that the explosive is untrustworthy only when mishandled or dropped, but the thought of it haunts the wife day and night, though she fully realizes that by selling the secret of its composition to the government she will soon live on the fat of the land. Being subject to sleepwalking, Mrs. Leonard enters the laboratory during the early hours of the night, and with extreme caution, makes off with a bomb that she finds on a table. She goes forth into the village, seeking in her sleep a safe place to deposit the bomb, but by an odd disposition of her sleepwalking fancies, she seeks several rooftops on which to leave it, then uses women's privilege and changes her mind. As she passes along a lane, two town idlers see her coming, and on closer view, their admiration swiftly veers to feelings of self-preservation when they see that she carries a bomb in her hand. They muster the gossips, who go in nervous search of the sleepwalker, after they have seen fit to rouse Mr. Leonard, and inform him that his wife is out with a "bum." He joins in the pursuit and finds his wife standing on two of the high-power cables near the top of a telegraph pole. In her extended hand, she holds the "bum." Her husband mounts the telegraph pole, and taking the bomb, shouts to the villagers that he is about to drop it. The villagers scatter briskly, but the chemist knows that the bomb was not loaded with the dangerous explosive. He, however, has cleared the way to taking his wife home without having gossips to observe him. He puts Mrs. Leonard in bed, and securely ties her to it, thereby insuring himself against further disturbances of his slumber. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less