The Flashlight (1917)

Jack Lane (William Stowell) has made an invention for photographing wild animals. It consists of a camera with a trigger -- when the trigger is stepped on by a passing animal, a flash goes off and the camera shoots the picture. Lane goes up to the mountains to try out his new contraption. When a recluse refuses to let him spend the night in his cabin, Lane goes to sleep out of doors, with the camera set up near by. In the middle of the night, he is awakened by the flash and the sound of gunshots. Trekking back to his own cabin the next day, he develops the picture, which is of a girl holding a rifle. He returns to the recluse's cabin where he is arrested for murder. lost film

Released: May 21, 1917

Runtime: 50 minutes