The Runaway Freight

A railroad story whose only short-coming is a not very convincing love interest. But this is not emphasized; for the picture depends mostly on its scenes of railroad life, of which there are many, full of suggestions of reality and deeply interesting. On a one-track road, a freight breaks in two and the rear part is left rolling backward down grade. The locomotive is unable to catch it because the air-brake broke before the accident to the train and the peril due to the wild part to an on-coming passenger train is made clear by flash views. At this juncture, the hero, who, for his mother's sake, has made himself seem a coward, boards the wild cars as they pass the station by leaping to the top of them (a bit of rather risky work) from the top of some stationary cars on the siding. This feat is done by William Brunton. Helen Holmes is natural in her role of telegraph-operator-heroine, and Lee Maloney is the villain; his is not a very convincing part. - The Moving Picture World, November 22, 1913