A Life in the Balance

Apr 3, 1915

0h 12m

★ 0.0

Overview

King attempts to tighten the brake of a freight car standing near the summit of a steep grade at Lone Point. Suddenly, the brake chain snaps and the train commences to roll down hill. Helen sees King's peril, rides to a point just before a curve, crawls hand over hand across a rope which she has stretched across the track, and snatches King from the car moments before the car is dashed to pieces as it leaves the rails of the curve.

Genres

Thriller

Production Companies

Kalem Company

A Life in the Balance Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Helen

Helen Holmes

King - Brakeman

Leo D. Maloney

Corning - Conductor

George A. Williams

Just as the bead clerk and his assistants are closing up the jewelry store for the day, a package containing a very costly necklace arrives by special messenger. The large safe deposit vault has been closed for the night and the time clock set. The head clerk is fearful to leave the necklace in the store and so decides to take it home. His actions have been closely watched by one of the junior clerks, with sinister and stealthy glances.

0.0

The Murderers

Nov 7, 1973

A reformed criminal is blackmailed when three girls are murdered.

No Image Available

0.0

C.O.D.

Mar 17, 1932

A man assists a woman to dispose of the body of her stepfather....

0.0

A Prowler in the Heart

Mar 25, 1973

A mystery novelist meticulously creates an alibi to keep her husband from being convicted of murder.

0.0

The Climax

Jan 4, 1930

Young Italian girl wants to become a great opera singer.

0.0

Smashing Through

Jun 9, 1918

Claim jumper Dave Marco and his boss Earl Foster, a crooked investment broker, hire chemist Ralph Brandon to falsify papers that a certain worthless mine is valuable then convince Ralph's mother to invest all her money in the mine. Ralph’s sister Holly meets Jack Mason, whose mine is actually valuable though not yet profitable, and they fall for each other. Once Mrs. Brandon finds out she has been duped, though forced into silence by the threat of having Ralph’s malfeasance exposed, and Marco attempts to jump Jack’s claim events come to a head until the happy conclusion.

0.0

Unknown Treasures

Sep 1, 1926

A poor man refrains from proposing to the woman he loves until he can secure the fortune left him by his uncle. Believing the treasure awaits in his uncle's abandoned mansion, he begins searching... only to uncover mystery, murder, and a killer ape.

0.0

The Girl Who Dared

Mar 18, 1916

The smugglers seem in a fair way to escape on a stolen engine when Helen, unhitching a team from a nearby wagon, races down the road towards the railroad bridge from which a rope is hanging directly over the track. Standing astride the two speeding horses Helen leaps to the rope, and swaying in mid-air makes a perilous drop to the stolen engine as it dashes past.

0.0

When Seconds Count

Jan 8, 1916

#61 in the Hazards of Helen series

0.0

Tapped Wires

Jan 29, 1916

After binding Helen to prevent her from stopping the express train to have it await an armed guard, crooks board the train, disable the messenger and dynamite the safe. Helen later takes a short cut in an auto and overtakes the train, but the crooks leap from the speeding train into her car before she can warn the engineer and train crew.

0.0

The Girl Telegrapher's Nerve

Mar 4, 1916

Steve Nelson, a clever crook, arrives at the little station where Helen is operator. He lives quietly at the village's little boarding house preparing for a coup when Helen receives instructions that lead her to suspect Steve.

0.0

The Lineman's Peril

Dec 9, 1916

Film #109 in the Hazards of Helen series

0.0

The Watertank Plot

Oct 9, 1915

Fearing lest Cameron's horse beat the pony he has plunged on, Tony Dorgan orders one of his men to bribe the stableman to drug the animal. Saratoga Johnny tries to carry out Tony's order, but receives a beating at the hands of the irate Cameron employee.

0.0

Medicine Bend

Jul 3, 1916

Whispering Smith, a railroad detective, is sent to Medicine Bend to suppress the looting of cars.

0.0

The Wrecked Station

Jan 20, 1917

Helen, the telegraph operator at Lone Point, receives a telegram for Sydney Wayne, superintendent of the Graham Gravel plant, advising him that the plant has changed ownership and that Stanton Grey accompanied by his daughter Edith, is on his way to Lone Point to inspect the property. Wayne is startled because he has gambled away the company's money and realizes that his books will not balance. Fortune appears to favor him when Grey is carried into the station unconscious as the result of an automobile accident. He extracts Grey's wallet from his pocket but Cole, the gambler, who has trailed Wayne gets a photograph of him in the act. With the photographic evidence, the gambler tries to blackmail Wayne.

No Image Available

0.0

The Maniac

Oct 16, 1911

An escaped mental patient assumes the identity of a society girl's dead father and threatens her marriage.

0.0

The Red Signal

Feb 13, 1915

Brent, the night operator has been knocked unconscious by a piece of lumber projecting from a passing freight, and has been rendered temporarily insane. Meantime, a furious storm arises, a track walker discovers a washout and wires a warning to Helen, who sets the danger signal for the Limited which is due in ten minutes.

0.0

The Human Chain

Jun 5, 1915

Deering and his gang rifle the station safe and gain possession of some valuable gems; Helen seizes the package and throws it into the river. In order to recover the package, a human chain is formed by the railroad men, which Helen climbs down and attempts to catch the package with her feet. Meanwhile, Deering and his men have boarded a launch, and succeed in grabbing both Helen and the package. Morton takes over a freight train, captures the crooks, and rescues Helen and the gems.

0.0

The Girl Telegrapher's Peril

Jan 2, 1915

Blake, a quarrelsome lineman, and a widower with two daughters, is in love with Helen, but she rejects his advances. Helen spies Myra, Blake's three year old daughter, who has ventured onto the tracks of the oncoming Elwood Express, and just in the nick of time, grasps the girl off the tracks, but in so doing, must leap off a trestle into a river thirty feet below

A Life in the Balance

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

A Life in the Balance Trailers