The Leap from the Water Tower (1915) User Reviews

Size Isn't Everything

[boblipton · 6/10 · 21 June 2020]

Try telling that to the engineer of the World's Largest Locomotive. He almost gets into a fistfight in Helen Holmes' telegraphy office, but she puts an end to that. As the engineer swaggers off -- you should see the size of his piston rods -- he takes a swig of booze. That gets him another fistfight, and fired to boot!

He will have his revenge, cutting the air lines on his former toy, which forces Helen to mount her horse -- do you think there's some sexual symbolism in any of this? -- and leap from the water tower onto the moving train to save the day.

It's all another thrilling 12 minutes in THE HAZARDS OF HELEN, the longest-running movie serial ever. That's nine down, 110 to go

The Hazards of Helen #9

[Michael_Elliott · 23 July 2011]

Leap from the Water Tower, The (1915)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This was the ninth entry in the "Hazards of Helen" series, which featured Helen Holmes in the lead role and one that she would play in a total of forty-nine movies. This one here has her working at a railroad station when fired fireman decides to get even by tampering with the brakes on a locomotive. When Helen learns of the news she must get on her horse and rush to the train before it crashes. This was the first film in the series that I've seen so I have nothing to compare it to and I can't say for certain if it would have helped seeing the previous eight that were made or perhaps there wasn't any real need. Either way, for the most part I was entertained by this 12-minute short because I thought it contained some fun moments even if some major plot holes left me rather confused at times. For example, I'm still not quite sure how this train could have taken off and been gone for so long that Helen could simply jump on a horse and catch up with it in the matter of minutes. I'm also not sure how easy it really would have been to tamper with the brakes because what's shown here makes it seem that anyone could have done it in the matter of seconds. What did work in the picture was the performance of Holmes who was quite good in the part and best of all is that she was believable in the part of a tough girl. Another plus is that the locations looked extremely nice and it was fun seeing the action on board a real train. I'll admit that the final stunts weren't all that impressive but the film is good enough to make me curious about the others.