Continuing onward…

Hands Up! was a serial from 1918, co-directed by veteran filmmakers Louis Gasnier and James Horne—seriously, click on the links and read their list of credits. Gasnier discovered Max Linder, who only created silent slapstick film, and Horne did all those Laurel and Hardy films for Max Roach. Hands Up! was written by Jack Cunningham, who wrote for everyone from W.C. Fields to Douglas Fairbanks. Hands Up! had Ruth Roland as a star, and she was damn near Pearl White’s level as Hollywood’s queen in the early years. 

So why did Hands Up! disappear?

Maybe, just maybe, the plot was a little too goofy even for silent film Hollywood. After all, you’ve got a resourceful, spunky, and modern newspaper reporter in Los Angeles who is approached by Omar, the High Priest of a group of Inca living in Southern California. Omar has decided that Delane is the missing Inca princess and heir to the Inca empire and wants to take her back to Peru, with Omar becoming her advisor/eminence grise. Delane is forced to use all of her wit to elude him and his cult’s kidnap attempts. 

Then Delane discovers that she is also the lost heiress of the Strange Ranch. Which is unfortunate, because Delane’s cousin Judith wants the ranch and is willing to kidnap or kill Judith to get the ranch.

Then the masked cowboy, the Phantom Rider, begins appearing and rescuing Delane from the Inca and from Judith’s thugs, and Delane has to figure out who he is.

And then there’s a trip to Peru, and the Inca Lost City, and their pet dinosaurs.

And so on. Over-egged pudding, basically, is Hands Up!’s problem.