User Reviews

Southern belle Gene Gauntier is playing with a puppy when orders come from her father, a Confederate officer; the Yankees have Vicksburg under siege and they are transporting gunpowder to the battle. Once again, it's up to Miss Gauntier to save the day.

"The Girl Spy" was a popular series of short subjects starring Miss Gauntier. While at Biograph, the ladies were sedate, over at Kalem women took their own fates in their hands in action stories. Miss Gauntier would dress in shocking trousers and lead the foe on long chases -- the rule was that Confederates were the heroes to appease the Southern markets; the North, having won the war, didn't much care, so long as you didn't make fun of Lincoln.

Miss Gauntier would go on to write and star in Kalem's early feature, FROM THE MANGER TO THE CROSS, then appear in movies for her own production company. Kalem would continue to exploit the ladies market by showing the audiences women who actually did stuff.

Leading lady Gene Gauntier also wrote the screenplay for this Civil War adventure from Kalem, which goes some way towards explaining the feminist perspective. It's a decent enough story in which Confederate girl Gauntier sneaks into a Yankee camp to sabotage an ammo wagon, but it's clear that Kalem lacked both the budget and talent enjoyed by the likes of Biograph and Vitagraph. The interiors in this movie were clearly shot outside on a sunny day...

A war story representing the exploits of the now well-known girl spy in destroying a Union ammunition wagon. She forges an order and gets inside the Union lines and succeeds in disposing of the sentry so as to take his place. Then, she uses a stick of dynamite to explode the powder wagon. This is a good war story, but the producers have made one serious mistake. Dynamite was not used for such purposes as early as the Civil War. It was used during the Spanish War, but it did not come into use for blasting or other similar work until 1867. It will be seen that in this instance the explosive material is an anachronism which rather disturbs the unity of events. The setting of the picture is excellent and the photography is all that could he desired. There is a succession of thrills which will satisfy the most obdurate audience. - The Moving Picture World, January 14, 1911