Summary
In the labyrinthine geopolitical landscape of 1915, 'The Ivory Snuff Box' unfolds as a taut, multi-layered espionage procedural that deftly pivots from domestic bliss to the harrowing shadows of international intrigue. Richard Duvall, a suave yet tenacious operative for the French Secret Police, finds his newly-wedded tranquility with Grace Ellicot shattered by a high-stakes theft. The disappearance of a seemingly innocuous ivory artifact—a snuff box belonging to the French Ambassador—propels Duvall into a cross-border pursuit that leads from the opulent salons of London to the sinister, sterile corridors of a Brussels sanitarium. The narrative takes a macabre turn when a valet is discovered murdered, signaling that the stakes transcend mere property theft. As Grace goes undercover within the walls of Dr. Hartmann’s medical facility—a front for German intelligence—the film descends into a psychological battle of wills. The climax involves a brutal interrogation where Duvall’s physical resilience is tested against Hartmann’s ruthless search for a numerical cipher hidden within the artifact’s double-bottomed lid. It is a story of cryptographic deception and the profound sacrifices made at the altar of national security, concluding with a hard-won return to the honeymoon that duty so violently deferred.
Synopsis
Richard Duvall is a young American detective in the employ of the French Secret Police. While in Paris he meets Grace Ellicot, also an American, with whom he falls in love. He marries her and is about to start on his honeymoon when he is called on by Mons. Lefevre, chief of the secret police. The French Ambassador to England, Monsieur De Grissac, has lost an ivory snuff box which must be found. They depart for London to interview the Ambassador. In London they go to the Embassy. There the Ambassador tells them that he was robbed of the snuff box while he was dressing and suspecting his valet, Noel, he locked him in his room. When Duvall goes to interview the valet, he finds that he has been murdered. Meanwhile, in Paris, Lefevre has broken the news to Duvall's wife of his departure to London. She, wishing to follow Duvall, asks Lefevre where she can find him. Lefevre tells her that if she will help in the recovery of the snuff box she will find Duvall. She consents, and Lefevre tells her to go to Brussels and try to place herself in the sanitarium run by Dr. Hartmann. who is supposed to be a German spy and whom Lefevre believes to be instrumental in the theft of the snuff box, which box, Lefevre hints, is of diplomatic importance. Richard Duvall, aboard the boat for Antwerp, finds the man whom he is following, asleep in a saloon, and during the night he opens the stranger's suitcase. He finds the package given the stranger in the barber shop, and on opening it, discovers the contents to be rice powder. By this time Duvall has learned that Grace is in the sanitarium, and that she furnished the news to Lefevre's agents. He feels that Grace should leave the sanitarium as soon as possible. He goes to Mr. Phelps, the American Ambassador, and has him invite Grace to dinner, planning to escape after dinner. During dinner that night, Dr. Hartmann, who is beginning to suspect Grace and Duvall, turns up at Mr. Phelps' house as an unexpected guest. When Richard and Grace leave on the pretext of Duvall's escorting Grace back to the sanitarium, Hartmann asks if he might ride with them. Because of no plausible reason, Duvall is forced to consent. On arriving at the sanitarium, Duvall is taken prisoner by two of Dr. Hartmann's attendants. His failure to discover the snuff box angers Dr. Hartmann. He knows that Duvall must have it with him, as his luggage has been searched and his friends imprisoned on various trumped-up charges. He gives Duvall until the next evening to confess the whereabouts of the box. The time allotted him is up, and Duvall refuses to confess. Hartmann resorts to torture. Finally Richard, at night, finds his opera hat behind a packing case and secures the box from the hat. Experimenting with several ornaments on the top of the box, he discovers that it has a double top. Inside the box is a piece of tissue paper, on which a series of numbers are written. Duvall substitutes another set of numbers, and conceals the set found in the box. In order to make Grace confess where the box is, as Dr. Hartmann believes she knows, he lets her see Duvall being tortured. She is almost crazed by watching his pain, so gets the box and delivers it to Hartmann. They are at once released, and proceed to Paris. They are not able to deliver the box to Lefevre, but they give him the series of numbers. Duvall and Grace at last start on their delayed honeymoon.
Review Excerpt
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The Architecture of Intrigue: A 1915 Perspective
The dawn of the spy thriller in cinema was not a sudden explosion but a gradual crystallization of anxieties surrounding the Great War. The Ivory Snuff Box, released in 1915, stands as a premier example of how early filmmakers utilized the detective trope to navigate the murky waters of international espionage. While contemporary audiences might be accustomed to the gadgetry of modern Bond, this film focuses on the raw, often brutal reality of ..."
