AllMovie

The appeal of The Adventures of Kathlyn, The Perils of Pauline, and, especially, Thanhouser's The Million Dollar Mystery -- all blood-and-thunder serials with imperiled heroines -- was parodied in the three-chapter The Fates of Flora Flourflush or The Ten Billion Dollar Vitagraph Mystery Serial. Clara Kimball Young starred in the title role, a millionairess whose "four-horsepower 1892 combustible" accidentally runs over truehearted street cleaner Frank Goodheart (Charles Brown). They fall in love despite the shenanigans of Flora's jealous suitor, the nefarious Sir Simon Blackheart (L. Rogers Lytton), but Frank refuses to marry Flora until he has made his fortune. Co-written by Miss Kimball Young's husband, James Young, the miniseries also featured Templar Saxe and future director George Stevens. A buxom leading with a fondness for melodrama, Clara Kimball Young was later one of the first actresses to produce her own films.