The simple girl of the sea coast falls in love with a stranger, and gets into serious difficulties therefrom. - Moving Picture World, Nov. 6 ,1915, p.1139 Nancy leads a life of misery due to the hardships and cruelties inflicted on her by her father, who is the chief of a band of smugglers, and he promises her in marriage to Pete, another member of the gang, and the girl resolves to escape from both of them. Paul, a revenue officer, who has seen the girl, joins the gang under a disguise and after a spectacular fight they are arrested, and to Nancy’s amazement Paul’s identity is disclosed and the girl is rescued from her suffering and given a home of love and happiness with Paul. - Motography, October 30, 1915, p.932
The prints released by the London office took a slightly different approach than the domestic and identified the cave as the property of multiple smugglers - The Smugglers' Cave. We've gone with the advertised domestic title.
1. The film’s working title was The Stranger. 2. The shooting location for the cave scenes was near “second point,” which is the point west of Leadbetter Beach below today’s Shoreline Park. 3. Faxon M. Dean was the cameraman for this film, and the cameraman for Eason’s company. 4. While shooting on the rocks at Campus Point, “Mr. Eason, Vivian Rich and Cameraman Dean got a thorough wetting when they ventured out on the mussel rocks above Goleta. They were figuring on every seventh swell being the big one, but miscalculated and had just finished a scene, when a regular old comber came along, covered the rock and drenched the trio.” 5. Campus Point scenes were shot Tuesday August 17, night scenes near second point were shot August 18, and they finished shooting August 19. - The Morning Press, August 19, 1915, p.6 6. Shown at the Palace Theatre on January 14, 1916. - The Morning Press, January 14, 1916, p.6 The Smuggler’s Cave depicts young Nancy’s run-in with a smuggling gang and her subsequent rescue by a U.S. Revenue Cutter Service officer. Motion Picture News called The Smuggler’s Cave “a commonplace story” which may seem odd today, but when this film was shot in August of 1915, smuggling was prevalent and U.S. revenue officers did indeed go after smugglers. 1 Tales of it taking place locally had been around for years. In September of 1910, a revenue cutter was even sent to the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara to search “every cave and cove... for evidence” of opium smuggling activity.2 A year before the film was made, a smugglers’ ship was seized at Monterey, and at Los Angeles Harbor a revenue cutter was stationed to patrol for opium smugglers.3 In January of 1915, a revenue cutter also patrolled the entrance to the Golden Gate in San Francisco in order to “prevent a smuggling launch slipping in.” 4 January was an important month for another reason, as the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service officially became the U.S. Coast Guard.5 The Smuggler’s Cave could therefore be considered a historical drama since it was released in October of 1915 but features revenue officers. The “smuggler’s cave” that lends its name to the title was “near the second point,” west of the old Castle Rock and today’s Leadbetter Beach, below Shoreline Park.6 While no longer extant, similar nooks can still be found in the cliffs to this day, and other shooting locations like the rocks off Campus Point can still be visited. _______ 1 Motion Picture News, October 30, 1915, p.100 2 The Weekly Press, September 15, 1910, p.4 3 Los Angeles Evening Herald, January 16, 1914, p.3 4 The San Francisco Call and Post, January 4, 1915, p.8 5 Stockton Daily Independent, January 30, 1915, p.1 6 The Morning Press, August 19, 1915, p.6, The Morning Press, January 18, 1914, p.8 and “Santa Barbara Waterfront” photograph from Edson Smith Photo Collection no. 1895 http://www.luna.blackgold.org/luna/servlet/s/w9bu2t - Elise Goodell FAMSTW 151FA , 9/8/2021