I just looked at this movie, issued on DVD to accompany a Kickstarter release of WHISPERING SHADOWS. To be exact, I looked at an abbreviated version of it, cut down from five reels to perhaps three. It retains the framework of the movie's plot, but primarily shows off the movie's special effects sequences.
Margarita Fischer marries Jack Mower. Her rejected suitor, Monroe Salisbury smiles devilishly and grows horn briefly, to show he is now evil. He grows a Mephistophelean beard and begins to drug his patients. Eventually, these include Miss Fischer, whom he eventually has within his power. When they run off together in a storm, he attempts to rape her.
It's pretty heady stuff for 1917, and in many ways the flip side of the sort of movie that Cecil B. DeMille was already beginning to specialize in, in which rich people have a great time sinning for the bulk of the movie, but repent in the last reel. It's hard to tell, in its current state, about the story and acting for most of the movie, because it's not present. It is clear that director Harry A. Pollard -- sometimes confused with the slapstick comedian Harry "Snub" Pollard -- did a fine job managing the fantastic horror sequences set in Hell, with their heavily tinted red, both to obscure the terrors of damnation, and the rape scene, with its flashes of lightning and strong side lighting lending an unearthly quality to the proceedings.
As mentioned earlier, the severe cutting makes it difficult to offer an appraisal of the overall quality of the film. On the other hand, the fantasy sequences show that a committed director could offer his audience some advanced visual story telling, even a century ago.
Margarita Fischer marries Jack Mower. Her rejected suitor, Monroe Salisbury smiles devilishly and grows horn briefly, to show he is now evil. He grows a Mephistophelean beard and begins to drug his patients. Eventually, these include Miss Fischer, whom he eventually has within his power. When they run off together in a storm, he attempts to rape her.
It's pretty heady stuff for 1917, and in many ways the flip side of the sort of movie that Cecil B. DeMille was already beginning to specialize in, in which rich people have a great time sinning for the bulk of the movie, but repent in the last reel. It's hard to tell, in its current state, about the story and acting for most of the movie, because it's not present. It is clear that director Harry A. Pollard -- sometimes confused with the slapstick comedian Harry "Snub" Pollard -- did a fine job managing the fantastic horror sequences set in Hell, with their heavily tinted red, both to obscure the terrors of damnation, and the rape scene, with its flashes of lightning and strong side lighting lending an unearthly quality to the proceedings.
As mentioned earlier, the severe cutting makes it difficult to offer an appraisal of the overall quality of the film. On the other hand, the fantasy sequences show that a committed director could offer his audience some advanced visual story telling, even a century ago.
