The periodical Motography during 1914 gave the date of the settings of the film "Anne Boleyn (1912 as 1532 during the reign of Henry VIII, typifying the film as an early example of the costume drama genre, "its exteriors typical of England", the interiors including the Tower.
Silent Film
Scott Lord
Scott Lord on the Silent Film of Greta Garbo, Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjostrom as Victor Seastrom, John Brunius, Gustaf Molander - the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film........Lost Films in Found Magazines, among them Victor Seastrom directing John Gilbert and Lon Chaney, the printed word offering clues to deteriorated celluloid, extratextual discourse illustrating how novels were adapted to the screen; the photoplay as a literature;how it was reviewed, audience reception perhaps actor to actor.
Scott Lord on Silent Film
Sunday, March 9, 2025
Scott Lord Silent Film: Sarah Bernhardt in Les Amours de la reine Élisa...
Directing in 1912, Louis Mercatan had filmed stage actresss Sarah Bernhardt for four reels using only long static shots; there are twenty three scenes in the film and of twenty two intertitles, only three are interpolated. Most summarize the dialogue and its consequence to the action untill the exclamation in scene twenty one, “May God forgive you, I never will.” While discussing the advent of sound film and its acceptance by French filmmakers, the periodical Exhibitor's Daily Review abjured its readers that the would be "reminded that Sarah Bernhardt was the first star of the first movie drama ever produced."
A year later, in 1913, D.W. Griffith, having already adopted the practice of making two-reelers, directing the first American four-reel narrative, “Judith of Bethulia”, starring Blanche Sweet. Louis Mercanton directed Sarah Berhardt again duriing 1913, reverting back to a two reel running length with the film "Adrienne Lecourver, An Actress's Romance", the film presently presumed to be lost,with no surviving copies.
All five or six reels of the 1915 film "Jeanne Dore", starring Sarah Bernhardt and written and directed by Louis Mercantan are presumed to be lost. It mas included among many of the Bluebird Photoplays during the company's brief existence during the first decade of the twentieth century.
Anne Boleyn Silent Film
Silent Film playlist
Silent Film playlist
Scott Lord Silent Film: The Deluge (Vitagraph, 1911)
Exhibitor's Trade Review lured projectionists to screen a Bible series during 1922 by promising the distribution of "direct propaganda" to ministerial bodies and schools. Perhaps a modern account would prefer the term "hype".
"The Deluge", "Vitagraph Portrayal of the Great Flood" was reviewed with a synopsis and publicity stills by the periodical The Film Index in February of 1911 and appears in advertisements placed in French periodicals. "This indescribably beautiful release is not a mere phantasy; it is a matter of careful research and Biblical record. Its costumes are designed from Tissot."
Silent Film
Noah's Ark (Vitagraph, 1911)
Adam and Eve (Vitagraph, 1912)
Scott Lord Silent Film: The Invaders (Ince, 1912)
Silent Film
Having directed "The Indian Massacre" and Across the Plains" the year before, Thomas Ince during 1912 directed the films "The Invaders" (three reels) starring its co-director Francis Ford and Ethel Grandin and "Custer's Last Fight" (three reels) for the New York Motion Picture Company and "Shadows of the Past" for the Vitagraph Company of America.
It is often acknowledged that Thomas Ince was the first director to use a shooting script. These were detailed shooting scripts, known to be meticulous in their planning, where plotline would emerge as having precedence over action and spectacle.
Author Kenneth MacGowan notes that Thomas Ince "strove for theatric effect", but only with scripts that were "direct and tight" and used intertitles to advance character action dramatically relating to events as a technique of exposition.
As late in the century, the internet century, as 2025, a film presumed to be lost, directed in 1915, was found, restored and copied digitally: a copy Universal's "The Heart of Lincoln" (Francis Ford, three reels) was discovered in a film archive in Long Island and has a 2025 date of availability. Directed by Francis Ford, who himself stars in the film as Abraham Lincoln, the film also stars actress Grace Cunard, to whom the photoplay is attributed. Advertisements placed in magazin es by the studio, thinly masquerading with a newspaper look as The Universal Weekly News announced the release of a "Marvelous and Thrilling Drama for Lincoln's Birthday" with, "Lively Grace Cunard in romantic scenes with a handsome officer, a happy ending after the war, serve to round out this virile yet tender story of the Heart of Lincoln to the supremest satisfaction of all." In regard to Lost Films, Found Magazines, now that the film has been found, perhaps our view of Thomas Ince might be sharper, particularly since we've been given an automatic reminder of how many silent films that do appear in the magazines of the time period are still presumed lost, with no existing copies that survive. Not incidentally, Keene State College holds a copy of the film "When Lincoln Paid" (Francis Ford,1913, two reels) starring Francis Ford as Abraham Lincoln and costarring actresses Ethel Grandin and Grace Cunard- the film was presumed lost with no surviving copies existing untill the year 2006 when it was found in New Hampshire.
Silent Film
Civilization directed by Thomas Ince
D. W. Griffith
Having directed "The Indian Massacre" and Across the Plains" the year before, Thomas Ince during 1912 directed the films "The Invaders" (three reels) starring its co-director Francis Ford and Ethel Grandin and "Custer's Last Fight" (three reels) for the New York Motion Picture Company and "Shadows of the Past" for the Vitagraph Company of America.It is often acknowledged that Thomas Ince was the first director to use a shooting script. These were detailed shooting scripts, known to be meticulous in their planning, where plotline would emerge as having precedence over action and spectacle.
Author Kenneth MacGowan notes that Thomas Ince "strove for theatric effect", but only with scripts that were "direct and tight" and used intertitles to advance character action dramatically relating to events as a technique of exposition.
As late in the century, the internet century, as 2025, a film presumed to be lost, directed in 1915, was found, restored and copied digitally: a copy Universal's "The Heart of Lincoln" (Francis Ford, three reels) was discovered in a film archive in Long Island and has a 2025 date of availability. Directed by Francis Ford, who himself stars in the film as Abraham Lincoln, the film also stars actress Grace Cunard, to whom the photoplay is attributed. Advertisements placed in magazin es by the studio, thinly masquerading with a newspaper look as The Universal Weekly News announced the release of a "Marvelous and Thrilling Drama for Lincoln's Birthday" with, "Lively Grace Cunard in romantic scenes with a handsome officer, a happy ending after the war, serve to round out this virile yet tender story of the Heart of Lincoln to the supremest satisfaction of all." In regard to Lost Films, Found Magazines, now that the film has been found, perhaps our view of Thomas Ince might be sharper, particularly since we've been given an automatic reminder of how many silent films that do appear in the magazines of the time period are still presumed lost, with no existing copies that survive. Not incidentally, Keene State College holds a copy of the film "When Lincoln Paid" (Francis Ford,1913, two reels) starring Francis Ford as Abraham Lincoln and costarring actresses Ethel Grandin and Grace Cunard- the film was presumed lost with no surviving copies existing untill the year 2006 when it was found in New Hampshire.
Scott Lord Mystery: The Mystic (Tod Browning, 1926)
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