Scott Lord Silent Film: The Lighthouse by the Sea (Porter, Edison, 1911)

Directed by Edwin S. Porter in 1911 for Edison Film Manufacturing Company, "Lighthouse by the Sea" was written by Bannister Merwin and starred actress Mabel Trunnelle.
Silent Film Edison Studios

Scott Lord Silent Film: Frankenstein (J. Searle Dawley, Edison Manufactu...

Authors Dennis R Cuthcin and Dennis R. Perry in their work "The Frankenstein Complex, when the text is more than a text" view the silent film "Frankenstein" as having been inspired by several stage adaptations, specifically Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein, which, produced in 1823 by Richard Brinkley Peak, may have been remote to the Edison stufio in New Jersey, as may have been the other fifteen theatrical adaptations of "Frankenstein" produced before 1851. The University of Pennsylvania presently includes Henry M. Milner's The Demon of Switzerland (1823) and The Man and the Monster (1826) among them, but admits that several theatrical adaptations were burlesque or musical comedy.


That intertitles were at first often explanatory shows the beginning of a narrative cinema. During an early scene of the silent film "Frankenstein" (J. Searle Dawley, Edison, 1910, one-reel) there is, in between scenes, an expositiory intertitle that uses a close shot of a letter to develop plot and character within the narrative, a form of the epistolary form of the novel transferred on to the screen. A similar insert shot is used in the film "A Dash Through the Clouds" (1912).

J. Searle Dawley directed at Edison Film Manufacturing Company untill 1913, when he joined Edwin Porter at Famous Players Company, where he directed actress Marguerite Clark.

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Scott Lord Silent Film: A Trip to Mars (Edison, 1910)

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Scott Lord Silent Film: The Night Before Christmas (Edison/Porter, 1905)

Other films directed by Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Manufacturing Company include "The Seven Ages", "Coney Island at Night", "The Little Train Robbery" and "The Miller's Daughter".

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Scott Lord Silent Film: Children of Eve (Collins, Edison Studios, 1915)

Viola Dana in 1915 starred with Nellie Grant in the film "Children of Eve" (five reels) directed by John H. Collins. Silent Film Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Unbeliever (Alan Crosland, Edison Company, 1918)

The Edison Company released its last film as a studio, "The Unbeliever" (Alan Crosland, six reels) in 1918. The periodical Motion Picture News seems to have been kept in the dark that it would be the swan song of the studion, claiming that the Edison Company viewed the film as their "greatest contribution to the screen". "The Unbeliever" starred Margueritte Courot, Kate Lester and Eric von Stroheim.
Not incidentally, the term "one sheet" used to describe the standard size of movie posters began with the Edison photoplay; it was a size of approximately 27 inches by 41 inches often included a synopsis of the plotline of the film. Silent Film Edison Film