Volume II: Filmography

HER BELOVED ENEMY

(Pathé Exchange)

March 4, 1917 (Sunday)

Length: 5 reels

Character: Drama; Pathé Gold Rooster Play

Director: Ernest C. Warde

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan and Philip Lonergan

Cameraman: William M. Zollinger

Cast: Doris Grey (Sylvia Leigh), Wayne Arey (the alleged enemy of Sylvia's father), John H. Gilmour (Sylvia's father), Gladys Leslie (Sylvia's friend, Dorothy), Ernest Howard, Carey L. Hastings

Location: Some scenes were filmed on the grounds of the Hudson River estate of C.K.G. Billings; others were filmed in Midtown Manhattan.

Notes: 1. Advertising material available to exhibitors included 1- and 6-sheet posters, two styles of 3-sheet posters, a window card, a banner, heralds, and a photographic lobby display. 2. John H. Gilmour's given name appeared as Joseph in some publicity.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, February 17, 1917:

"The entrancing romance of a pretty heiress and a man of mystery."

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, September 9, 1916:

"Edwin Thanhouser announces that Doris Grey, the beautiful Boston girl, is to be starred in the Thanhouser-made Pathé Gold Rooster play to be called Her Beloved Enemy. The story, by Lloyd Lonergan, was written expressly for Miss Gray. Ernest C. Warde is directing the picture. Miss Grey sprang into public notice at the Moving Picture Exhibitors' Ball in Boston last December, when she was chosen as the most beautiful girl at the ball. Miss Gray was promptly signed by Mr. Thanhouser with the understanding that if she proved to have talent as a motion picture actress she would be given big things to do. She accepted a rare opportunity, and she made good. What Doris Did was Miss Grey's first picture, and it was such a success that she was immediately given leading parts in other Thanhouser plays. Such natural aptitude has Miss Grey shown that in less than ten months she has taken her place as a real star in the motion picture world. Miss Grey is only 19 years old, and Mr. Thanhouser believes that she is a 'find' of the year. Her personality is crowded with the determined ambition and enthusiasm of youth. She is eager to triumph, anxious to become an artist in every sense of the word, and Mr. Thanhouser predicts that she is well on her way to genuine triumphs. Wayne Arey, whose work in The Shine Girl received favorable comment, supports Miss Grey in Her Beloved Enemy."

ARTICLE, Exhibitors Herald, September 23, 1916:

"Ernest Warde, who is directing Doris Grey and Wayne Arey in the Thanhouser feature, Her Beloved Enemy, has found that the New York street urchin is more keen eyed than the New York police. Mr. Warde was taking street stuff in New York's East Side. He wanted the scene to be entirely natural so he hid his camera in a moving van which drove casually alongside the curb near Miss Grey and Mr. Arey, who were supposed to be hurrying along the sidewalk. All seemed fine. The policeman did not notice the camera but a couple of kids did. In a second the van was surrounded by a crowd. Discovered, Mr. Warde called in his actors and drove on. He didn't try it again until he found a block on which there were no sharp-eyed urchins."

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, February 10, 1917:

"Her Beloved Enemy, a Thanhouser-Pathé March release, featuring Doris Grey, and Wayne Arey, opens with many scenes in a girl's boarding school. The true boarding school atmosphere is there. There is a certainty of this because Edwin Thanhouser, president of the Thanhouser Film Corporation, and Ernest Warde, director of Her Beloved Enemy, both have daughters in boarding schools, and therefore have authority for all 'business.'"

SYNOPSIS-ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, February 17, 1917:

"Her Beloved Enemy is a light story of romance and a substantial story of mystery. To add to its interest is the novelty of offering Doris Grey and Wayne Arey as stars for the first time. Miss Grey will be remembered as the most beautiful young woman in New England, who won a place because of this distinction in the Thanhouser studios, and developed into such competency that after a year of bits she was considered able enough for starring in features. Mr. Arey has been a leading man in Thanhouser productions for a long time.

"The story opens with the introduction of Miss Grey as a pretty boarding school heiress whose mother is dead and father has been 'away on important business' from her childhood. She occasionally receives loving letters from him, dispatched from different parts of the world. Finally, after her finishing, her father appears and conducts her to her mansion home. One day while out motoring her father observes a man in another car and recognizes him as his bitter enemy who he would like to kill. The father dies a short time later without disclosing the reason for his hatred. The little girl had not a good look at this enemy but discovers that a man she met at a girlfriend's house - and who she had grown to worship with all the fervor of her impressionable heart - is her father's mysterious foe. The remainder of the drama is exceedingly moving as the girl follows the man through a tensely exciting episode wherein she learns his real identity. It is a sadder and wiser girl who tries to have her lover arrested - and a radiant one who finally accepts him."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, March 10, 1917:

"Sylvia Leigh's only recollection of her father was a dim memory of a distinguished looking man who brought her to boarding school when she was a youngster. From that time he never came to see her, but letters came from him with foreign postmarks stating that 'important business' kept him away. After her graduation an old family servant took her to the home she had never known. Within a few months her father appeared. Not the parent she had pictured, but a broken old man whose mind seemed haunted by some shadow from the past. One day while they were motoring in the park he suddenly drew a revolver and, aiming it at a passing auto, exclaimed, 'That man wrecked my life!' But before he could pull the trigger, he fell exhausted from the effort and the other car passed before Sylvia saw his face. Her father became seriously ill from the excitement. On his deathbed he made her promise to run to earth the man who ruined his life. With no clues or an inkling of what the secret was, she attempted to locate him by an ad in the papers, only to fall into a trap. A roughly clad young man came to her rescue. Some weeks later she was surprised to find the same young man as a guest at a dance given by a girl friend. But this time he was clad in evening dress and perfectly at home among society.

"Then came the blow. An incident revealed him to her as the man she had vowed to bring to atonement. She shadowed him, caught him in a compromising position, kept him captive and phoned the police. Then the fact she still loved him rushed over her. She realized also that her father's secret was still a mystery. What will she do? Keep a death-bed promise and turn him over to the law or obey her heart? Love wins out. As a knock comes to the door she tells him she still loves him and to escape. But he only smiles, opens the door to the officers, who greet him familiarly, and then he makes some remarkable disclosures to Sylvia, which bring happiness to her troubled heart."

REVIEW, The Exhibitor's Trade Review, February 24, 1917:

"In offering Her Beloved Enemy as a feature attraction, Pathé has presented an entertainment of exceptional interest, well produced and capably acted. From the very first the plot is surrounded by an air of mystery that is cleverly maintained until the final reel. In an endeavor to fathom the mystery surrounding her father's bitterest enemy, Sylvia inserted an advertisement in the paper offering a reward for information as to the man who wrecked her father's life. This incident, while having a direct bearing upon the plot as it advances, has a tendency to provide mirth owing to this crude detective method. The story strikes an even stride at the very first, showing great care in the direction and the details. Settings and locations have all been offered with careful attention. As Sylvia, Doris Grey offers a very pleasing character, natural and human in the extreme. Wayne Arey as the man of mystery lives up to his character in every respect. J.H. Gilmour as the father and Gladys Leslie as the friend, although only appearing in the earlier part of the story, portray their respective parts admirably. This is an entertainment that will be especially suitable for community houses, as it only contains those elements that comprise a clean, wholesome entertainment free from sexy suggestions and withal a safe production for the youth to see."

REVIEW by Agnes Smith, The Morning Telegraph, February 18, 1917:

"A mystery story from a little different angle is Her Beloved Enemy, which may be added to Thanhouser's ever growing list of unconventional screen stories. The heroine of the story, played by Doris Grey, is a girl who, raised in a boarding school, knows nothing of her father's life. When she leaves school and goes to live at home she discovers that his career has been ruined by the machinations of a mysterious enemy, whom he is anxious to do away with. So after her father dies, she makes it her mission in life to find the supposed villain and make him suffer for his sins. She meets the man, but before she discovers his connections with her father's past she falls in love with him. And so she finds herself alternating her time between trailing him and helping him out of his many difficulties. In the end it comes out that the man of mystery is a secret service man and that her father was a criminal whom he had brought to justice. So the man, instead of the girl, does the forgiving, and all ends happily.

"Ernest Warde's direction brings out the good points in the story, and the mystery, well sustained until the end, is worked up to an unusual and nicely constructed climax. If the film is rather short of plot material, it moves along one line of action, with a continuous thread of interest held straight through. In the leading role Doris Grey proves herself an attractive little actress and Wayne Arey does good work in the man of mystery role. The production is well staged. An unusual bit is a scene enacted on Forty-second street and Fifth Avenue, apparently in the middle of the day, without a single bystander paying any attention to the actresses or the camera. Did Mr. Warde give the crowd an anaesthetic?"

REVIEW by Ben H. Grimm, The Moving Picture World, March 3, 1917:

"Mostly because of the strong appeal to the curiosity through a well-sustained element of mystery, Her Beloved Enemy, a five-reel drama featuring Doris Grey and Wayne Arey, is a picture that could hardly fail to attract and hold the interest of the average photoplay audience. It was produced by Thanhouser for release by Pathé. Lloyd Lonergan, the author, has achieved a clever bit of continuity writing in the building of this story, having consistently built up the suspense factor in a manner that leaves no other course to the viewer than to keep attention centered on the screen. The author has, however, rather overworked coincidence, but not to the extent that the logicality of the story suffers thereby. He keeps his characters doing something all the time - doing something that the viewer later learns has a direct bearing on the surprising denouement. While straight screen narration forms a more bulky ingredient in the production than does drama, deep dramatic chords are struck several times during the running of the five reels. Both Miss Grey and Mr. Arey respond with histrionic ability necessary to forcefully register on the spectators' intelligence the dramatic moments. J.H. Gilmour is capably cast in the role of the girl's father, as is also Gladys Leslie in the role of the girl's friend. The production has received adequate direction at the hands of Ernest Warde.

"Briefly, the screened story tells of a girl who unknowingly falls in love with a man she has been given to believe wrecked her father's life, and whose ruin she has promised to accomplish. When she learns that he is THE man, she plans to betray him. But it develops that the man is a Secret Service investigator, and not the crook she believed him to be. We are left somewhat in the dark as to how the man wrecked her father's life, although we are given to know that the father was once in prison."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, February 24, 1917: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

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