Silas Marner

“Some of the most beautiful acting ever seen upon the screen is lavished on a rather bad picture plot at the Garrick. Frederick Warde is to be seen there for today only as Silas Marner and has excellent support in the Baroness DeWitz. This is from the novel by George Eliot and it seems to have been much better suited to fiction than to pictures. The plot is too obvious to be of absorbing interest and the story is too exceedingly old. The only way that it could be deeply enjoyed would be to have the atmosphere of the village life perfectly created and the seriousness with which the country villager takes small things strongly emphasized. This can be done in a novel, but not in a picture. Nevertheless those who have read the story and those who can enjoy fine acting in a somewhat limited story will appreciate the effort.”

REVIEW by Louis Reeves Harrison, The Moving Picture World, February 5, 1916:

“Artistry of treatment, sense of what is both appropriate and attractive to the eye, is fast becoming a Thanhouser characteristic, a general quality to be highly appreciated, especially in view of the fact that the regulation old studio director, the kind that drifts from one studio to another, usually lacks both imagination and good taste. Besides its charm for the eye, Silas Marner shows consistent and careful work in the scenario. Because of the many lapses of time, the story is not an easy one to tell on the screen, and it presents many other difficulties of construction, those of an involved plot, but the author of the screen version has done his work with rare skill, and a very interesting story is the result.

“The greatest pleasure one experiences in watching this portrayal, however, lies in what is commonly known as ‘atmosphere.’ We are taken out of the life we are living and transported, as on a magic rug, to other lands and other times, and then our intelligence is assumed—we are not carefully informed that Cupid is the God of Love, as is done in another release shown at the same time. From the beginning of his career in motion picture production, Thanhouser has assumed the intelligence of Americans, and he has won out on those lines. Any example that aims below that intelligence does not on that account satisfy the mentally weak, while it only disgusts millions of refinement and education, including the young generation, brightest of any America has ever known. The Thanhouser Company is to be congratulated on this successful adaptation.”

“This seven-part adaptation of Silas Marner arranged for the screen by Philip Lonergan and made at the Thanhouser studios, is an especially commendable one. The picture follows the story remarkably well, the detail has been carefully attended to, and as a visualization of George Eliot’s novel can be relied upon by exhibitors and educators as being authentic and entirely worthwhile. Frederick Warde plays the role of Silas Marner, doing an excellent piece of work.”

“This is one of the strongest heart stories yet told on the screen, and it has all the sympathetic qualities that made the novel so famous. The story in its transmutation to the screen is accurately followed, and the intensive interest that was aroused by the novel is still retained. Moreover, the settings are among the best examples of the English rustic environment that have been used in pictures. The characters are typically English and are in life just as George Eliot portrayed them in the story. Frederick Warde in the titular role gives a most realistic interpretation of the part of the kindly man turned miser by false accusations, and then redeemed by the love of a child. The part as played by Mr. Warde absolutely lacks artificiality, and a better actor could not have been selected for the part. The events woven into the life of this man form a most interesting plot which readily lends itself to a most vivid picturization. It offers a striking example of the psychological study of a character overcome for the lust of gold and the effect of love upon it. The dramatic qualities are of the highest class, while intensive situations are numerous and out of the ordinary. The plot is logically developed, and interest is retained from the beginning to the end.

“The picture offers fine examples of English settings of the early nineteenth century, and there is not a lapse into the modern throughout. The tavern scene is one of the best of its kind that we have seen. The backgrounds have been most carefully and ably selected. The story is so well known that it is not necessary to dwell upon it in great detail; in fact it is a masterpiece of its type and is studied in almost all schools. Falsely accused by a supposed friend, Silas Marner is driven from his native town. In his new existence love for gold becomes his one absorbing motive. In the town where he lived there were two sons of good family, Godfrey and Dunstan by name. Dunstan, the younger, inveigled his brother, Godfrey, into a marriage with a barmaid while he was under the influence of liquor. In order to keep the affair secret, Godfrey supplies Dunstan with money, but this is soon used up, and discovering the hidden gold in Silas Marner’s cabin, he takes it while the latter is away. Escaping in the darkness and rain Dunstan fell into the clay pit and was drowned. Molly, Godfrey’s wife, falls exhausted near the miser’s hut and her little golden-headed child takes shelter by the fireside. Seeing the golden locks of the child when he awakens from his sleep, Silas imagines his gold has returned. Fully awake Silas hears the mother’s voice outside, but she dies before he is able to render assistance. Godfrey recognizes the dead woman, but not until years later does he confess to Nancy, his wife, that Eppie is his child; then they go to take her from the old man, but her love is so strong that she remains with him. The old well is later drained and the remains of Dunstan are found clutching Marner’s bags of gold. The photography is good on the whole, and the picture has been very well directed.—S.”

This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

“The ‘film inevitable’ has won another one of the dignified and conservative repositories of Shakespearean tradition to itself. This time it is Frederick Warde, the distinguished tragedian and Shakespearean actor, whose life has been spent in the interests of the highest which the stage has held since the days of Edwin Booth and Thomas Keene, Lawrence Barrett and Barry Sullivan. Mr. Warde has consented to enter the silent drama under the auspices of Edwin Thanhouser. His introduction will be that role, familiar to every school child in the United States, Silas Marner, and his first appearance will be under the auspices of the Mutual Film Corporation. Through one of those strange coincidences of life, Mr. Warde will be initiated into the motion picture realm by his own son, Ernest Warde. The latter is one of the regular staff of directors at Mr. Thanhouser’s studio, having come there with a career as a stage director of Shakespearean productions which had already established him as one of the most accomplished producers of classic plays. Mr. Warde, the younger, was with Richard Mansfield for several years before his death, as stage director.

“The combining of the two arts—that of acting and that of stage directing—which is taking place in the production of Silas Marner at the New Rochelle studios in the personality of a father and a son is the first known instance of its kind. The elder Warde declares, laughingly, that he always realized that his son knew more than he did, and the son promises that he will not ‘take it out’ on his father for all the punishments (deserved, of course, which he received as a boy). He assures his father, however, that he will put him through a few extra paces, just for the novelty of it. To Frederick Warde, naturally, the traditions of the old stage are most dear, and the hands of time only strengthen, not deface, the love for the standard of art for which the older artists stood. Of late years, he has been on the lecture stage, and his delay to ally himself with the motion picture world has not been because of his disapproval of the new art, but rather because of lack of time.

“His high regard for the pictures is shown in the following statement, which he recently made: ‘A wonderful art, the motion pictures, to which I am a total stranger, but of which I am an ardent admirer. Little did I think that I would ever take part in a studio production, but the spirit of the times and Mr. Thanhouser’s proposal, bade me give ear to the ‘film inevitable.’ My initiation into the mysteries of the film studio proves to me that I am not too old for new tricks.’

“Silas Marner, the bent, wizened old miser who becomes transformed through the mysterious influence of love for a child, is an ideal part for Mr. Warde. It is a character study. It requires subtlety of acting, and a nice appreciation and sympathy for the part which will make the old man live, not as an overdrawn caricature, but as a real human being. ‘Silas Marner has been one of my favorite characters during the years,’ declared the actor. ‘I am delighted to have my first experience in the motion pictures in a role which contains such possibilities for fine acting. I am also more than anxious to find out just what sort of a fellow my son is.’

“From the time Ernest Warde was a tiny fellow, and he used to be taken to the theatre to watch his father play from a little perch built especially for him in the wings, his greatest ambition has been to be like his father. Now that he is a man himself, and a man who has really accomplished things, his ideal is the same. ‘It is wonderful for a lad to have an inspiration, such as I have had, before him all the time,’ says the younger Warde. ‘Today, and during all the time that I have worked in connection with the stage, I have had the image of my father before me. When I have become discouraged, and have been ready to give up, I have thought that my hardships were small in comparison with those my father had gone through, and have been heartened up to my tasks. Silas Marner was one of the books which my father took time from his busy life to read to me, when I was a boy. I remember that I was seized with a creeping fear when he described the old miser, and that I hugged closer to my father as we sat beside the open grate. We both see tremendous possibilities for the role.’”

Note: The foregoing statement of this being Frederick Warde’s first screen role was just so much press agentry. The elder Warde had been in films earlier; cf. his biographical listing in the present work.

“...Frederick Warde has its leading role, as the bent and twisted miser whose life of selfishness is changed by the influence of a child.... Silas Marner marks the elder Warde’s motion picture debut.”

“On February 7, Frederick Warde, the distinguished Shakespearean actor, will make his screen debut in the picturization of George Eliot’s novel Silas Marner as a Mutual Masterpicture, Edition DeLuxe offering from the Thanhouser studios. To further add to the interest which would naturally be occasioned by the presentation of so famous a player is the fact that Mr. Frederick Warde is being directed in this photoplay by his own son, Ernest Warde, who is a member of Mr. Thanhouser’s forces. Among the supporting cast is Mlle. Valkyrien, the popular Danish actress, who recently appeared in the Than-O-Play release The Valkyrie.”

“Ernest Warde, Thanhouser director, has finished Silas Marner, in which his distinguished father, Frederick Warde, is starred. The cast includes almost all of the Thanhouser stars, among them Valkyrien, the Baroness DeWitz. Mr. Warde pere says that he thinks his son started out to even up accounts for all the woodshed sessions of earlier days—and he succeeded. Fathers—beware!”

“A wonderfully strong picture—strong in its human interest; strong in its handling and strong in its acting,’ is what one of the biggest exhibitors of motion pictures in the country says of the seven-act Mutual Masterpicture, DeLuxe Edition, Silas Marner. Wherever this great picturization of George Eliot’s immortal work has been shown, there has been nothing but praise for the splendid acting, excellent photography and beautiful settings. It is heralded as an artistic triumph in film production and ranks as one of the greatest features ever filmed. An exhibitor in Newark, N.J., who has the largest theatre in the city, and whose patrons are finicky to the last degree regarding the quality of the pictures shown there, had booked Silas Marner, but had never seen the picture. Desirous of seeing it for himself, it was screened in the projection room of the Mutual Film Corporation, at No. 71 West 23rd Street, New York, for him. He immediately booked it for a return engagement before it had even been shown in his theatre. His original contract called for two days showing, but on his renewal he booked it for his four biggest days—Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“’Greatest of Features,’ Says Newark Exhibitor: ‘I consider Silas Marner one of the three greatest picture productions I have ever seen,’ he said. ‘If other producers would put on pictures of this sort and eliminate the hackneyed sex problem dramas, and the feature pictures which depend upon some spectacular ‘stunt,’ then there could not possibly be any criticism of the motion picture industry.’

“Silas Marner recently played a solid week at the Strand Theatre, Chicago, to record business and all the critics heaped encomiums upon the production. One of the most prominent of them said: ‘The picture is a photoplay of more sustained interest than one would expect from the book, with its slow and gradual movements, and bespeaks a wise director. Frederick Warde’s acting has never been better and Silas Marner is a film to be enjoyed not only by the movie regular, but by the student of literature who likes to see his favorite fiction characters on the screen.’

“Schoolteachers and educators have spoken in the highest terms of this remarkable film, have advised their classes to see it and have stamped indelibly on their memories the visualization of one of the central characters of English literature. One noted high school principal said that he believed that every high school student in the country should have the opportunity of seeing the film adaptation of Eliot’s classic, reading of which is required in every high school and academy in the United States. Aside from its merits as a picturization of a famous novel, it is a production that will appeal to the patrons of motion pictures from every angle. The photography is unexcelled, the story interesting and tense and the acting incomparable. It is a strong picture dramatically, and an artistic achievement unequalled in the silent drama.

“The new Grand Central Theatre in St. Louis, booked Silas Marner for a week. Heretofore the policy of this house was to run a feature for only four days. In many cases big features were shown only one day, but in this instance the management desired to give everybody in the Mound City an opportunity to see a film which is in the truest sense a Masterpicture, DeLuxe. To do justice to the requirements of the leading role it called for an actor of masterful abilities. Frederick Warde, the star, is one actor among a million. He makes Silas Marner stand out on the screen with a vividness that George Eliot was unable to do through the medium of print. His mental anguish is visualized in a gripping and artistic manner. The miser’s love for his gold is pictured in actuality and not in the words of the author. Frederick Warde has created a screen character fully as great as the original figure of fiction and his son, Ernest Warde, who directed the screen production, has turned out a classic in photoplays which ranks among the works of the silent drama as high as George Eliot’s novel ranks among the English novels of all time.

“Mr. Warde, who is a recognized authority on Shakespeare, and who is noted both in America and on the Continent for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters and for his lectures on the works of the Bard of Avon, made his film debut in the picturization of Silas Marner. It was only after he had read the scenario and had discussed it at length with his son that he consented to appear in motion pictures. Realizing that his reputation was at stake if he appeared in a picture production that failed to meet with his ideas of art, he agreed to play the leading role after he had convinced himself that the film version met with all his demands for artistic presentation. Needless to say that from a viewpoint of the producer Silas Marner sets a new standard in the moving picture field. Exhibitors have been as lavish in their praise of this feature as have the thousands who have seen it. It ranks as one of the greatest screen adaptations.”

“Silas Marner, the Mutual’s seven-act production of George Eliot’s famous classic, made a splashing success at the Decatur Theatre, on its first appearance in Brooklyn, N.Y. J. Celler, the manager, had sent out special letters and had personally advised the principals and the English teachers in the schools that the feature would be shown in his house, aside from tripling his newspaper advertising. In spite of stormy weather, the patrons were lined up out to the curb, waiting for a chance to get in. There were over 2,000 spectators, several hundred of them being students accompanied by their teachers. Over 60 of them were personal friends of Frederick Warde, the star of the picture, who had come from Flatbush to see the actor’s introduction into the films.

“Mr. Celler found the following letter, which he addressed to the schools, very valuable in creating interest of the right sort: ‘School teachers are invited to send their classes in literature to witness the performance of George Eliot’s classic, Silas Marner, shown at the above theatre on Tuesday, March 7. Silas Marner has been made into a picture by the Thanhouser Company, and Frederick Warde, a former Brooklynite and famous Shakespearean actor, is in the leading role, supported by an able cast. If your classes have not yet read George Eliot’s novel, or if they have already passed it in your classes, bring them. It will fix the story in their minds as the book would never do.’”

“Since the release of Silas Marner on the Mutual Program the star of the production has been the subject of an avalanche of correspondence between New Rochelle and fandom. So successful is the eminent tragedian’s film debut that Edwin Thanhouser has succeeded in getting Frederick Warde’s signature to a long-term contract. This happened last week, right after the actor had returned from a lecture tour. The contract means that Mr. Warde will be seen at eight great classic productions every year, and it is expected that his plays will be selected for a screen adaptation from the repertoire of material on which he has been seen. This brings to the screen permanently the last of the old school of Booth and Barrett and McCullough.”

“Further evidence of the popularity of the Mutual Masterpicture, DeLuxe Edition, Silas Marner, with Frederick Warde, the noted tragedian in the title role, is seen by the reception tendered this remarkable film production at Marion, Ohio. G.H. Foster, secretary of the Marion Photo-Play Company, owners of the Marion Theatre, announces that Silas Marner played to capacity business, despite a hard and driving rain. He says his patrons were delighted with the picture, and he intends booking it for a return engagement. Five performances were given of the picture, and a crowded house greeted each appearance of this artistic film drama. The audiences were particularly receptive, as they remembered Mr. Warde who appeared in person at the Marion Chautauqua last year. The success of Silas Marner in Marion is being duplicated in every city where it is shown. Although this feature was released more than three months ago interest in it has increased until at the present time it can be said to be the most popular picture ever released by the Mutual Film Corporation.”