Lost1916Thanhouser CompanyTwo reelsDrama

The Answer

Name: The Answer
Genre: Drama
Released: 1916-05-16

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“The Answer, a Thanhouser-Mutual two-act drama starring the Fairbanks Twins and George Marlo, is a powerful story of a man’s devotion to a sweetheart he never was lucky enough to win, and his awakened sympathies in old age for youthful romance. In the desire to feel inspired by his lost love spiritualism enters the man’s life and the possibilities of this subject for the screen are utilized in this picture. The cast is an exceedingly capable one and the production was carefully handed. The story opens with the promising village lawyer rejected by the woman he loves for another man. The lawyer is successful and, after some years, learning that she has died after a few years of wedded life, he moves away, lonely, remembering and resigned. He never married but he watched his sister’s son grow to manhood with the tenderness and care of a father.

“As a hobby the lawyer, now wealthy, studied spiritualism and though often imposed upon, he felt that someday by some means, his years of waiting and loneliness would be compensated by a message from the other world. At a seance the lawyer beheld a girl medium who was startlingly like the woman he had loved. Chance threw the sick child into his care, but it seemed that she was about to die as her body was too frail to stand the strain of her former life. The lawyer and his sister had come to love the waif, but the doctor said that there was no hope unless the child was awakened from her lethargy. Love alone cannot halt the fleeting spirit and the two watched the child sink into the coma that precedes the last sleep. Then the sister reminded the lawyer of his faith in the spirit world and she said, ‘Pray to the spirit of the woman you loved to come and help her daughter!’

“’Rather,’ he answered, ‘let us pray to the Divine Spirit to aid one of his children!’ As they prayed the twin sister of the sick girl came to the house as though sent by heaven, and she was successful in arousing her sister from her slumber. In the happy relief that followed, the lawyer and his sister turned to each other and gently smiled—for not alone had the anxious little sister found her twin—she had found also the beginning of that sweet interest which youth begets in youth; and to the girl some day may come the youth with also a prayer on his lips, pleading also for his answer.”

Summary from Reel Life · 13 May 1916

What the papers said

1 review · 1 article

Read in full · 1 min

“An unusual two-reel subject, by Emmet Mixx, featuring Robert Whittier, George Marlo, the Fairbanks Twins and others. The father of the twins is a fake spiritualist, who uses both girls to good advantage in carrying out his deceptions. While one is tied in a chair the other walks in the audience, being presumably an astral body. The first reel of this is exceedingly interesting. The second reel, while not so strong, serves to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. A novel and entertaining subject.”

The Moving Picture World · 27 May 1916

Article

20 May 1916The Moving Picture News2 min

“Now that they have reached their 15th year, the Thanhouser-Mutual twins—Marion and Madeline Fairbanks—have modestly requested that in forthcoming releases they are now desirous of having their names appear in the cast, though not for the purposes of differentiation, having long ago given up hope of ever having people tell them apart. ‘We have been known so long as the ‘twins’ in screen productions,’ said Marion, speaking for her sister as well as herself, ‘that now we have reached out 15th birthday we think it best that we be known as Marion and Madeline. It looks much more important, we think, to be listed by our individual names than it does merely as The Fairbanks Twins.’ Telling these two ladies apart has long been a matter of conjecture at the Thanhouser-Mutual studios. On one occasion, during the staging of a feature, Director Sullivan, perturbed at his inability to pick the right one, hit upon the happy idea of fastening a ribbon to their arms. Marion was assigned a blue one and Madeline a red one. Thereafter, little difficulty, as so far as identification was concerned, was encountered. The same scheme has been resorted to frequently in the staging of releases in which both young ladies appeared.

“The difficulty in telling Marion from Madeline or Madeline from Marion may be imagined when it is realized that in height, weight, color of hair and eyes and even to complexion and mannerisms they are as one. Each is just four feet tall and each weighs 74 pounds. Marion’s hair is curly and brown. So is Madeline’s. Madeline’s eyes are hazel. So are Marion’s. They dress exactly alike even to hat and shoes and their voices are the same. Both young ladies, however, believe that they have hit upon a happy solution, so far as picture fans are concerned, in being designated in the cast of the productions in which they appear as plain Marion and Madeline and not as the Fairbanks Twins. The Answer, a two-reel production to be released by Mutual shortly, will be the first in which they will be represented in the cast as Madeline and Marion Fairbanks, not as the Fairbanks Twins.”

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Cast and crew

Cast: Carey L. Hastings as his sister
: Daniel Leighton as lawyer
: George M. Marlo
: George Marlo as her son
: Madeline Fairbanks
: Marion Fairbanks as his two daughters
: Robert Whittier as fake medium
Writer: Emmet Mixx

Every name opens that person's page, with each film they appear in and which of them you can watch.

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More about this film

Bowers’ notes: Concurrent with the advertising of this film in The Moving Picture World, an announcement (see article below) appeared in the same May 20, 1916 issue that, beginning with The Answer, the Fairbanks twins would no longer be designated as twins in advertising but, as they were now 15 years old, would be listed by their individual names. The advertising and publicity departments of Thanhouser were inconsistent with each other, for the advertising for the film designated them as “The Fairbanks Twins,” without mention of their first names!

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1916 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “The Answer”. thanhouser.org/films/the-answer/

Where a print is held

Held by: No print known