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1916Than-O-PlayThree reelsDrama

The Cruise of Fate

Also released as The Baroness

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

“Variations of the eternal triangle are found in scores of dramas and photo-plays. It is a problem that has for all of us a profound interest and one which never fails to enthrall with its many ramifications. Though the theme is not a new one, the treatment of it in the Thanhouser-Mutual three part drama, The Cruise of Fate, is handled in an original and an artistic manner.

“The story tells of Miriam Kennerly, wife of John, a man so absorbed in his business that he neglects to pay her the attention she craves, which leads her to believe that his love is waning. When he is unable to attend a big reception she is giving, she becomes convinced that he has ceased to love her. During the reception John returns and seeks his wife. He finds her in a secluded corner. Unseen, he overhears Miriam promise to give her answer to the interloper on the following day. John arranges a yachting trip and among the guests invited is the man who is trying to break up his home. The development of the plot is stirring and the denouement one of the most thrilling ever presented upon the screen.”

Summary from Reel Life · 4 March 1916

What the papers said

1 review · 1 article

“This three-reel production presents a story of moderate interest in which is featured Valkyrien, the beautiful actress from abroad who has been for some time in the employ of the Thanhouser Company. The story treats of how a wife who believed herself to be neglected returned to the arms of her husband after discovering that the man who would come …

Read in full · 1 min

“This three-reel production presents a story of moderate interest in which is featured Valkyrien, the beautiful actress from abroad who has been for some time in the employ of the Thanhouser Company. The story treats of how a wife who believed herself to be neglected returned to the arms of her husband after discovering that the man who would come between is cruel and cowardly. The tale has been told in a fantastical manner, and was written by Virginia T. Hudson and Lloyd Lonergan.”

The Moving Picture World · 18 March 1916

Article

13 February 1916Sunday Times-Union1 min

“Boyd Marshall from the Thanhouser Company is a villain. In The Cruise of Fate, a Than-O-Play production, he falls in love with the wife of another man and wins her love away from her husband. Then he had the nerve to accept an invitation extended by the other man to go on a yachting trip down the Atlantic Coast from New York to Florida, and he continued to make love to this other man’s wife on the other man’s boat. Then while off the coast of Florida a fire on the yacht forced him to abandon it, and he takes the two lifebelts, putting one on the girl and one on himself, and leaves the husband to look out for himself. However, the girl sees that the true lover is the husband and she helps him to safety on a desert island. Here again we find this villain Marshall, with all the food that has washed ashore in his possession and, before he would give up any of it to save her weak, dying husband, he makes her promise to leave with him at the first opportunity, but a ship arrives and his plans are thwarted, and the girl and her husband go away and ‘live happily afterwards.’ But don’t judge Boyd by this picture as he is one fine boy personally. He was formerly with Lasky’s Six Pianophiends. His Thanhouser picture experience dates back four years and some of his latest are The Marvelous Marathoner, The Last Performance, heavy in The Water Devil, and The Cruise of Fate. He is now cast for the lead in The Hidden Valley, Director Warde’s new picture.”

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Cast and crew

Director
Ernest C. Warde
Cast
Boyd Marshall as her affinity
Frank L. Gereghty
Thomas A. Curran as her husband
Valda Valkyrien
Valkyrien as Miriam Kennerly
Writer
Lloyd F. Lonergan
Virginia Tyler Hudson
Photographed by
William M. Zollinger

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More about this film

Filmed in
New Rochelle, New York; East Mayport and Jacksonville, Florida
Bowers’ notes

Ernest Warde, Mlle. Valkyrien, and others arrived from New York on the week of January 23rd to commence filming this picture.

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 Cruise of Fate”. thanhouser.org/films/the-cruise-of-fate/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known