Volume II: Filmography

THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY

May 2, 1911 (Tuesday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Scenario: From a play by Henrik Ibsen; the first Ibsen play to be dramatized on the screen in America

Cast: Julia M. Taylor (Bernick's wife)

Note: The adaptation for the screen of this Ibsen play was a highlight in Edwin Thanhouser's career, and in later years it was among the accomplishments of which he was fond of recalling.

BACKGROUND OF THE SCENARIO: Bernard Shaw, who was greatly influenced by him, said of the great Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) that for the exposition, situation, and unraveling of the older drama he substituted exposition, situation, and discussion. More than any other writer, he is responsible for the preoccupation of the modern drama with the "problem play" and for making the modern theatre a theatre of ideas.

Ibsen was born in Christiania and began writing poetry in 1847 to relieve the misery he suffered as an apothecary's apprentice. He gained practical theatre experience there and at Bergen, and his earliest plays drew their inspiration largely from the Scandinavian sagas. The Vikings at Helgeland (1858), Love's Comedy (1862), and The Pretenders (1864) are the most important of these early works; the second, an early expression of his characteristic demand for the freedom of the individual from social and political pressures, aroused much criticism. The far-ranging, sometimes unrealistic poetic dramas, Brand (1866) and Peer Gynt (1867), followed, and in 1873 came the immense Emperor and Galilean, about Julian the Apostate. The League of Youth (1869) was the first of the prose problem plays with which the modern theatre has been most concerned, for Ibsen's individualism has been easier to understand than his mysticism and has therefore made a wider appeal to actors and audiences. After a brief stay in Italy, he spent much time in Germany, but late in life he returned to Christiana, where he died.

The League of Youth was followed by A Doll's House (1879), An Enemy of the People (1882), The Wild Duck (1884), Hedda Gabler (1890), The Master Builder (1892), Little Eyolf (1894), and other plays, culminating in When We Dead Awaken (1900). These are all prose plays, though some are more realistic than others (The Lady from the Sea is more loosely woven than most), and Ibsen uses symbolism and other devices dear to the poets wherever he finds it helpful. A Doll's House is generally presented as a feminist document, but what Ibsen was really interested in was not that Nora was a woman but that she was placed in a situation where it was impossible for her to develop her potentialities as a human being to their full capacity. Similarly, in Ghosts and An Enemy of the People, he uses the specific issues presented, not for themselves but as examples of the hypocrisy and tyranny of society, whatever forms they may assume. (by Edward Wagenknecht for the present work)

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, April 29, 1911:

"This is the original 'Ibsen film' - the initial Ibsen play to be put into moving pictures. Many think it is the very masterpiece of the great playwright who has just departed. And we, on our part, feel that if he had been spared to see the 'first print' of the film of his play as we saw it the other day in our inspection room, he would have enthused over it as much as we. We raved! Undoubtedly, you and your patrons will too."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, May 6, 1911:

"Young Bernick and Johan Tonnesen are close friends, living in Norway. Bernick is engaged to marry Johan's sister, who is an heiress. He is simply marrying her for her money, as he is really in love with a wife of an actor. While a visit to his old love, in which he hopes to break off the affair, the woman's husband unexpectedly enters the room, and Bernick is compelled to escape by the window. Johan, upon learning of his friend's threatened disgrace, assumes Bernick's guilt, and leaves the country for America. Bernick takes advantage of his friend's chivalry by allowing it to be generally believed that Johan also misappropriated funds. In reality, Bernick was guilty of this crime as well as the other. Bernick marries the heiress and takes up his position as one of the 'pillars of society' in the community in which he lives, bearing an unsullied reputation.

"When, 12 years later, Johan returns to his native country, he falls in love with a beautiful girl his sister has adopted. She returns his affection, but when the rector tells her that this is the man whom, many years before, wrecked her mother's happiness, her love turns to misery. Johan then demands that Bernick clear his good name, but Bernick refuses and defies Johan to prove his innocence. Johan leaves to return to America in order to get letters which Bernick wrote in which he confessed his guilt. Johan is to sail for America in a ship which Bernick knows to be unseaworthy, and which puts the sea in a storm. Bernick secretly hopes that the ship will be lost, so that Johan cannot bring back his evidence. Bernick's little son, however, who is the joy of his father's life, is greatly taken with his uncle from America, and decides to stow away on the ship in which he sails. Bernick is terror stricken when he learns of his son's action, and is convinced that he will never see his child again. But the lad is safely returned to him, and experience so chastens his father's spirit that Bernick confesses his guilt to his fellow townsmen, telling them that he has lived a lie for many years, but in the future they must know him as he is, for no innocent man will again take upon himself guilt which in reality belongs to Consul Bernick. Bernick's wife, in fullness of her love, freely forgives her husband, and Johan weds the girl of his choice."

REVIEW, The Billboard, May 6, 1911:

"This playlet was taken from Ibsen's play of the same name and, in fact, is an abbreviated production of the work. The acting is good and the attempt at such a large venture is noteworthy. Bernick married Johan's sister but is caught in the home of a former sweetheart, now married. The husband enters after Bernick has fled, and Johan takes the blame. Johan is compelled to leave town because of a scandal. A little time later the other woman is deserted by her husband and dies, leaving her little girl, whom Bernick adopts. Fifteen years later, Johan returns and falls in love with the adopted girl, but is prevented from marrying her by the village minister who tells her of Johan's past unworthy actions. Bernick refuses to take the blame for the deeds he really committed so Johan is forced to leave. Bernick's son follows, to join the navy, but returns to his home, upon which Bernick confesses his guilt. Johan is received into Bernick's home and Bernick is forgiven by his wife."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, May 7, 1911:

"Taking it all in all the Thanhouser Company are deserving of much commendation for the manner in which they tell this rather involved story in picture form. At its best any story involving so many characters who bear such complex relations one to the other is most difficult to relate in play form and especially in photoplay form, where words are not spoken. And Ibsen depends so much upon his masterly dialogue that it is really surprising that such a result as this Thanhouser offering could be obtained. The sub-titles help and are well placed and composed, but the action does by far the major portion, as it should. Though not elaborately or remarkably staged this production is adequate for its requirements, and there is little in this direction to criticize. The grouping in the final scene is very bad and there are too many people bunched before the camera. To one who has not read the original play this photo version can be recommended as a substitute, and to those who have it will prove all the more interesting."

REVIEW in "Film Charts," The Moving Picture News, May 6, 1911:

"Start: Disgraced

"Finish: Vindicated

"Moral: Let the guilty keep their blame

"Reception: Good

"Biggest moment: Consul Bernick confessing all"

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, May 20, 1911:

"This is a very interesting picture of Ibsen's drama of the same name. The parts of Johan Tonneson and Bernick are particularly well acted; but the whole company was well chosen and does credit to the Thanhouser producer. On the whole, this ambitious film is amply successful, though the story is extremely hard to understand until two or three scenes have passed. There are two stories of love interwoven, but they do not seem so important as a representation of the facility with which a man, looked up to and respected, lived a lie. Ultimately, the innocent man is cleared of suspicion. The guilty one is forced by his conscience to confess. His wife forgives him, and the second love story reaches a happy ending."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, May 10, 1911:

"Henrik Ibsen's play is herein presented in a picture in a quite convincing interpretation. The part of Lona Hessel is either eliminated or is obscured so that it is not apparent. The character of Bernick is well presented, however. The adaptation shows on the death of the woman with whom he had had relations before his marriage and who had caused his brother Johan to leave home to save his honor and life by claiming his brother's crime. Bernick adopts her young daughter. When Johan returns some years later, his brother's act still fastened upon him, he falls in love with the girl, and she is told by the old physician that he is the man who caused her mother's sorrow. Bernick, a pillar of society, fears to tell the truth lest he lose his good name. However, when his young son who determines to accompany Johan, thus compelled to go away, is saved from the storm and both return, in his thanksgiving Bernick confesses his guilt before all. The settings are thoroughly adequate, but the representation of the storm hardly added much to the picture."

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