Volume II: Filmography

KATHLEEN, THE IRISH ROSE

March 10, 1914 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels (2,004 feet)

Character: Drama

Director: Carroll Fleming

Scenario: From an old story

Cast: Maude Fealy (Kathleen Mavourneen), David H. Thompson (Terence O'Moore, her lover), Arthur Ellery (Squire, the rival for Kathleen's hand), Carey L. Hastings (Kathleen's mother), Joe Sparks (Father Cassidy), Violet Gray (May, an heiress)

Notes: 1. Violet Gray, the Thanhouser actress, bears the same name as a fictional detective character played by Julia Taylor in Thanhouser films in 1910 and 1911. 2. Arthur Ellery's name appears as "Augustin" Ellery in a cast listing in Reel Life, March 7, 1914.

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, March 7, 1914:

"Kathleen, the Irish Rose, is a Maude Fealy film that you're lucky to get in the regular no-extra-charge service - put into that to boom her Big Production with you. David Thompson, her leading man, will make all the girls fall in love with him as the witty Terence O'Moore, peasant and lover. Arthur Ellery is Thompson's rival for the Rose's hand, and Carey L. Hastings plays the fair one's mother. It's the finest Irish romance the films have shown in some time."

ADVERTISEMENT, The New York Dramatic Mirror, May 20, 1914:

Testimonial to Maude Fealy: "I want to inform you that all Thanhouser productions you have appeared in, have proven the biggest money getters of the season without exception. You were exceptionally popular here, when connected with the Stock Company, but to use the slang expression and not paying any undue compliments, you have been 'a regular riot' in pictures, so much so that several of the theaters in this city have had special photos printed to give away at the matinees. Your picture Kathleen, The Irish Rose will be played at the Province on the 14th and 15th, and this will be the biggest two days the theatre will have known, as for the past two weeks the manager has been busy answering phone calls regarding the picture. You can always count on a rare reception whenever you appear in Winnipeg.

"J.H. Booth, manager, The Mutual Film Corporation of Canada."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, March 7, 1914:

"Kathleen is distraught. She is betwixt the between. For the life of her the pretty colleen doesn't know whether to accept that bold Irish lad, Terence, or to fly to the wealthy squire who promises to give her jewels, a coach-and-four and a townhouse in Dublin. Terence, the bold devil, will not brook 'no' for an answer and declares that with his trusty blackthorn he will crack the squire's sconce. Fearful that her rustic sweetheart will do what he says, Kathleen has a troubled sleep. She dreams that she is made the victim of a mock marriage and that Terence, convicted of murder, is sent to the gallows. She sees herself disgraced and laughed at by the squire's servants, and there flashes through her fevered brain the picture of Terence swinging beneath the new moon on the gallows near Dublin with the crows a-pickin' all roundabout. In tears she springs from her bed to find Terence's rosy face at the lattice. And through grilled window lips meet lips and Terence makes terrific vows of eternal love and constancy. The squire? Well, like the mare with the swollen fetlock at the Donnybrook horse show, the squire 'got the gate' when next he called."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, March 5, 1914:

"With Maude Fealy in the title role and Dave Thompson as Terence, her lover, this film is very well taken and well acted. The story deals with the interrupted love affairs of Kathleen and Terence. Another man had beguiled Kathleen into marrying him, and, as she thought, the marriage was a mock one; in fact the supposed priest was really a friend of the man. But the old priest heard of the affair and, pretending to be what he really was performed the ceremony, and when the man tells Kathleen that the marriage was not a real one, he comes forward and explains that it was. The man is annoyed at this and decides that she must be got rid of. He has her kidnapped, but Terence rescues her and kills the man."

Note: The preceding review tells only of the dream sequence within the film.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, March 21, 1914:

"A two-part Irish love story with very little that is fresh or new in it. Maude Fealy plays the heroine and puts life and charm into the young woman. She is gracefully supported by all in the cast. But the staging is artificial - we see gardens in a riot of blossom and a few feet away see the wintery trees of a wood and cold waters of a lake. There is a story that interests; but it is too dependent on melodramatic license to really capture the spectator who is not simple-minded. It turns out, in the end, to be merely a dream. A fair number."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, April 8, 1914:

"Maude Fealy is Kathleen in this two-reel Irish romance, and a very charming Kathleen, too. If it were necessary to designate the strongest element of the picture, we would point to Miss Fealy, because of her personal charm and her ability to act. But the merits of the production are by no means confined to one player. It has an acceptable story, staged with a praiseworthy, if not always successful effort to reproduce the atmosphere of romantic Ireland. Many of the sets, such as those of gardens in bloom, are extremely pretty, although at times artificial. Costumes are in keeping with the period of the story and photography is clear. Kathleen is content in the love of her rustic sweetheart, Terence, until a wealthy squire puts notions of being a great lady into her pretty head. Thereupon Kathleen has a prolonged dream in which the squire plans to trick her into a mock marriage, but is prevented by a priest, who learns his game, and performs the ceremony in earnest. The evil squire then wants to get rid of his bride, and hires a band of thugs to kidnap her, but Terence comes to the rescue, and lays low the entire company of hirelings. He is about to be hung for murder when Kathleen wakes up, and is relieved to find the unharmed Terence waiting to fold her in his arms. Altogether, a pleasantly diverting story in subject matter and treatment. The squire and Terence are played according to the conventions of romantic acting."

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March 13, 1914 (Friday)

No Thanhouser release because of the two-reel film of the preceding Tuesday.

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