Volume II: Filmography

CALLED BACK

Advertisement from The Moving Picture World, June 1, 1912. (F450)

Production stills from Called Back in two Reels from The Moving Picture World, June 15, 1912 (F-461)

June 21, 1912 (Friday)

Length: 2 reels

Character: Mystery-drama

Director: George O. Nichols

Scenario: Adapted "from Hugh Conway's greatest novel"

Cast: James Cruze (Gilbert Vaughn, the blind man), Florence LaBadie, David H. Thompson (Chris)

Note: Five scenes from this film were pictured in The Moving Picture World, June 15, 1912, page 1021.

BACKGROUND OF THE SCENARIO: Called Back, published as a novel in 1883, became a tremendous success and was translated into several languages and dramatized for the stage. The work was by novelist and short story writer Frederick John Fargus (1847-1885), who was born in Bristol, England, the son of an auctioneer. He trained as a sailor aboard the frigate Conway, from which he derived his "Hugh Conway" nom de plume. Upon graduating he was forbidden by his father to enter the navy, and he enrolled in a private school instead. He then served as a public accountant until 1868, when he took over his father's business. He died of tuberculosis and typhoid fever two years after Called Back was published. In 1912 Called Back was reprinted by two different publishers, thereby making it familiar to the readers of the time.

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, June 15, 1912:

"PART 1: Gilbert Vaughn, a wealthy young man, was suddenly stricken blind, and although his physician told him that in time he might be able to restore his sight, he chafed bitterly at his condition. While tossing about restlessly in his room one night, he suddenly decided that he would go out in the street by himself, and, eluding his nurse, he stealthily left the house. By carefully counting the steps, and feeling his way with his cane, he found for a time that he could walk up and down the block in safety, and was much elated thereat. Finally he lost his bearings, rushed around frantically, and became more and more bewildered every minute. At last he came to a stoop that he thought was that of his own house, and he stole up the steps. Blind though he was, there was one test which could tell him if he struck the right place, his latchkey. It opened the door, and he stepped into the hall, confident that his troubles were all over. Still he had a feeling that he was in the wrong place, and when he heard a woman playing the piano and singing he knew that his fears were justified. Undecided whether to appeal for help or not, he stood in the hallway. The song continued. Suddenly he heard a gasp and groan. The music ceased suddenly and a piercing cry of a woman rang out like a frightful change from melody to discord. In the excitement of the moment Vaughn forgot that strength and courage could avail him nothing; stumbled into the room, eager to aid the woman. He fell over a body on the floor, someone grabbed him, and he heard the click of a revolver. Then he called aloud, 'Spare me, I am blind.' The assassins satisfied themselves that he told the truth, and led him out of the house, after he had taken an oath never to betray them. As a matter of precaution, they conducted him far away, and then turned him loose in the streets. Later the police found him and took him home. Vaughn feared to tell his story, for he doubted if anyone would believe him. Sometimes he thought himself that it was a dream. The work of skilled physicians bore fruit in time, and Vaughn's sight was restored. He searched all over London, hoping that chance might lead him to the house, but in vain. Yet often and often his thoughts returned to the crime, and the song of the woman that had suddenly turned into a piercing cry of horror. He wondered who the victim might have been, but could not solve the mystery, so as time passed on, he was more and more convinced that it had been a dream."

"PART 2: Gilbert Vaughn, while temporarily blind, stumbled into a strange house where a man was slain, and would have perished himself had it not been for his affliction. The men in the room took him to another part of London, turned him loose, and he could never locate the house again. Later Vaughn's sight was restored and he went to Italy for a pleasure trip. There he was smitten with love at first sight when he saw a beautiful girl at prayer in a cathedral. He did not know who she was, but often thought of her, and on his return to England was surprised and delighted to meet her one day on the street. While obeying an impulse, he followed her and found that she lived in a lodging house with her old uncle, and a woman servant who never let the girl out of her sight. To be near his divinity, Vaughn engaged rooms in the same house, and was at last able to make her acquaintance. He found her to be strangely apathetic, but his passions knew no bounds and he announced to the uncle that he was a suitor for the girl's hand. The uncle, after satisfying himself that Vaughn was rich, consented, on condition that the marriage be celebrated immediately. After the ceremony, the uncle disappeared, and Vaughn found his horror in despair that the woman who now bore his name was apparently hopelessly insane. A shock restored her reason in time, and through it the mystery of the murder, heard by, but not seen by Vaughn was revealed. The victim was the girl's brother, and she was in the room at the time. The shock drove her mad, and her uncle, the accomplice of the real slayer, cared for and protected her, never dreaming that someday his sin would find him out. He permitted her marriage to Vaughn, knowing she would be well provided for, and did not recognize him as the man who had stumbled into the room, crying 'Spare me, I am blind.' The real slayer in the meantime had ingratiated himself with Vaughn on the plea that he was the madwoman's brother. He called one day to find that vengeance had overtaken him, that the two persons he regarded as his dupes were the ones who could fasten the chains of justice tightly around him. The wife, restored to reason, found her husband was the one man in the world, and reciprocated the unselfish love he had long had for her."

REVIEW by Gordon Trent, The Morning Telegraph, June 2, 1912: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

REVIEW-ARTICLE, The Moving Picture News, June 1, 1912:

"Called Back, the Thanhouser two-reeler from Hugh Conway's novel, grips. That is the best of a lot of good things that you can say about it. It just lassoes your interest. You follow breathlessly the efforts of Gilbert Vaughn, the once blind man, to locate the house in which the fatal quarrel occurred - the quarrel which he heard but did not witness - for then he was blind. The presentation of a blind man on the stage or in a film is often unpleasant, but the blind Gilbert Vaughn of Thanhouser's Called Back is very acceptable. The whole subject has no unpleasant phases, not even the quarrel scene at the outset, wherein occurs the one fatality of the piece. There are no 'horrors' in the execution of this. The English atmosphere in the first reel of the picture and the Italian atmosphere in the second ring true. Vaughn's 'search' is as well stage-set as it is well conducted. You think it real, and you follow its every turn and twist for that reason. The original novel is a very masterpiece of mystery, and the present film is a masterpiece in realistic picture production. Thanhouser makes release on Friday, June 21."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, June 15, 1912:

"Continuing on its way in the interpretation of the world's best literature through the medium of moving picture, the Thanhouser Company is showing evidences of great improvement. The work of this company is beginning to show signs of bigness. Something of the master hand is clearly discernible to the critic. One of the cardinal points of a photoplay is, of course, the story, but oft times the story is neglected for some other branch of the picture maker's craft. The Thanhouser pictures, first of all, tell the story. Not with subtitles, but with the characters themselves. That point stands for its particularly clear Called Back, the latest two-reel Thanhouser production. The picture tells its own story in an unbroken line of interest. There is not a single extraneous incident in any part of it, and it bears right down to the nub from the very beginning. Called Back is a pictured version of the novel of that name by Hugh Conway, which had enjoyed a great vogue of popularity about 15 years ago. At that time everybody was reading it, and the work was the topic of conversation wherever people gathered socially. As a work of fiction it is endured long enough to put it in a class of books that will always be popular. One of the main reasons for that is because the story is a story of action. On that account it lends itself to moving picture adaptation unusually well.

"Apart from the story itself the scenic selections show a taste of a very high order. Many a poor story has been helped out by an exquisite background; there are also some stories that have sufficient force to carry them over regardless of the setting, but in this Thanhouser picture there is combined the strength of the story with an equally compelling choice of landscape, and the result is manifest in interest and charm. All this apart from the good acting and really high class photography. While no attempts have been at fancy lighting effects, light is finely distributed in all the scenes; the characters stand out well modeled and unusually stereoscopic. There is much quality in this respect, and it is quite certain that someone from the Thanhouser studio understands lighting down to the minutest fraction of a second, which, after all, is the principal trick of photography. All the contributory elements mentioned above cannot help but make a good picture. Then there is the acting. Much praise is due the skillful rendition of the blind youth by Mr. James Cruze. One of the difficulties of portraying the part of a blind person is to keep the eyelids from winking. There were long stretches when this capable actor had the critic on pins and needles, wondering how long he could keep it up, much in the same way that we often get nervous wondering how long a swimmer can hold his breath under water.

"The story is one that has provoked many arguments, pro and con, as to what a blind man would be apt to do under certain conditions. The principle character is Gilbert Vaughn, a wealthy young man who was suddenly stricken blind at his studies one night. The young man in time became more or less resigned to his fate, although hope was extended to him by the physicians who had reason to believe that they could cure him. While blind, young Vaughn developed some of the faculties which blind men find useful. His sense of hearing became sharpened and he got about readily by the use of a cane, as blind men do. He did not go far from his home at any time, and was always in the company of his sister or mother. But one night he slipped out of the house unnoticed, to take a stroll before going to bed. In returning, however, he became confused and got into the wrong house by mistake. In a city like London, there are many houses exactly alike, being built in rows. There is many a man not blind who occasionally gets into another man's dwelling because it resembles his own. This proceeding on the part of young Vaughn therefore was not anything remarkable. Inside the hallway Vaughn recognized that something had gone amiss. He heard a woman's voice singing by a piano. Also voices of men in conversation. As with blind men, the sound of music pleased his ear, he paused to listen to the sweet voice. He heard the men talking louder and louder. He heard them wrangle until the argument terminated in a gasp and the fall of a body. The piano playing ceased immediately, and Vaughn, thinking that perhaps the singer had met with an accident, felt his way into the room where the girl lay weeping over the body of her brother, who had been stabbed by one of his companions.

"The men were all thieves and the girl was the niece of one of them, though not herself a criminal. The shock of witnessing her brother's murder unbalanced the mind of this girl. Meanwhile, Vaughn has been seized by the desperate characters in the room, and would have fared badly had he not declared his blindness and made known his mistake in entering the house. In order to make sure that he would not remember the house he had entered, one of the men led Vaughn around through devious streets, and left him lost on the corner. Some time elapsed. Vaughn's sight was restored by skillful surgery, and shortly afterward he started on a journey to Italy. While in Italy he happened into a cathedral and there, at her devotions, he observed a beautiful young woman. She was the woman he heard singing on the night of the murder in the strange house, although, of course, he had no idea at the time who she was. Vaughn became smitten with the charms of this strange young lady, but he found it difficult to communicate with her, as she was always in charge of an older woman. He determined, nevertheless, that he would make her acquaintance. He followed them to a building which proved to be a boarding house. When they had entered he rang the bell, engaged a room for himself, and went there to live.

"In the natural course of events, he became acquainted with the family upstairs, and found that the young woman was under the guardianship of an uncle. This uncle was one of the crooks who was present on the night of the murder in the London house. Vaughn did not know that this young lady was not in her right mind. When he approached the girl's guardian and announced that he would like to marry the girl, that uncle was very anxious that they should marry at once, but insisted upon proof that the young man had means. The wedding ceremony was performed without any delay, although the bride scarcely realized what she was doing. Her uncle disappeared soon after, and in a few days Vaughn realized that his wife was an insane person. With her he returned to England and they got on very nicely. Vaughn became acquainted with the young man who seemed to take a great fancy to him, and Vaughn on his part seemed to think well of his new acquaintance. This man, however, was the real slayer of the mad girl's brother. His object in making the acquaintance of Vaughn was, perhaps, to find out the state of the young woman's mind in regard to the murder some years ago. She was the only one who could point the finger of accusation at him, and no doubt for that reason he wished to be informed of her state of mind. As long as she remained insane she was not dangerous to him. In the hovering about, however, the murderer was making a great mistake. One night when he came face to face with Vaughn's wife, she screamed that she recognized him, and her memory came back like a flood tide. All the terrible events of that fatal night were brought back by the sight of the murderer standing before her. That, of course, was his own doing. With the restoration of her memory she recognized in Vaughn the blind man whom she saw that night. She was somewhat surprised to find that she was now his wife, but her satisfaction was manifested quite soon. In the form of a moving picture it is an intense drama, and one that every exhibitor will want to exhibit. It is a feature that can be advertised heavily with the safe assurance that it will make good. - H.F.H."

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