Volume II: Filmography

REPENTANCE

March 31, 1914 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels (1,489 feet)

Character: Drama

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Ellis F. Glickman (Gray, the young lawyer), Helen Badgley (May, Gray's daughter, age 4), "Miss Beautiful" (May, aged 20), Frank Farrington (Tom Hampton, Gray's partner), Harry Benham (Jack, aged 22), John Reinhard (in dual role), Nan Bernard, May Dunne, Lydia Mead (maid), Adele Rey

Note: Ellis F. Glickman was identified erroneously as "William" Glickman in an advertising notice in Reel Life, April 4, 1914. In other trade publications he was incorrectly listed as "William Glechman," "William Gleichman," etc. Ellis F. Glickman was a well-known Yiddish character actor. The same issue listed the release date erroneously as March 21.

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, March 28, 1914:

"Repentance is one of the type of 'lesson' plays that made the name of Thanhouser famous. The 'punch' in this play is simply terrific! The noted foreign actor, William Glickman [sic], heads the cast - his first appearance in a moving picture - and with him are 'Miss Beautiful,' the mystery of the movies, John Reinhard - in a dual role - Frank Farrington, Nan Bernard, and May Dunne."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, March 28, 1914:

"Tom Hampton, senior partner in the legal firm of Hampton & Gray, is of a domineering, sarcastic disposition. His partner is mild mannered and inoffensive, and gives no indication that Hampton's taunts and sharp barbs of wit affect him. Secretly, however, Gray broods over his fancied wrongs. Hampton is found murdered. When inquiry is made at his law offices, Gray and a clerk are found poring over the books. They exhibit all the symptoms of surprise and grief. For a time the police hold them under observation, but investigation into the crime eventually is dropped. Years later Gray's daughter, now grown to womanhood, is injured in an accident. A young man, who proves to be Hampton's son, saves her from serious injury, and a romance develops. Gray, although secretly unwilling to have his daughter marry young Hampton, displays every outward evidence of satisfaction. He rises to announce their engagement at a banquet given in honor of the young couple, but the words of felicitation die upon his lips when an attack of heart disease seizes him. Upon his deathbed Gray confesses to his physician that years before he killed Hampton and leaves it to the doctor's discretion whether to make the fact known after his death or not. After Gray's death the doctor hesitates to make use of the confession, inasmuch as Hampton's slayer has passed beyond the fear of any earthly punishment and to besmirch his name would only injure the innocent. While the doctor still hesitates, the young couple take things into their own hands, and settle his doubts by marrying."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, April 5, 1914:

"This is a very strong and well acted drama in which the question arises as to whether a man guilty of a crime should be held responsible for it years later. Gray, the younger partner of the firm of Hampton & Gray, quarrels with the other man and kills him. He is never suspected, and years later Hampton's son and his daughter are in love. They announce their engagement at a dinner party at which her father is present, and as he arises to offer them his felicitations he falls across the table a victim of heart failure. On his deathbed he tells his doctor of the crime committed in his youth and leaves it to the latter's discretion whether or not he will make the fact known. The doctor decides that since the guilty man can no longer be reached by earthly establishment and that a publishing of the truth would injure the innocent alone, he allows them to marry unaware of the dead man's secret."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, April 11, 1914:

"This is a two-reel picture. The first reel concerns two partners. It is rather irrational, but for the sake of sensation, presumably, the author and director go the limit of their license. The story at the finale teaches a moral. The characters are well portrayed and pictures are bright and well posed."

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

"There are two features that impress themselves at once upon the person reviewing this two-reel drama of the melodramatic type, and those are the filmitization of Repentance, and the splendid way in which the death of the man inflicted with heart failure is handled. He does not die in a few feet of film, as is so often the case with the people that scenario writers wish to remove from the path of action, but he dies a long, lingering death that occupies a greater part of the second reel. In fact, some people who do not like these protracted death scenes might object that there was not enough material in Reel Two. Hand in hand, and before the death, is pictured the personification of Repentance. Not only the murderer himself, but all of the other characters on the screen contribute their share toward the development of this particular characteristic.

"The film opens with big possibilities, and proceeds to develop along rather unusual lines, replete with action until the end of Reel One. The second reel slows down, but ends in a manner satisfactory to all. Its moral is evidently that the sins of the father may not, in exceptional cases, be visited upon the son. In this case a clever friend decided that. In the matter of presentation there is nothing amiss with the picture. It is well and clearly photographed from satisfactory angles. It is well, and, above all, conscientiously acted by the cast, of whom we should select the father and the Kidlet as the most likable. In the matter of settings and other mechanical attributes the film is fully up to the average production in that respect.

"Two partners differ in temperament, the one quiet and easily stirred, and the other rough and loud. The latter angers the former, so one day the former follows the latter home, and then hurries back to his office. When the police find the body of the murdered man in his hall, there is no one to whom to attach the blame. The years pass, and the daughter of the remaining partner grows up beautiful and admired by the son of the slain partner who happens to save her from an automobile death, and thereby wins her love. The father does not approve of the match, but finally gives his consent. At the engagement dinner as he is about to propose a toast to the health of the young couple he is stricken with heart failure. After a lingering illness he dies, confessing to the doctor his murder of years before. The doctor decides not to disrupt the happiness of the young couple who have meanwhile eloped, and keeps the knowledge of the crime to himself."

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April 1, 1914 (Wednesday)

No mention of any Thanhouser Big Production for this regularly-scheduled Big Production date was made in any notices seen by the author. Apparently, the momentum had been lost.

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