Volume II: Filmography

STRONGER THAN DEATH

August 11, 1914 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels (1,912 feet)

Character: Drama

Cast: Harry Benham (Robert Gray [Harry Gray in some accounts]), Mignon Anderson (Mignon Brett), Ethyle Cooke Benham (Alicia [or Alice] Stewart), Fan Bourke (Mrs. Gray), May Dunne

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, August 1, 1914:

"Robert Gray, while away on a vacation, falls in love with Mignon Brett, a village girl. Recalled home by a telegram from his father, he puts a ring on her hand, and hurries to town. Robert finds his father on the brink of financial ruin and his mother's health rapidly failing. There is just one way out. William Stewart, a social climber of fabulous wealth, has offered to save Gray, the elder, provided a marriage can be arranged between his daughter, Alicia, and Robert. When the young man realizes that failure will mean his mother's death, he reluctantly consents. After that he is haunted by the spirit of Mignon. Deserted and alone, she has sickened and died. On the night of Robert's wedding she appears so vividly to him that he collapses and the ceremony never is completed. For a long time the young man lies in a coma. At last, his spirit goes to rejoin his dead love."

REVIEW, The Bioscope, November 26, 1914:

"We have here a wholly delightful film which is notable for its perfect realism in acting, in staging, and even in story. Realism in its truest sense, by which we mean strict fidelity to nature, is, perhaps, the most essential quality for a serious film play to possess, and there are few producers who know how to achieve this sort of realism so well as the Thanhouser Company. The characters of the Thanhouser dramas and comedies are less imaginary personages in an imaginary play than real men and women moving through a story of real life. The Thanhouser producer has banished from his company every trace of artificiality and unnatural exaggeration, and the realistic art of his players is continued in the realism of his remarkable studio settings, about which there is seldom a trace of the ordinary theatrical scene.

"The extraordinary excellence of Thanhouser films as transcripts from life has seldom been better demonstrated than by the present picture. The story which it tells is almost commonplace, but, perhaps for this very reason, it is one of the most human and convincing dramas that one remembers. Its plot deals with the tragic love of a girl for a man whose father, a banker on the verge of ruin, desires his son to marry the daughter of a vulgar but wealthy friend, the latter having promised to finance his business on these conditions. The sacrifice is made, and the girl's heart is broken. But on the sorrowful wedding day the man, too, succumbs to his suffering, and, as the story ends, the souls of the two lovers are seen passing away together, united in death.

"No praise could be too high for Miss Mignon Anderson's tenderly pathetic study of the heroine, whose happiness is suddenly shattered by her lover's decision to save his father. Mr. Benham gives a splendidly, manly and sincere performance as the lover, whilst an unnamed actor is even better as the worldly and heartless financier. Towards the close of the film there are numerous examples of very skillful double-photography, which is introduced legitimately and with great success, not, as in so many cases, for the sake of obviously artificial effect. The man's sudden death from heart failure is a little unconvincing, and one fancies that a more original method of disposing of him might easily have been discovered. With the exception of this point, however, the story is wholly probable, and is most naturally developed throughout. As to the many elaborate settings, including spacious ballroom and church interiors, with which the picture abounds, these could not have been improved upon. We have no hesitation whatever in recommending Stronger Than Death as a very beautiful and moving drama, which cannot fail to impress all who see it."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, August 22, 1914:

"This two-reel story - decidedly weak and inartistic - fails to get the spectator's close attention, because its characters do not convince. This reviewer wonders how he could look on this picture - so helpless from an instructed mind's viewpoint - if he were a plowboy in a lonely country town. Perhaps he would swallow it all and count it a good offering. We don't believe city patrons will admire it. The photography and camera work generally are good."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 12, 1914:

"Using an unlikely story at best, the Thanhouser director did not add to its merits by leaving the fates of the two principal actors open to doubt. An audience may be pardoned for not knowing whether the heroine and her sweetheart are alive or dead when the screen darkens, although the evidence points to death. Unfortunately it does not point conclusively enough in a picture introducing so many visions. A brief scene showing Mignon reclining in a chair covered with flowers is the only indication we are given of her death, and it might well be mistaken for one of the lover's hallucinations - he is always 'seeing things.' And the climax suffers from the same vagueness. To save his father from ruin, Robert Gray has promised to marry the wealthy Alicia Stewart, despite his love for Mignon. When he is in the act of slipping an engagement ring on her finger, the figure of Alicia gives place to that of Mignon, and Robert is so disturbed that he behaves very rudely. Worse yet, when the couple are standing before the altar to be united, the bride-to-be vanishes and Robert believes that Mignon is beside him. He collapses completely and is carried home unconscious. The questionable climax is achieved by double exposure, revealing the man lying on a couch and at the same time walking off with the ghost of Mignon. This may indicate death and then again it may be only a dream. No doubt the scenario was correctly planned, but most of it fails to 'get over.' While the story may be considered unsatisfactory, there is no fault to find with the pleasing settings, clear photography and generally expressive acting of Harry Benham and Mignon Anderson."

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