Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 7 (1914): The Regular Release Schedule

Amid the screening of episodes of the Mystery the regular Thanhouser release schedule continued. For Her Child, a two-reeler issued on June 23rd, featured the much publicized Irving Cummings as the father, Ethel Jewett as his wife, and the Thanhouser Kidlet, supported by numerous others. The New York Dramatic Mirror considered the film to be "attractively staged and clearly photographed." Professor Snaith, a Princess film released on June 26th, featured the unusual Snaith surname again. Some patrons might have wondered if it had any relationship, which it didn't, to Miss Arabella Snaith, a picture of two years earlier. The Widow's Mite, released on June 28th, had among its players Mayre Hall, a pretty girl who had recently joined the studio, as well as the Kidlet and the Twins. "A cute and delightful offering, very well photographed," The Moving Picture World commented.

The Harlow Handicap, issued on June 30th, featured Harry Benham, Justus D. Barnes, Mignon Anderson, and Arthur Bauer. The Moving Picture World reviewed the film: "A two-part racehorse melodrama in which the villain tries to destroy the rival's horse by setting the barn on fire. It isn't a well-written picture; the villain is poorly introduced, and his affection for the heroine, destined for the hero, owner of the winning horse, seems dragged-in. The whole picture is filled with suggestions of artificiality, and we dare not commend it as a first-class offering, though it has some exciting scenes, like a race horse crowd and a burning stable with horses rescued with bags over their heads to keep them from seeing the flames. The photography is good." On the other hand The New York Dramatic Mirror found the film to have "manifold interest, not only through the nature of the subject but through the manner of production as well."

The Decoy, the Princess release of July 3rd, was virtually overlooked by the trade press. Next on the schedule was The Cooked Goose, from a scenario by Roy L. McCardell, a popular writer for magazines and newspapers. Reviewers found it to contain lots of laughs. Then came Deborah, issued in two reels on July 7, 1914, featuring Maude Fealy in the title role of a story about the persecution of Jews in Austria during the early 18th century. Again, reviews were favorable. The Girl of the Seasons, the Princess release of July 10th, saw Muriel Ostriche as a girl who has several lovers, one for each season of the year. The Leaven of Good, distributed on July 12th, was from a story by Carl J. Sjostrom. For the first time in its history, the Thanhouser Film Corporation was having a significant number of outsiders prepare scripts.

The Substitute, released on July 14th, was from a script by Philip Lonergan, who by now had left his Majestic duties behind and was working nearly full time for Thanhouser. A Gentleman for a Day, with Leland Benham, Helen Badgley, and other children, was issued on July 17th and was well reviewed, as were nearly all Thanhouser films made for the younger set. Then came The Veteran's Sword, the Princess release of July 17th, from a scenario by Philip Lonergan. The Moving Picture World commented: "The story is weak to the point of being at least, at times, foolish.... The camera work and the staging are, like the acting, excellent."

Harry's Waterloo, first screened on July 19th, featured Harry Benham playing nine different parts, including as many as four in a single scene, by the use of trick photography. In the later years of his life, Benham would often refer to this film as being his most memorable with the Thanhouser studio. The Moving Picture World commented matter of factly: "It is a tour de force for the cameraman rather than for the actor; for playing different roles is his business." The Pendulum of Fate, issued in two reels on July 21st, was found by The Moving Picture World to be pleasing, despite an unconvincing plot.

The New Rochelle studio was scraping the bottom of the barrel in the joining room when they came up with the Princess release of July 24th, for it consisted of three fillers patched together: A Bahaman Pineapple Plantation, a documentary by Carl Louis Gregory; Harvesting Ice, taken near New Rochelle the preceding winter; and The Cavalry at Fort Meyer, Va., another documentary by Carl Louis Gregory. Earlier, Gregory had gone to Norfolk, Virginia, then to Nassau in the Bahamas, to film undersea life using a submarine device invented by the Williamson brothers. It was planned to show the first submarine film, The Terrors of the Deep, at the Broadway Rose Gardens, and, indeed, trade notices in The Moving Picture World stated that this had been done on June 27th. However, the film was yet to be publicly projected.

The July 11th issue of The Moving Picture World carried a discussion as to the future of the film industry. Carl Laemmle predicted that "long features are doomed" and that single-reel films would be the strength of the market in the future. While others had expressed the same opinion in recent weeks, the trend in the industry continued toward larger productions, and most attention was being paid to features of four to six reels in length. Charles J. Hite commented that closer cooperation between film manufacturers and theatre owners was needed, and that the successful promotion of films required large amounts of capital, as for example, the immense sums used to launch The Million Dollar Mystery.