Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 7 (1914): March Releases

The Scientist's Doll, issued on March 1, 1914, featured Mignon Anderson in an imitation of a mechanical doll, and Harry Benham as the devil. Reviewers found the film to be entertaining. The Desert Tribesman, first screened on March 3rd, saw James Cruze in the lead role. The production was favorably reviewed, but the desert scenes must have been filmed at the seashore, for The New York Dramatic Mirror pointed out the illogic of seeing stretches of water in connection with the sand dunes. Her Way, the Princess film of March 6th, attracted mixed reviews, mostly favorable, as did Guilty or Not Guilty, starring Mignon Anderson as the guilty girl, released on March 8th. Kathleen, the Irish Rose, featured Maude Fealy in the title role, and attracted complimentary notices. Billy's Ruse, a Princess comedy issued on March 13th, earned high marks from critics.

Next on the schedule was The Eugenic Boy, on March 15th, followed by The Cat's Paw on the 17th, the second of the Diplomatic Free Lance Series, which garnered detailed, favorable reviews. The Grand Passion, the Princess offering for March 20th, received mixed comments from trade observers.

At the Thanhouser studio a special facility was set up for the convenience and relaxation of film players, according to a note in The Moving Picture World: Note

C.J. Hite, whose interest in his players is well known, figures that the high grade of actors that have been flocking from the legitimate stage to the studio stage of late deserve as fine accommodations for their comfort as the best legitimate houses ever provided. So the pretty green room under the new Thanhouser stage resulted. It is painted a real emerald green and there are comfy chairs, books, magazines, and palms.

On March 21st Reel Life announced that Irving Cummings had been placed under a long-term contract by the Thanhouser Film Corporation. While studio hopping was a favorite pastime among players, Cummings developed the practice to a fare-thee-well, and within two or three years worked for more than a half dozen different employers. His arrival was heralded in numerous publicity notices, and great things were expected of him. His long-term contract notwithstanding, Cummings stayed in New Rochelle only until the following October, when he went to the B.A. Rolfe Company. Shortly thereafter he relocated to the American "Flying A" studios in Santa Barbara. Years later he became an important Hollywood director for 20th Century Fox.

Also announced as new faces at the Thanhouser studio in early 1914 were leading man Morris Foster, Arthur Bauer (a character actor whose name was consistently misspelled "Bower" in publicity notices), and comedienne Fan Bourke. Reel Life, March 21, 1914, commented: "It has always been Thanhouser's policy to secure talented players for their first appearance in pictures. In 1903, Mr. Foster began his dramatic career at the Central Theatre, San Francisco, where he was associated with Lawrence Griffith, the famous 'heavy.'" In 1914, D.W. Griffith, whose stage names were Lawrence and Larry, was riding high, and it was fashionable for others in the film industry to ride on Griffith's coattails. "I once worked with Griffith" appeared in many biographical sketches, as did "I got my start with Griffith at Biograph."

Their Cousin From England, issued on March 22nd, featured Arthur Bauer, Lila Chester, Lydia Mead, and others and told of pranks played on a visiting relative. Lila Chester was seen in numerous films of the era. Players at the studio were led to believe that she was a single girl, whose brother, who worked out of town, visited her on numerous occasions. On one of these visits her brother found her in a compromising situation with a local man. A revolver was discharged, apparently by Miss Chester in an effort to attract attention. The police soon arrived on the scene, and it was revealed that her "brother," Bayard Johnson, who worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, had been married to her in a ceremony seven years earlier, but Miss Chester had felt that to divulge this would impair her modeling and acting career. Note

Their Cousin From England furnishes an example of a "lazy" review, created by paraphrasing the synopsis furnished by Thanhouser. It is not certain if the writer of the following, published in The Morning Telegraph, ever saw the film:

Suppose you received a letter from a relative or acquaintance in England telling you that he was coming over for a little buffalo hunting - especially if your home happened to be in Westchester County, New York, and father a gentleman farmer! Would you meet him in a manner that would come up to his expectation or not? May and Grace Gray and their respective particular friends of the opposite sex did, at any rate.

They lasso him at the gangplank and take him home, telling him that "father is off hunting the Indians that killed his mother," and then send him off in the woods to kill a buffalo for dinner. A desperate "battle" takes place when the Indians attack the Gray house, and Algie Chapman is considerably disconcerted by the popping of rifles in the underbrush. In the end, of course, the joke is explained. and the picture closes with Algie saying, "I wonder why they spoofed me," and, being a sensible young man, taking it all in good part.

A reviewer for The New York Dramatic Mirror commented upon The Miser's Reversion, Thanhouser's three-reel film of March 24th:

No one will deny the originality of the author of this scenario. He seems to have taken the check-rein from his thoughts that they might run unhampered beyond the fences of reason and into the land of dreams. Most of the picture is accounted for by a dream; a veritable nightmare, in fact; and right there is a fact that might be urged against it. When an author's fancy runs away with him, the simplest way to dodge through this is to say, well, it was all for a dream, and dreams aren't expected to be reasonable. No they are not, and once in a while they are their own justification, as in this film.

The acting of Sidney Bracy as the miser, who becomes various other things during the course of the nightmare, is an achievement in itself. Avoiding stereotyped grimaces and gestures, Mr. Bracy draws a distinctly individual figure and one as true to life as the story permits. The miser is a taxidermist with a sweet granddaughter to keep house for him. He has no use for her American suitor because he is poor, but he welcomes the attentions of a wealthy potentate from far-away India. Incidentally, he reads that a society of scientists will pay $10,000 for an aged man on whom to test a newly discovered elixir of youth. The miser falls asleep and dreams that he drinks the elixir, which takes him back through the various stages of development until he becomes a monkey. As a monkey he is the prime mover in many horrible experiences before being restored to his normal self by the bite of a snake. When the miser awakens he is a transformed man ready to part with his hoardings and accept his granddaughter's sweetheart.

Scenes such as those depicting the astounding effects of the elixir when we see an aged man dissolve into youth, then childhood, then a caveman, and finally a frightful-looking monkey, may well startle an audience into close attention. And good camerawork does justice to their possibilities. A poorly-painted backdrop, representing city streets and buildings, is the one conspicuous flaw in a carefully staged production. This set is important, as it is used several times in both reels. Harry Benham is numbered in a cast that gives Mr. Bracy efficient support.

Beautiful Snow, the Princess film of March 27th, included neither Muriel Ostriche nor Boyd Marshall and was a filler comprised of scenes of a sleigh-riding party having a good time in the country. Next on the schedule was When Sorrow Fades, on March 29th. Repentance, a two-reel drama issued on March 31, featured Ellis F. Glickman, a Jewish character actor, in the role of a young lawyer. Trade publications, bound to get it right one way or another, spelled his name as "Glechman" and "Gleichman" in addition to the correct Glickman. Reviewers were enthusiastic, with The Morning Telegraph designating it as "very strong and well acted."