The Little Girl Next Door - 1912

The Little Girl Next Door: One reel, approx. 1,000 feet, released November 1, 1912
Tragic drama with a moral lesson, features the "Thanhouser Twins" Marion and Madeline Fairbanks.
Directed by Lucius Henderson. Scenario by Philip Lonergan.
Print source: Essex Films, 14 minutes, 20 seconds.
Cast: William Garwood (the husband), Marguerite Snow (the wife), Marion and Madeline Fairbanks (Helen Randall and Ruth Foster), William Russell (the other father).
Original music composed and performed by Ray Brubacher thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm.
The “Thanhouser Twins,” Marion and Madeline Fairbanks, are featured in this tragic drama with a moral lesson. Although limited by the constraints of one-reel storytelling, the scenario (the first by Philip Lonergan, the brother of story department head Lloyd Lonergan) is a well-rounded and engaging one. The naturalistic acting is quite sophisticated for the time.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

The Tiniest of Stars - 1913

The Tiniest of Stars: One reel, approx. 1,000 feet, released January 14, 1913.
Family drama of a a brother ("The Kid" Marie Eline) and sister ("The Kidlet" Helen Badgley) who take to the stage.
Print source: Library of Congress, 15 minutes, 45 seconds.
Cast: James Cruze, Marie Eline (the little boy), Helen Badgley (the little girl).
Original music composed and performed by Ray Burbacher thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm.
An air of authenticity infuses this family drama of a brother and sister who take to the variety stage. The popular stage was a source of everyday entertainment for most Americans of the time, and had been Edwin Thanhouser’s career before 1910. Audiences were beginning to recognize and demand more of the little actresses Marie Eline (who plays the little boy) and Helen Badgley, which led to the studio promoting them, and demand for their movies helped create the star system which survives today stronger than ever. Deft mixture of comedy and sentimentality.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Their One Love - 1915

Their One Love: One reel, approx. 1,020 feet, released May 2, 1915.
Civil War drama with spectacular night battle sequences, featuring "The Twins" Marion and Madeline Fairbanks.
Directed by John Harvey. Scenario by Gertrude Thanhouser. Photographed by Carl Louis Gregory.
Print source: British Film Institute, 15 minutes, 20 seconds.
Cast: Madeline and Marion Fairbanks (the twin sisters), Robert Wilson (Jack, the soldier), Charles Emerson (Jack as a boy).
Original music composed and performed by Ray Brubacher thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm.
One of the many Civil War movies made during the 50th anniversary of the conflict. This was one of Thanhouser’s last one-reel dramas and was released just after Griffith’s Civil War epic Birth of a Nation. Griffith’s monumental picture had included three long-shots of nighttime pyrotechnics that included superimposures to complete the effect. Their One Love has an elaborate and spectacular eleven-shots night battle sequence with pyrotechnics and electric lighting effects, plus far more elaborate staging, editing, action, and pictorial drama than Griffith’s example. Thus, film historians consider Their One Love to be the first fiction film to fully realize the technique of night cinematography. The night sequence was filmed three weeks after Birth opened in New York.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Uncle's Namesakes - 1913

Uncle’s Namesakes: One reel, approx. 1,000 feet, released December 12, 1913.
Comedy about twin "boys" who deceive their rich English uncle, with Marion and Madeline Fairbanks ("The Twins").
Print source: British Film Institute, 15 minutes.
Cast: David H. Thompson (Jack, a needy young husband), Lila Chester (May, his wife), Sidney Bracy (Uncle John Henry Carson), Madeline and Marion Fairbanks (the uncle's namesakes), Justus D. Barnes. Original music composed and performed by Ray Burbacher thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm.
This story of an American family’s innocent deception to earn money from a rich English relative is about as broad as Thanhouser comedy ever got. The Thanhouser studio avoided slapstick despite the vigorous success the genre was enjoying at other studios. Young movie actresses of the time often portrayed boys, but here the Thanhouser Twins get to make fun of the practice.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Fires of Youth - 1917

Fires of Youth (Two reels of approx.2,000 feet, originally released in five-reel Pathé Gold Rooster Play version by the Pathé Exchange on June 17, 1917; shortened re-release by Imperial Film Company Ltd.).
Wealthy industrialist (Frederick Warde) seeks to regain his youth (Jeanne Eagles) in this cut down two-reel version.
Directed by Emile Chautard. Assistant director: James Ewens. Scenario by Agnes Christine Johnston. Photographed by Jacques Bizeul.
Print source: Em Gee, 31 minutes, 12 seconds.
Cast: Frederick Warde (Iron-Hearted Pemberton), Jeanne Eagels (Billy's sister), Helen Badgley (Billy), Ernest Howard (Billy's father), Robert Vaughn (Jim), James Ewens, Carey L. Hastings, Grace Stevens.
Original music composed and performed by Ray Brubacher thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm.
The productions from Thanhouser’s mature period, 1915-1917, clearly show the advancements that set the stage for the first cinematic golden age, the 1920s. In this surviving shortened version of Fires of Youth are evident such advances as detailed character development by veteran actor Warde (and in a smaller role, at least in the shortened version, by Eagels), mature editing technique, special lighting effects, intelligent story development, realistic use of locations, fluid dialogue inter-titles, complex staging, and access to better cameras with the defeat of the Patents Trust.
Acclaimed French stage and film director Emile Chautard was brought from Éclair studio in France to direct.
This lone surviving print was recently purchased by Em Gee Film Library from the collection of the Silent Movie Theatre in California. The shortened version is imprinted with “Imperial Film Company Ltd.,” an English production and distribution company founded in 1913 by Paul Kimberley who was also managing director of Thanhouser Films Ltd. in London in 1913-1914.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Marble Heart - 1913

Marble Heart: Two reels of approx.2,000 feet, released May 13, 1913.
A story of unrequited love, with three popular Thanhouser stars James Cruze, Margurite Snow and Florence LaBadie.
Scenario adapted from the play by Charles Selby.
Print source: Museum of Modern Art, 26 minutes, 50 seconds.
Cast: Marguerite Snow (Marco, the woman with the marble heart), James Cruze (Raphael, the jilted sculptor), Florence LaBadie (Marie, the girl who found refuge in the sculptor's home), William Russell (the editor friend), Burton Law.
Original music composed and performed by Ray Brubacher thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm.
This story, already a well-known English play of 1854 adapted from an earlier French play, casts the three most popular Thanhouser adult stars in a story of unrequited love, with a dream sequence that parallels the main story. Pale makeup is especially noticeable in some scenes, the answer to orthochromatic film’s blotchy-dark rendering of skin tones. Within a couple of years the technique of film makeup, filtering and lighting would be greatly improved.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Madam Blanche Beauty Doctor -1915

Mme. Blanche, Beauty Doctor: One reel of approx.1,000 feet, released July 9, 1915.
Gender bender comedy with satirical social observation, features Riley Chamberlin and Harry Benham (Falstaff release).
Directed by Arthur Ellery. Scenario by Lloyd F. Lonergan.
Print source: British Film Institute, 13 minutes, 35 seconds.
Cast: Harry Benham (Bob, the college boy; Madame Blanche), Riley Chamberlin (Simon Southwick, his guardian, a rheumatic old man), Mrs. S. Stevens (Mrs. Southwick), Mignon Anderson (Betty, the stenographer), Ray Johnston (clerk), Edward N. Hoyt (clerk), Morgan Jones, Ethel Jewett.
Original music composed and performed by Ray Brubacher thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm.
A good example of the clever light comedy Thanhouser produced for its Falstaff label, while other studios cranked out broad slapstick comedies. Harry Benham and Mignon Anderson were versatile and popular Thanhouser stars, here showing considerable skill in light comedy, a genre that invites plenty of satirical social observation such as the burgeoning beauty-salon industry here. Cinema technique shows much more intricate editing and freer use of closeups than just a year or two earlier.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

She - 1911

She: Two reels of approx.2,000 feet, released December 26, 1911.
Thanhouser's first two reel film, an adventure/fantasy, with James Cruze in dual role of the hero.
Directed by George O. Nichols. Scenario adapted from H. Rider Haggard's novel of the same name.
Print source: Em Gee, 24 minutes, 40 seconds.
Cast: Marguerite Snow ("She"); James Cruze (Leo Vincey and also Kallikrates, his ancient ancestor; in the tomb scene, in Part II, by double exposure photography), Viola Alberti (the Pharaoh's daughter), William C. Cooper, Horace Holly, Irma Taylor, Harry Benham, Alphonse Ethier, Marie Eline (Leo Vincey as a youth).
Original music composed and performed by Ray Burbacher (thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm).
The sensational popular story was one of three Haggard novels filmed by Thanhouser. It has many of the elements found in the not-yet-invented adventure/fantasy serial genre. Thanhouser’s expertise in location work, costume fantasy, and elaborate storytelling pay off in in She, the studio’s first single-release two-reel production. The double role of the hero is played by James Cruze, Thanhouser’s best-known actor, who was something of an adventurer himself. In the 1920s he became the highest-paid director in Hollywood. Margurite Snow was also one of the core of Thanhouser’s stock company who enjoyed popularity as stars began to be identified and promoted.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

The Winter's Tale - 1910

The Winter's Tale: One reel of approximately 1,000 feet, May 27, 1910
The first of six Shakespeare films released by Thanhouser.
Print source: Library of Congress, 12 minutes 35 seconds.
Scenario by Lloyd F. Lonergan and Gertrude Thanhouser,
based on the play by William Shakespeare.
Cast: Anna Rosemond (Queen of Sicilia), Martin Faust (King of Sicilia), Frank H. Crane (King of Bohemia), Amelia Barleon (Princess of Sicilia), Alfred Hanlon (Prince of Bohemia).
Original music composed and performed by Raymond A. Brubacher (thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm).
"The Winter’s Tale" was just the 13th or 14th title from the studio in its first nine weeks of releases. A handful of dramatic scenes from the play are presented in simple cinematic style with particular artistry in costumes and sets. This is the first Shakespearean adaptation by any American independent producer.
Nitrate deterioration in this print is typical of the chemical problem that has destroyed thousands of pre-1950 film negatives and prints.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Cymbeline - 1913

Cymbeline: Two reels, March 28, 1913.
Print source: George Eastman House, 22 minutes 15 seconds.
Energetic cinematic pacing and intimacy show rapidly improving narrative technique and realism well beyond the limitations of the stage.
Directed by Lucius J. Henderson. Adapted from the play by William Shakespeare. Photographed by Arthur A. Cadwell.
Cast: Florence LaBadie (Imogen), James Cruze (Leonatus), William Garwood (Iachimo), William Russell (King Cymbeline), Jean Darnell (the Queen).
Original music composed and performed by Raymond A. Brubacher (thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm).
Southern California locations vividly suggest both elemental pre-Roman Britain and classical Rome. An energetic cinematic pacing and intimacy show rapidly improving narrative technique and realism well beyond the limitations of the stage. Especially cinematic are the bedchamber scene in the first reel, with its intimate cinematography and acting and special lighting effect, and the battle scene of the second reel, considered very effective in its day.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

King Lear - 1916

King Lear: Approximately 2½ reels, abridged from the original five reels, December 17, 1916.
Frederick Warde, one of the best known stage actors of his generation, stars in this 2 1/2 reel abridged version cut down from the original five.
Print source: George Eastman House, 35 minutes 56 seconds. A Pathé Gold Rooster Play, released through the Pathé Exchange.
Directed by Ernest Warde. Scenario by Philip Lonergan, adapted from the play by William Shakespeare. Photographed by William Zollinger and John M. Bauman.
Cast: Frederick Warde (King Lear), Lorraine Huling (Cordelia), Wayne Arey (Duke of Albany), J.H. Gilmour (Earl of Kent), Hector Dion (Edmund), Ernest Warde (the King’s fool), Edwin Stanley (Edgar), Boyd Marshall (King of France), Ina Hammer (Goneril), Edith Diestel (Regan), Charles Brooks (Duke of Cornwall), Robert Whittier (Oswald). Music by Raymond A. Brubacher (thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm).
Frederick Warde, one of the best known stage actors of his generation, had played King Lear many times since 1896, and had starred as Richard III in the first known feature-length American film in 1912. In 1916-17 Warde was one of only three exclusive Thanhouser stars in these early days of the new “star system” of high salaries and relentless promotion. As seen in the inter-titles, the players are boldly identified, but Thanhouser stubbornly refused to build the full star treatment publicity machine to the extent that competing studios did.
Among the striking advancements of the mid-1910s, as seen here, are much more rapid and fluid editing, an increase in the use of dialogue titles, freer use of close-ups and insert shots, new skills in shallow-focus cinematography, and ever-increasing complexity of narrative. This surviving print, cut down for a later re-release, is half its original length.
Warde gives an admirably subtle performance for the intimate camera, in contrast to the broad stage acting style that prevailed in film acting as well.
Ernest Warde, the director and actor (as the court jester), was star Frederick’s son, and a solid and experienced theatrical director in his own right.

Source: www.thanhouser.org

For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Nicolas Nickelby - 1912

Nicolas Nickelby: Two reels of approx. 2,000 feet, March 19, 1912
With The Old Curiosity Shop and David Copperfield, both released in 1911, and Nicholas Nickleby, Thanhouser established itself as producer of the best Dickens adaptations in American film.
Print source: British Film Institute, 31 minutes 18 seconds.
Directed by George O. Nichols. Scenario (uncredited) based on the novel by Charles Dickens.
Cast: Harry Benham (Nicholas Nickleby), Mignon Anderson (Madeline Bray), Frances Gibson (Kate Nickleby), Inda Palmer (Nicholas’ mother), Justus D. Barnes (Nicholas’ Uncle Ralph), N.S. Woods (Smike), David H. Thompson (Squeers), Marie Eline (Wackford), Mrs. Grace Eline (Fannie Squeers), Etienne Girardot (Gryde), Harry A. Marks (Vincent Crummles).
Music by Raymond A. Brubacher (thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm).
Under one-man story department Lloyd Lonergan, with regular scenarist contributions by Gertrude Thanhouser, the studio developed a knack for mining even long, complicated novels for their salient events and characters and transforming them to a cinematically interesting 15 or 30 minutes.
Because of Edison’s Patents Trust pressure, distributors demanded one-reel-length pictures. Nicholas Nickleby was only the third single-release 2-reel title by Thanhouser. Thanhouser’s and others’ resistance to monopoly limitations made feature-length films (an hour or more) the norm within a few years.
There is an unusually varied flow of different sets and locations. Advanced techniques include the subtle tilt and pan of the camera in the Greta Bridge scene, the mid-action cuts to different camera positions in the “brimstone and treacle” scene, and the smooth editing of several shots, some brief, to construct scenes.
Nicholas Nickleby was one of the first productions from Thanhouser’s new Florida operation in Jacksonville, the first time an independent production company had done extensive location work for several pictures in Florida. Thanhouser would build studio facilities in Jacksonville in 1916. Some scenes for Nicholas Nickleby were done in the main studio in New Rochelle.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

King Rene's Daughter - 1913

King Rene's Daughter: Three reels of approx. 3,000 feet, July 1, 1913.
A very romantic fiction set in renaissance France with florid, rich costuming. The story was originally a one-act verse play in Danish, “Iolanthe,” which also enjoyed great popularity in a fine English translation for the stage.
Print source: Blackhawk Films/David Shepard, 41 minutes 53 seconds.
Directed by W. Eugene Moore, Jr. Scenario (uncredited) based on the poetic drama “Iolanthe” by Henrik Heri.
Cast: Maude Fealy (Iolanthe), Harry Benham (Tristan), Mignon Anderson, David H. Thompson (Ebu Jahia), William Russell (Pierre).
Music by Raymond A. Brubacher (thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm).
Maude Fealy made her Thanhouser debut in the title role, and became a much-admired member of the Thanhouser stock company. Previously she had been a beauty contest winner and had a solid career on the legitimate stage.
Compared to just a year earlier, cinematic progress is seen in the increased narrative complexity and length, more confident use of inter-titles, and more flexible camerawork sometimes following actors’ movement.

Source: www.thanhouser.org

For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Tannhäuser -1913

Tannhäuser: Three reels of approximately 3,000 feet, July 15, 1913
The story, set in medieval Germany, tells of chivalry, mythology and magic (with skillful in-camera tricks), love’s redemption, and tragedy.
Print source: British Film Institute, 40 minutes 09 seconds. (Note: Like many films from this era, the original print was tinted with various colors for different scenes. Thanks to the Library of Congress, the tint log from the original nitrate print was made available from which this copy was edited to imitate the rich colors audiences enjoyed in 1913.)
Directed by Lucius J. Henderson. Scenario (uncredited) based on the opera by Richard Wagner.
Cast: James Cruze (Tannhäuser), Marguerite Snow (Elisabeth), Florence LaBadie (Venus), William Russell (Wolfram), Burton Law. Music by Raymond A. Brubacher (thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm).
Though different in spelling and pronunciation, Thanhouser’s adaptation of “Tannhäuser” was probably inevitable. The opera, with original libretto and music by Wagner, based on traditional legends, was the first Wagner opera seen in the United States and enjoyed great popularity throughout the opera world. A subsequent non-musical English verse stage version was very popular in England and the U.S.
The story, set in medieval Germany (Thuringia), tells of chivalry, mythology and magic (with skillful in-camera tricks), love’s redemption, and tragedy.
The scantily-clad wood nymphs and the passion between Tannhäuser and Venus, tame relative to the demands of the story, are early examples of censor-testing cinematic expression. Although those freedoms were noted in the press, there is no record of any attempted censorship of Tannhäuser.
At the beginning of 1913, Thanhouser, now a Mutual Film Corporation company, leased facilities in Los Angeles and equipped them for full-service studio production with the intent of making movies for a new Mutual brand, Royal. The Royal brand did not happen, and Thanhouser ended up using the Los Angeles facility for films in its own schedule. Tannhäuser was produced in Los Angeles, as the treeless mountain landscape reveals.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

The Vagabonds - 1915

The Vagabonds: One reel of 1,000 feet, August 29, 1915
A series of flashbacks where a penniless, friendless tramp and his dog relates the story of his downfall due to drink.
Print source: The Library of Congress, 12 minutes 58 seconds.
Scenario (uncredited) based on the poem “The Vagabonds” by J.T. Trowbridge (the poem was sometimes known by the title “Roger and I”).
Cast: Morris Foster (Tim), Grace DeCarlton (Amelia), Arthur Bauer (Grossbeck Upham), Carey L. Hastings (Tim’s mother)Music by Raymond A. Brubacher (thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm).
The Vagabonds source is a different kind of classic—a poem by an influential and prolific writer of inspirational and cautionary stories for children, particularly boys. The author J.T. Trowbridge (1827-1916) had also been a well-known pre-Civil War abolitionist. His poem “The Vagabonds” was first published in 1863.
This relatively fine print shows the rapid improvements in camera lenses in the mid-1910s, and independent studios like Thanhouser finally had access to the best cameras and equipment with the breaking of the Patents Trust in 1915.
The variety of camera setups and fluidity of editing is quite modern compared to just a year or two earlier.
Thanhouser Film Corporation was almost in disarray following the 1914 death of its brilliant manager Charles J. Hite and the subsequent departure of many employees. In addition, big studio competitors were realizing big profits from lengthier films and celebrity-star promotion that Mutual’s Thanhouser was not keeping pace with.
The turnaround began when Edwin Thanhouser returned as general manager in early 1915 and the company was soon reorganized. He also was made an executive and a director of Mutual.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Daddy's Double - 1910

Daddy's Double: One reel of 960 feet, April 5, 1910.
A one-reel crime drama with crooks, ruses, kidnapping, escape, and a twist, all wrapped in a coherent narrative.
Print source: British Film Institute, 15 minutes 42 seconds. Scenario by Lloyd F. Lonergan. Photographed by Blair Smith. Cast: Frank H. Crane (Daddy), Fred Santley (Daddy’s double), Isabelle Daintry. Music by Raymond A. Brubache thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm
This deft comedy about a foiled elopement and assumed identity shows the importance of a carefully worked out scenario for narrative flow. The rule at many other comedy-producing studios was that gags drove the film and story line was incidental. With the talent of Lloyd Lonergan, it was the other way around at Thanhouser from the very beginning. Daddy’s Double was the fourth release by the new studio.
Some minor camera tilting in the ladder scene, minor panning as necessary, and minor cross-cutting hint at the stylistic revolutions to come in the next few years.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

An Elusive Diamond - 1914

An Elusive Diamond: One reel of 1,002 feet, January 23, 1914.
A one-reel crime drama with crooks, ruses, kidnapping, escape, and a twist, all wrapped in a coherent narrative.
Print source: British Film Institute, 15 minutes 27 seconds.Scenario by Lloyd F. Lonergan.Cast: David H. Thompson (the butler), Carey L. Hastings (Mrs. Burr), Mignon Anderson (Bettina), William Noel (hoodlum). Music by Raymond A. Brubacher (thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm).
Screenwriter Lonergan’s amazing versatility served equally well in several genres—here a one-reel adventure with crooks, ruses, kidnapping, escape, and a twist, all wrapped in a coherent narrative. There is successful pictorial telling of the setup and attempted theft, and a little cross-cutting as the police come to the rescue (rescue of the rock, as the resourceful heroine obviously needs no rescuing).
Thanhouser’s popular Mignon Anderson’s climactic stunt work shows that the stock players were remarkably versatile.
“An” Elusive Diamond was the official title despite the “The” of this surviving print.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

The Marvelous Marathoner - 1915

The Marvelous Marathoner: One reel of 1,023 feet, August 16, 1915.
An energetic and vivacious Falstaff comedy with good pacing combining physical comedy (without slapstick) with situation comedy.
Print source: Library of Congress, 13 minutes 12 seconds. Scenario by Lloyd F. Lonergan for the Falstaff brand.
Cast: Boyd Marshall (Walter Bodewick), Ruth Elder (Vivian Webster), Justus D. Barnes (Ewing Webster), D. Hegeman (Colotta Cummings). A Falstaff film. Music by Raymond A. Brubacher (thanhouser.org/​people/​Rayb.htm).
Thanhouser’s “Falstaff Comedies” was a schedule of one-reel comedies released each Friday beginning in April 1915, later changed to each Tuesday. Looking for a niche, Thanhouser’s short plot-driven comedies stood out from other studios’ trend toward longer offerings and broad gag-oriented comedy. The Falstaff comedies were what could be called situation comedies calling on the outstanding screenwriting skill of Lloyd Lonergan and the acting charm of the Thanhouser stock company. Marathoner enjoys energetic and vivacious comedy pacing combining physical comedy (without slapstick) with situation comedy.
Skillful cinematography, many interesting locations, and creative lighting for interiors add to the fine visual quality. Some serious nitrate deterioration has compromised a brief part of this surviving print.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

His Great Uncle's Spirit -1912

His Great Uncle's Spirit: One reel of approximately 1,000 feet, March 8, 1912.
Full of amazing trick situations that will leave you dazed and delighted!
Print source: George Eastman House, 14 minutes 9 seconds.
Cast: George Ober (miser)
Original music composed and performed by Ben Model (silentfilmmusic.com).
Rapid advancement in film technique is seen in His Great Uncle’s Spirit. Especially in the opening theater sequence, and in the climactic “transformation” sequence, several different shots are edited together to create a fluid, dynamic scene. Cinematography shows the first spark of flexibility with a couple of tilting movements. There is a new energy in direction with strong fore-to-back staging. There are also some insert close-ups and some relatively unusual medium close-ups of action.
Despite all the stylistic skill, the story is the entertainment, about a vaudeville magician down on his luck, who takes a secretarial job and uses magic tricks to transform his mean skinflint boss into a generous man.
Ben Model’s expert organ accompaniment indicates how effective the music can be in, among other things, foiling the most extremely emotive silent movie acting.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

When the Studio Burned - 1913

When the Studio Burned: One reel of 1,000 feet, February 4, 1913
Fictional drama exploiting the fire that actually struck the Thanhouser studio on January 13, 1913 and burned the main facility to the ground.
Print source: Library of Congress, 14 minutes 14 seconds.Directed by Lawrence Marston. Scenario by Lloyd F. Lonergan.
Cast: Marguerite Snow (as herself), Helen Badgley (herself), Marie Eline (herself), James Cruze (himself), Justus D. Barnes (director), Mrs. Gerald Badgley (member of traveling crew).
Original music composed and performed by Ben Model (silentfilmmusic.com).
The film studio’s worst enemy was fire, thanks to mostly wooden structures and highly flammable nitrate negatives, prints, and film stock. Fire actually struck the Thanhouser studio on January 13, 1913 and burned the main facility to the ground. Most of the negatives and prints were saved. The fire was reported in newspapers nationwide.
Although there were a few shots of smoldering ruins, the cameras arrived too late to film any of the actual fire. Although several Thanhouser players portray themselves in When the Studio Burned, the story is all fiction from the imagination of Lloyd Lonergan, simply meant to capitalize on the notoriety. The views of the city of New Rochelle are perfectly authentic.
As luck would have it, Thanhouser had just opened a studio in Los Angeles, and had just set up production in Chicago, so it was able to continue its schedule of releases without interruption as the replacement facilities were constructed.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Woman in White - 1917

Woman in White: Five reels of 4,627 feet, July 1, 1917
Five reel feature film based on Wilkie Collins novel with special lighting effects, a technical tour de force as well as dramatically effective.
Print source: Library of Congress, 1 hour 8 minutes. Directed by Ernest C. Warde. Scenario by Lloyd F. Lonergan, based on the novel by Wilkie Collins. Photographed by William M. Zollinger.
Cast: Florence LaBadie (double role as Laura Fairlie and Ann Catherick), Richard R. Neill (Sir Pervival Glyde), Gertrude Dallas (Marian Holcombe), Arthur Bauer (Count Fosco), Wayne Arey (Walter Hartridge), J.H. Gilmour, Claude Cooper. A Pathé Gold Rooster Play released through the Pathé Exchange.
Original music composed and performed by Ben Model (silentfilmmusic.com).
Re-released by Chandler Pictures as The Unfortunate Marriage ca. 1920.
In its last two years of production Thanhouser concentrated on multi-reel features of high quality. Lloyd Lonergan’s scenarios were the foundation for the attention to quality, whether with original stories or with adaptations like The Woman in White.
Stylistic and technical elements are very near the sophisticated level of the first golden age of cinema, the 1920s. Especially noteworthy are the special lighting effects, a technical tour de force as well as dramatically effective.
Release through Pathé gave Thanhouser pictures especially strong international exposure during the studio’s last years, but somewhat hampered by the war in Europe.
The Woman in White was adapted from a very well known contemporary novel and was a particularly fine vehicle for the beautiful Florence LaBadie, one of the last of the old stock company still with Thanhouser in 1917. She was called “the most important personality at the Thanhouser studio” by Thanhouser historian David Q. Bowers. Two months after the release of The Woman in White she was in an automobile accident and she died in October from her injuries, just a week later than the release of the studio’s final new production.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

The Actor's Children - 1910

The Actor's Children: One reel of approximately 1,000 feet, March 15, 1910
The first Thanhouser release about the disappearance of an actor's children, their thrilling adventure and how they return to their parents.
Print source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Archive, 13 minutes 27 seconds.
Directed by Barry O’Neil. Scenario by Lloyd F. Lonergan. Photographed by Blair Smith.
Cast: Frank H. Crane (father), Orilla Smith (girl), Yale Boss (boy), Nicolas Jordan (comedian).
Original music composed and performed by Ben Model (silentfilmmusic.com).
Photographic supervision by Joseph Bianchi, inventor of the Bianchi camera, two of which were rented by Thanhouser.
Remarkably for a movie studio’s first release, The Actor’s Children is well up to the state of the art for early 1910. Intertitles announce, in a few words, what will happen in the upcoming scene (a convention that lasted through 1912). Each scene is an unedited fixed-camera shot suggesting a front-row-center viewpoint. (Later in the film a single scene/sequence is a combination of two separate shots in separate sets, an important step toward ever increasing complexity of scene-building.) Sets are12-foot cubes with one exterior location filming.
The Actor’s Children is the story of the insecure lives of theater people and was supremely appropriate for the Thanhouser studio, whose principals Edwin and Gertrude Thanhouser had a wealth of theatrical experience in acting, production and entrepreneurship.
This print of The Actor’s Children has survived against all odds, so the nitrate deterioration and other poor condition in places is unfortunate but bearable.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

Young Lord Stanley - 1910

Young Lord Stanley: One reel of approximately 1,000 feet, October 25, 1910
A nobleman stoops to manual labor when his funds grow low and falls deeply in love with his employer's daughter.
Print source: Library of Congress, 13 minutes 35 seconds.
Scenario by Lloyd F. Lonergan.
What appears to be the title of this print, “His Only Son,” may be a later alternate title or may be the first inter-title card.
Cast: Justice Barnes (Father of girl)
Original music composed and performed by Ben Model (silentfilmmusic.com).
Some of Lloyd F. Lonergan’s recurring storytelling themes are the basis for this simple, engaging and unlikely story—indomitable young romance, inheritance, classism, and wealth. Thanhouser makes especially rich use of one of its strengths, a variety of location exteriors. Even its interior sets, though still small, are more realistic than a few months earlier.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

The Pasha's Daughter - 1911

The Pasha's Daughter: One reel of approximately 1,000 feet, January 3, 1911
A young American man in trouble is assisted by the daughter of the pasha to escape in woman's clothes from Turkey.
Print source: Museum of Modern Art, 13 minutes 39 seconds.
Cast: William Garwood.
Original music composed and performed by Ben Model (silentfilmmusic.com/​).
The elements of an adventure-romance are dressed in an exotic setting. (Ottoman Turkey was hot in the news as the empire was on the verge of collapse and the European powers were preparing to carve up the Near East and Middle East into colonies.) An American visitor somewhere in the Ottoman Empire, is mistakenly arrested, escapes, is aided by the local Pasha’s daughter, they fall in love, and they find each other later in America. The vivid exoticism in emphasized (1911 viewers must have wondered, is that a depiction of a real harem?), and the brisk, dashing pace of the story again shows Thanhouser’s deft touch.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

The Portrait of Lady Anne - 1912

The Portrait of Lady Anne: One reel of approximately 1,000 feet, July 23, 1912.
In 1770, the beautiful Lady Anne in a jealous fit throws over her lover who goes away to the war and is killed. Fast forward to 1912 where a descendant of Lady Anne is entertaining and much the same happens.
Print source: Library of Congress, 14 minutes 53 seconds.
Cast: Florence LaBadie (Lady Anne), Justice Barnes (Lady Anne’s father in 1770), William Russell (rejected 1770 suitor), Carl LeViness (accepted suitor in 1770), Harry Benham (her suitor in 1912).
Original music composed and performed by Ben Model (silentfilmmusic.com).
A fantasy of romance and jealousy across 200 years. Sets are, in 1912, becoming more realistic, sometimes even layered (with glimpses into other rooms in the background). Though still not willing to identify (much less promote) their popular players, the theater-savvy Thanhousers were willing to hire the most elaborate and picturesque costumes in New York City.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

The Voice of Conscience - 1912

The Voice of Conscience: One reel of approximately 1,000 feet, September 3, 1912
Two girls fall in love with the same man. Out motoring one day they are thrown from the machine and carried to the hospital. One of the girls poisons the other. The story swings into a very pleasant finish.
Print source: George Eastman House, 14 minutes 22 seconds.
Cast: Edmond J. Hayes (dying father), Jean Darnell (orphan), Florence LaBadie (visiting girl), Harry Benham (suitor), Justice Barnes (doctor).
Original music composed and performed by Ben Model (silentfilmmusic.com/​).
The shackles of studio filming are largely broken in The Voice of Conscience, filmed in a variety of New Rochelle locations. The freedom is also evident in the cinematography which uses subtle panning and tilting in several shots, plus one trick shot and one unusual composition.

Source: www.thanhouser.org
For futher information on films by Thanhouser, visit the site above. Let’s keep memories of this great studio alive.

The Kid- 1921

Country: USA
Release Date: 6 February 1921 (USA)
Director: Charles Chaplin
Writer: Charles Chaplin
Stars: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance and Jackie Coogan
The opening title reads: "A comedy with a smile--and perhaps a tear". As she leaves the charity hospital and passes a church wedding, Edna deposits her new baby with a pleading note in a limousine and goes off to commit suicide. The limo is stolen by thieves who dump the baby by a garbage can. Charlie the Tramp finds the baby and makes a home for him. Five years later Edna has become an opera star but does charity work for slum youngsters in hope of finding her boy. A doctor called by Edna discovers the note with the truth about the Kid and reports it to the authorities who come to take him away from Charlie. Before he arrives at the Orphan Asylum Charlie steals him back and takes him to a flophouse. The proprietor reads of a reward for the Kid and takes him to Edna. Charlie is later awakened by a kind policeman who reunites him with the Kid at Edna's mansion.
The production company tried to cheat Charles Chaplin by paying him for this six-reel film what they would ordinarily pay him for two-reel film, about half a million dollars. Chaplin took the unassembled film out of state until they agreed to the one-and-a-half million he deserved, plus half the surplus profits on rentals, plus reversion of the film to him after five years on the rental market.
Share this
For the scene in which the Kid is taken from the Tramp and nearly carted away to a workhouse, Charles Chaplin stated in his autobiography that the young Jackie Coogan was made to cry by his father, who told him that if he would not cry in the scene, he would be sent to an actual workhouse.
Share this
The shooting ratio (the amount of material shot:what appears in the final film) is 53:1, far higher than any other Charles Chaplin film.
Share this
The main theme from Charles Chaplin's score is based on a theme from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony.
Share this
Charles Chaplin suffered through a divorce from his first wife Mildred Harris while shooting this film.

The General - 1926

Country: USA
Release Date: 5 February 1927 (USA)
Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
Stars: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack and Glen Cavender
Johnnie loves his train ("The General") and Annabelle Lee. When the Civil War begins he is turned down for service because he's more valuable as an engineer. Annabelle thinks it's because he's a coward. Union spies capture The General with Annabelle on board. Johnny must rescue both his loves.
Continuity: When the General is first stolen, Johnny is washing his hands; when he sees the train pulling away, he walks away from the sink with his hands covered in soap, but in the following reverse shot where he tells the passengers what has happened, his hands are clean.
Anachronisms: The enlistment scene takes place in 1861 but the "Southern Cross" flag hanging outside the enlistment office wasn't used until 1862.
Anachronisms: The movie takes place during the Civil War in the 1860s. However the General is equipped with air brakes which weren't invented until 1872 by George Westinghouse.
Anachronisms: The Union infantryman, who was killed by the flying sword blade, was using a Springfield trapdoor rifle which was not made until after the end of the Civil War.
Continuity: When Johnny is chopping wood on the train, the piece of wood changes size between the different shots.
Continuity: Johnny's and Annabelle's clothes are dry, neat, and clean the morning after camping outside without shelter during the thunderstorm
Revealing mistakes: When Johnny is running through the woods to escape the Union soldiers, his hat drops from the tree before his head hits the hat to dislodge it.
Continuity: When Annabelle Lee is brought inside the Union headquarters by two soldiers, her clothes are soaking wet from the rain clearly visible through a window, but the soldiers' clothes are dry.
Continuity: When Keaton is chasing the General in the Texas, during most of the chase the engine has a sliding hatch in the cab roof, but just before Keaton abandons the Texas, the roof changes to a smooth roof without a hatch, and slightly different shape, obviously meaning he changed engines.
Continuity: Annabelle gets drenched when she and Johnnie stop for water, but as they return to the engine, her dress is dry.
Factual errors: The cowcatchers on Western & Atlantic RR trains had horizontal bars, rather than the vertical ones seen on all three trains in the film.
Anachronisms: The pistol Buster Keaton uses near the end of the film to arrest the Yankee officer in the cab of the General is a Colt revolver from the 1870s, not in use back during the US civil war.
Revealing mistakes: When Johnny gets switched on the siding, and reverses back onto the mainline, his locomotive slides a fair distance after the drivers stop, indicating that the rails have been heavily greased to prepare for the wheelslip scene following it.

The Navigator - 1924

Country: USA
Release Date: 13 October 1924 (USA)
Directors: Donald Crisp, Buster Keaton
Stars: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire and Frederick Vroom
Budget: $220,000 (estimated)
Rollo decides to marry his sweetheart Betsy and sail to Honolulu. When she rejects him he decides to go alone but boards the wrong ship, the "Navigator" owned by Betsy's father. Unaware of this, Betsy boards the ship to look for her father. whom spies capture before cutting the ship loose. It drifts out to sea with the two socialites each unaware of there being anyone else on board

Nerone - 1909

Country: Italy
Language: Italian (intertitles)
Release Date: 1 November 1909 (USA)
Director: Luigi Maggi
Writers: Arrigo Frusta (screenplay), Decoroso Bonifanti (screenplay)
Stars: Alberto Capozzi, Lydia De Roberti and Luigi Maggi
Roman emperor Nero is used to getting what he wants. He has grown tired of his wife Octavia, and has become infatuated with Poppea. He succeeds in making Poppea the new empress, but soon he faces opposition from an outraged populace.

Ginn and Company (Athenaeum Press) - 1925

A film from the silent movie era about a book manufacturing at a major textbook publishing house, Ginn and Company. The film shows large-scale letterpress printing and bookbinding from their Athenaeum Press. Found in the Moviecraft archive.
The first nine minutes are slow so you can skip to the good parts:
The typesetting/engraving section begins at 09:12.
The letterpress printing section begins at 14:52.
The bookbinding section begins at 16:13.