Volume II: Filmography

THE AMERICAN AND THE QUEEN

November 11, 1910 (Friday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Patriotic

Notes: 1. This film was originally scheduled for release on November 4, 1910, but was rescheduled to November 11. However, certain earlier printed schedules were not corrected, and several trade notices used the November 4, 1910 date. 2. In a review in The Moving Picture World, November 19, 1910, the title was listed erroneously as The American Queen.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, October 29, 1910:

"The American and the Queen is a royal creation from an American studio. But that shouldn't reflect on our patriotism. The fact is that this picture arouses patriotism. Primarily its purpose is to make you yell for Old Glory and then to entertain you. The entertainment feature is totally secondary to the patriotic part...."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture News, October 22, 1910:

"Maud, the beautiful queen of Rumania, is deposed through the efforts of her wicked cousin, Rupert, who seizes the throne. He tries to make love to Maud, but when she spurns him he has her thrown into prison. Through the efforts of her faithful lady-in-waiting, and the kindly priest, the young queen escapes. While on a steamer, her cousin's spy locates her and decides to give her poison, but his attempt is detected by Jack Walton, wealthy young American who has seen the queen and fallen in love with her without knowing anything as to her history. A number of noblemen urge the queen to make an effort to regain the throne, and when Jack joins his plea to theirs, she consents. But the queen is only in her country a few hours when she is arrested during the absence of Jack on a mission.

"Jack prepares to save the queen, but has hit on no definite plan. Then Father Paul proposes a scheme. The queen's prison is on the ground floor; it is possible for her to stretch her hand through the bars. And Jack marries the woman he loves, though a stone wall is between them. The priest, with the bridegroom is outside, and the careless guards do not see them. Rupert then sends for his cousin again, and for the second time he offers to marry her. But she spurns him. Then he orders her execution. The sentence is about to be carried out when Jack arrives with a squad of U.S. troops from a troop ship in the harbor. The queen is entitled to their protection, for she is now the wife of an American. And she gets it. Rupert loses his life and the ensuing combat."

REVIEW by Walton, The Moving Picture News, November 19, 1910:

"A very feeble echo on Anthony Hope. The throne room staging is ridiculous and so is the resolution. The flag-waving business is feebly melodramatic. Princes, etc. don't sit on that sort of chair. I'm an admirer of Thanhouser, but this thing is straight, plain punk. In Europe it will be received as a Yankee joke."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, November 19, 1910:

"A novel method of rescuing an imprisoned queen. The American marries her, and then, inasmuch as she is entitled to the protection of an American she receives it, troops being landed from the ships lying in the harbor to affect her release from prison. The wedding is unique, the girl being inside the prison and reaching through the gate to take her lover's hand. That and a novel method of release are interesting and stamp the film as above the ordinary. The rascally cousin is killed in the encounter which releases the queen."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, November 16, 1910:

"This is one of those rattling stories of love and adventure, imprisonment and escape, that thrill the school-going population. The lovely young queen, deposed by her usurping cousin, married a handsome American hero, who summoned his associates from the warship and saved the queen just as she was waiting to be shot. The narrative is very entertaining - or could be made so, if the producer had cared to trouble himself about details. In its present crude form, its wild impossibility rather grates upon a spectator, because every scene in the film has some inconsistency. At least, it was worth doing well. Unfortunately, neither the acting nor the mounting has any particular merit. In one of the usurper's strenuous scenes his coat gapes away from his trousers and his cap falls over one ear in a fashion anything but regal. The royalty has only a hollow, assumed dignity throughout the film."

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