Volume I: Narrative History

 

Chapter 5 (1912): The Thanhouser Twins Again

Cousins, issued on July 28th, featured the Thanhouser Twins, whose close likeness to each other was exploited in a news release: Note

"Thanhouser pictures not only make a spectator smile but even get a smile from the players themselves. Take the latest issues of the three-a-week for easy example. There is the picture of Cousins, released July 28, in which two little girls who are related, as the title implies, decide to change places. They bear a wonderful resemblance to each other. So wonderful, indeed, that even their parents are kept guessing as to their exact identity when the children are together and dressed alike."

Treasure Trove, distributed on July 30th, garnered favorable reviews, as did A New Cure for Divorce, screened on August 2nd. One of the Honor Squad, issued on August 4th, had as a backdrop a parade in New York City with 10,000 policemen. Baby Hands, distributed through the exchanges on August 6th, featured Jean Darnell as the wife and James Cruze as the husband in a love triangle with Virginia Norden as the third element. Miss Darnell was extremely intelligent and a good actress besides. In addition to her work before the camera she was a film columnist and author. The strain of her work created an emotional burden too hard to bear, and she was hospitalized for a rest on at least two occasions. In an era in which most Thanhouser films received unstinting praise, the review of Baby Hands in The New York Dramatic Mirror was an exception: "The story is jerky and the photography is below standard, while the acting could be improved all around. This combination of faults makes the picture one that seems to drag and that will arouse not quite as much interest as the subject warrants."

Dr. and Mrs. Wilbert E. Shallenberger paid a visit in July to the Thanhouser Film Corporation, as the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Charles J. Hite, who arranged for their stay at the Hotel Victoria in nearby Larchmont, New York. Shortly thereafter, Hite was mentioned in another context in The Moving Picture World: Note

I received a letter from the Thanhouser scribe, Bert Adler, explaining his appearance in the streetcars carrying a baby in his arms. Here is his explanation. Mr. Hite, president of the Thanhouser Company, and accompanied by Mrs. Hite and baby Marjorie, had just come in from New Rochelle. Bert was with them. Mr. Hite left the party to make a trip to the bank, which left Bert with Mrs. Hite and baby Marjorie. The car being crowded, they had to stand, and Bert felt it his duty to relieve Mrs. Hite of the weight of the baby, and held Marjorie in his arms. That's all. Bert is still a bachelor.

Whether Bert Adler was married or single was hard for readers of The Moving Picture World to determine, but trade reports of the Ohio Moving Picture Exhibitors League, held in Dayton in March 1912, made frequent mention of Adler's combined business trip and honeymoon, while some later notices told of his life as a bachelor.

On Wednesday, July 31st, the Mutual Film Corporation again relocated its offices, this time from 45th Street in New York City to downtown in the financial district at 60 Wall Street, where a handsome suite was leased on the 18th floor. The Billboard Note reported: "Mr. Freuler, prominent member of the Mutual Company, stated that the reason for moving the offices was to get near the offices of the other members of the concern. These are moneyed men with their offices in the financial district." Wall Street was reaching into film making, and Mutual was not alone in this connection.

On August 5, 1912 one of Bert Adler's suggestions made front-page news in the New Rochelle Evening Standard:

"In conversation with local businessmen I find that there is no one very handy who knows the business of repairing typewriting machines, although there really seems to be a demand for such a party. I thought that the fact of the absence of such a man might make data for the Evening Standard since your paper manifests so warm an interest in the welfare of the business institutions of this city."

The above letter refers to a need to which every concern in the city operating one or more typewriters can bear witness. So far as known there is no typewriter repair in New Rochelle or even Mount Vernon and there would appear to be a good opening for typewriter repairing in connection with selling and renting typewriters of various makes. This is one of New Rochelle's lacks, and while it is not as vital to the city's prosperity as some others, it is one of the things needed to make its business more independent of outside considerations.

On August 10, 1912 The Moving Picture World reported:

Mutual Film Corporation agreed to market the products of the New York Motion Picture Company under the trademarks of "Bison-101," "Keystone" and "Broncho." Note The Mutual Film Corporation also purchased the Empire Film Exchange, which had four distribution offices. The negotiations for these transactions were finally concluded on Monday, July 29, and are the most recent in a long series of steps initiated by a group of Western investors, under the leadership of Mr. H.E. Aitken, for the purpose of improving the organization and increasing the efficiency of the Independent film service.

Mr. Aitken came to New York in the spring of 1911 and took over the old Hudson Film Company, changed it to the Western Film Exchange of New York, and improved the quantity and quality of its business. Note He then organized the Majestic Motion Picture Company, and that company's energetic assertion of its right to do business has been a great factor in the reorganization of Independent film manufacturers. Having, in the meantime, acquired valuable patent rights through Precision Camera Company, these interests then purchased control of the Carlton Motion Picture Laboratories, making the Reliance pictures for Baumann and Kessel.

The next step was the organization of the Mutual Film Corporation, which took over, upon its organization, the Western exchanges in New York, Milwaukee and Kansas City, the Majestic Exchange in Chicago, H & H exchanges in Chicago and Des Moines, the Lake Shore Exchange in Cleveland, and the Cadillac Exchange in Detroit.... Since its organization in February, the Mutual Film Corporation has opened exchanges in Boston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Toledo, Washington, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, and Cincinnati.

After the organization of the Mutual was well under way, Mr. Aitken, in cooperation with Mr. Charles J. Hite and others, negotiated Mr. Hite's purchase of the Thanhouser Company. In the meantime the suits brought by the Majestic Motion Picture Company against the Sales Company and its officers and constituents caused the disruption of the Sales Company, with the result that the Film Supply Company of America with its extensive program was organized....

On Tuesday, August 13, 1912, the Motion Picture Exhibitors' League of America opened its second annual convention at the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago, to a record-breaking number of delegates. On hand from New Rochelle were Edwin Thanhouser, Charles J. Hite, and Bert Adler, who on Thursday evening treated the conventioneers to a preview of the three-reel Lucile. John R. Freuler addressed the delegates and told of the aims of the Mutual Film Corporation. At the time Mutual was releasing its films through about 30 exchanges.

Old Dr. Judd, released by Thanhouser on August 9, 1912, featured Riley Chamberlin in the title role as a country doctor who prescribed a wedding ring to cure lovesickness. Then came Big Sister, issued on August 11th, with scenes filmed at the Sea Breeze Hospital in Coney Island, followed by Now Watch the Professor! Reviewers were enthusiastic in their praise of nearly all Thanhouser films of the period. An exception was a commentary concerning The Wrecked Taxi, released on August 16th, in The Morning Telegraph:

Seldom does the Thanhouser Company fail in presenting its photoplays with careful attention to the most minute detail of production, but this is one of the exceptions wherein an offering is open to criticism. One sub-title is placed too early in the story, the examination by a doctor of a suicide is very poorly acted, the same man playing the role of an attorney in a subsequent scene without any appreciable change in appearance. The larger part of the play is, however, well done and the story is one of unquestionable interest after the first opening scenes.

A girl marries one of two suitors, later regretting her choice for she and her husband quarrel constantly. She decides to go to the former lover and does so. While calling upon him a friend arrives in a state of intoxication. The wife is hidden behind curtains, and when the drunk falls asleep she returns home in a taxi with the former lover. The auto is wrecked, but they manage to get home without their names appearing in connection with the accident. Meantime the friend wakes up, staggers to a table, and by accident opens a drawer in which he finds a revolver. He then shoots himself in a moment of despondency. The lover returns to his rooms, finds the dead friend, and calls a policeman who hails a doctor. He is arrested for murder and placed on trial, refusing to ruin the woman's name by thus proving an alibi. But she reads of the trial, goes to the court and in the presence of her husband vindicates the friend. The husband instantly refuses to condone her action. They separate for five years when at a May party their child brings them together and they reconcile their differences.

This child [Helen Badgley] is a bright addition to the play, the scenes of its babyhood being wholly delightful. Just why the taxicab wreck should be so prominently played up in the title cannot be understood, for a drama of much closer relation to this feature could have been written. It is well pictured, but has nothing to do with the real plot. The May party scenes are prettily taken, but they, too, might have been used to better advantage in another story, as has been done so successfully with other topical events by the Thanhouser Company of late.

Next on the Thanhouser release schedule came a split reel with As Others See Us and Warner's Wax Works, on August 18th, followed on the 20th by Her Darkest Hour, featuring Marguerite Snow as the leading lady. Conductor 786, issued on the 23rd, had Riley Chamberlin as a kindly streetcar conductor who is fired because his son persuades the superintendent that his father is past retirement age. The picture was well received, and over the next several years a number of other films featuring Conductor 786 would be issued. When a Count Counted, first screened on August 25, 1912, told of a young working man and a stenographer who each decide to pose as members of high society while on vacation. This and other recent releases were favorably reviewed.

Many weeks before its release date on August 27th, Thanhouser advertised that Lucille, adapted from Owen Meredith's poem of the same name, would be issued in two reels. After numerous trade notices had been disseminated, it was realized that Lucille should be spelled Lucile, and corrections were hastily made. It was also decided to expand the film to three reels, but no extra space was available on the Film Supply Company calendar, so the third reel was held over and issued separately on the 30th. The New York Dramatic Mirror reviewed the picture:

A production put on with more polish and sympathy than this three-reel picture from Owen Meredith's novel would be rather hard to recall, for it is possessed of all the Thanhouser charm and sincerity in discovering the human truth and conflict in the drama and placing before the spectator a life-giving, true portrayal. To be sure, there are instances in which a certain class of spectator might decry the absence of dramatic action, perhaps not without reason.

During the action of the first and second reels the drama does at times suffer by the lack of development in leading up to the situation in progressive dramatic evolution. It is caused for the most part by disjointing the plot and the insertion of titles. Yet on the whole the production reveals, as so many of this producer's pictures do, the art of moderation and taste in the representation of human character and emotion. Marguerite Snow's interpretation of Lucile is truly an artistic achievement in portraying the subtle, sensitive, enduring love of the woman in contrast to the more forgetful love of the man, depicted in the character of Lord Alfred and played with sympathy by James Cruze. Duc de Luvois is another well developed character by William Russell. Flo LaBadie is charming as the youthful Matilda and does not cease to maintain this attribute in old age. William Garwood gives a very wholesome interpretation of young Richard, while Mignon Anderson is equally pleasing as Constance, the ward and niece of Duc de Luvois.

The third reel is perhaps the most dramatic in the way of construction and contains some notably interesting battle scenes, especially impressive in that they strike one as real from the absence of the usual blood and thunder type. Certain details might have been more cleverly handled, but the impression of the whole is a photographed actual battle.

As in the original poem, Lucile and Lord Alfred part as lovers. He becomes engaged to Matilda, but brought face to face with Lucile again his love returns. Her lover, Duc de Luvois, enraged, is about to kill Lord Alfred, when Lucile prevents. The struggle from afar is mistaken for unfaithfulness by Lord Alfred, who marries Matilda. Luvois, embittered, retires to his estate, while Lucile enters a convent. Years afterward, Lord Alfred's son meets and falls in love with Constance, the niece of Luvois, who, when he realizes the relation, refuses the union. His heart is softened, however, by Lucile, who meets both men after the battle in the capacity of nurse.

 

Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.