Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 8: 1915 March Releases

Although Edwin Thanhouser was back on deck beginning Monday, March 1st, it would be many weeks until he had an impact on Thanhouser Film Corporation pictures. March releases consisted of films made earlier. The first subject of the month was On the Brink of the Abyss, a two-reeler with Frank Farrington, Minnie Berlin, and other players. At the time James Cruze was conspicuously absent from regular releases, as he was starring in the serial episodes of The Twenty Million Dollar Mystery.

And He Never Knew, the Princess offering of March 5th, was overlooked by reviewers as was The Mishaps of Marceline, a one-reel comedy issued on the 7th, featuring Marceline, a clown who for years was a fixture on stage at the Hippodrome in New York City. Note The Final Reckoning, a two-reel picture distributed through the exchanges on the 9th, starred Florence LaBadie in a drama filmed along the Croton Aqueduct, then in the process of construction. Then followed Do Unto Others, the Princess release of March 12th; Little Bobby, with Helen Badgley in the title role, on the 14th; and The Master's Model, a two-reel picture issued on the 16th, written and directed by Nolan Gane, who also appeared before the camera. Gane, who had been an actor with the studio since 1913 and who had appeared in numerous roles, contracted a cold early in January. It took a turn for the worse, complications developed, and the writer-director-actor died of typhoid-pneumonia on February 12th, a month before the release of his finest film effort.

Joe Harkins' Ward, the Princess offering of March 19th, starred Reenie Farrington and Boyd Marshall as usual. By this time Princess films were faring poorly at the box office and little notice of them was paid by reviewers. The Stolen Jewels was released on the 21st, followed by the two-reel A Duel in the Dark on the 23rd, Jealousy on the 26th, The Skinflint, a Princess picture, on the 26th as well, The Spirit of Uplift on the 28th, and, closing out the month, The Magnet of Destruction in two reels on the 30th. The last film featured Mignon Anderson and Arthur Ashley and garnered enthusiastic reviews.