A Fool's Revenge
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | A Fool's Revenge |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1909 |
| length | 11 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | David Wark Griffith |
| script | David Wark Griffith |
| production | American Mutoscope and Biograph Company |
| camera | GW Bitzer |
| occupation | |
| |
A Fool's Revenge ( German : Die Rache eines Hofnarren ) is an American melodrama film by director David Wark Griffith from 1909 . The script was also written by David Wark Griffith, as an adaptation of Tom Taylor 's play of the same name, which in turn is based on the drama Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo from 1832. Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto is also based on Le roi s'amuse ; the advertising for the film takes this as an opportunity to claim that the film is based on Rigoletto . The silent film is a production by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company .
action
The Duke is melancholy and his courtiers are trying desperately to lighten his mood. All attempts fail until, in their perplexity, they kidnap the pretty daughter of the court jester and bring her to the duke. The Duke falls in love with her on the spot, but in a previously unfamiliar, serious way. He renounces the Droit du Seigneur and sends her home, but lends her his cloak for the journey.
The court jester who witnessed this scene sees his daughter dishonored and swears vengeance. To this end, he hires a pair of vagabonds who live in a hut nearby to murder the Duke for 500 Louis d'or . The court jester shows the murderers the duke as he walks with the fool's daughter in the garden of the palace. When the duke has left, the daughter discovers the trio and secretly follows them to their hut. There she listens to the murder plan and decides to save the duke without betraying her old father.
When she got home, she disguises herself as a man and throws on the Duke's borrowed cloak to sacrifice herself for her father and the Duke. She enters the murderer's hut and is stabbed as expected. Horrified, the couple noticed the mistake and put the body in a sack in order to present it to the fool, to receive the wages and to flee. The fool dances around the sack with joy and enthusiastically celebrates the fulfillment of his vengeance. When he tries to move the corpse away, it seems too easy for him. He opens the sack and finds his dead daughter, who has fallen victim to his own cowardly murder plan.
Production notes
A Fool's Revenge is a one-reeler on 35mm film that is 1,000 feet long . The film was registered with the United States Copyright Office on March 8, 1909 , but was released on March 4, 1909.
The advertisement for A Fool's Revenge names Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto as the template for the script. In fact, the script is an adaptation of Tom Taylor's play A Fool's Revenge , which, like Rigoletto, is based on Victor Hugo's drama Le roi s'amuse from 1832.
criticism
The New York Dramatic Mirror praised A Fool's Revenge as the first American film to match Pathé's films in terms of dramatic structure and powerful presentation . The court jester's clear facial expression and his natural but suggestive gestures are almost perfect pantomime . The other actors did a good job, too, especially the hired killers, and the film impresses with its equipment and intelligent direction. Biographer deserves great praise for this film, which is one of the best.
The Moving Picture World describes A Fool's Revenge (as The Fool's Revenge ) as a highly dramatic film that keeps the viewer in high tension from start to finish. The daughter's game, which offers no cause for criticism, and the flawless camera work are outstanding. The audience was deeply impressed.
Web links
- A Fool's Revenge in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ A Fool's Revenge . In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 4, No. 9, February 27, 1909, p. 246, digitized .
- ↑ A Fool's Revenge in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ David Mayer: Stagestruck filmmaker. DW Griffith and the American theater . University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 2009, ISBN 978-1-58729-790-8 , p. 97.
- ^ The New York Dramatic Mirror , March 13, 1909.
- ^ Notes from Chicago. By Our Western Representative . In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 4, No. 11, March 13, 1909, p. 300, digitized .