As in a Looking Glass (1913)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | As in a Looking Glass |
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| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1913 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Stanner EV Taylor |
| script | Stanner EV Taylor |
| production | Marion Leonard |
| occupation | |
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As in a Looking Glass ( German : Through a Glass Darkly ), is an American melodrama of the director Stanner EV Taylor from the year 1913 , produced by Stanners wife, the actress Marion Leonard and their monopoly Film Company .
action
The young Lena Despard was given away by her mother and grew up in a village by the sea. She is in love with a young fisherman. She has been almost forgotten by her mother, who runs a gambling hall in town. When the mother, widowed and destitute, searches for ways to maintain her luxurious lifestyle, she and a young adventurer set up a game room for the sons of the rich. Business is going well until the owners get into an argument and the young and attractive business partner opens her own gaming room in the immediate vicinity. Soon the young rich shine in Despard's gaming room with their absence. In despard, Despard falls into a letter from her daughter with a photo. She brings Lena to her place because she expects her presence to attract a more male audience at the gaming tables. Her hopes are not unjustified, and soon the customers are crowding into her gaming room again. One of the players, Graf von Bülow, falls in love with Lena and wants to marry her. Lena rejects the wedding off, and the count provides the parent 50,000 US dollars for an arranged marriage. The greed for money triumphs over the mother's instinct, especially since she is on the verge of bankruptcy, and the mother presses Lena until she finally agrees to the wedding.
A year goes by, Baron von Bülow has had enough of his new toy and shows his true colors. The house is the scene of wild parties with his questionable cronies, and the count demands that Lena keep them company. When she refuses, there is an argument and the count tells Lena about the deal with her mother that he has bought her body and soul. Furious with anger, Lena confronts her mother and learns that the count has told the truth. She beats her mother and returns to the count's house, swearing bitter vengeance. Soon she is not only a participant in the wild celebrations of her husband, but the driving force. By wrapping a jockey around her finger, one of her husband's friends, she gets enough money to divorce and become financially independent.
Completely bitter, Lena develops into an embodiment of evil, who seeks to poison and destroy everything around her. In doing so, she ruthlessly exploits her extraordinary beauty and her effect on men. One after the other, a well-known actor, a banker and an army officer succumb to her. She teams up with a gamer to beguile men and lure them into their shared gaming room. Now that she no longer has to worry about money, she falls in love with Algy Balfour, a married man. With the help of several allies, she destroys his marriage in order to have him for herself. She explains to her business partner that she is absent from the gaming room by saying that she is only interested in Algy Balfour's abundant money.
Finally, love overcomes Lena's greed, she marries Algy and only wants to be his good wife. But her past catches up with her. Her former partner tracks her down and blackmailed her with the threat of revealing her past life to Algy. Again and again, Lena pays hush-money until she can no longer meet the increasingly frequent demands of the blackmailer. Fearful of exposure and weighed down by the burden of her past life on her conscience, she commits suicide and dies in her husband's arms.
Production notes
As in a Looking Glass was the first film by the Monopoly Film Company founded by Marion Leonard and her husband Stanner EV Taylor after the failure of their Gem Motion Picture Company in late 1912 . Before its release in March 1913, the film was shown to critics without any subtitles and was unanimously praised for it. At the time, the subtitles were generally felt to be annoying but necessary, and the critics blamed both the acting performance of Leonard and the direction of Taylor for the success of the film without subtitles. It is unclear whether As in a Looking Glass was released without subtitles. The copy preserved in the George Eastman House contains subtitles.
The Defender of the Name was shot on 35mm film in February 1913 at the Monopoly Film Company studios in Hollywood . The film is 900 meters long on three rolls of film . It was published on March 15, 1913.
A copy of the film is in the film archive of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, New York .
criticism
HC Judson from Moving Picture World praised Marion Leonard, who has never been shown as favorably as in this drama. The material offers her an almost unique opportunity to use her gift to depict great emotions. The viewer is captivated from the beginning to the end of the plot, the acting performance and the incredible beauty of the film sets. However, the best films are those in which good ultimately triumphs. As in a Looking Glass shows evil ruining others and itself.
FJ Beecroft of the New York Dramatic Mirror referred to the waiver of the intertitles and the premiere. It seldom happens that a film producer trusts his product so much that he shows it to an extremely critical audience without subtitles. However, the trust was justified and nothing but praise had been expressed by the audience. Some of the emotional scenes played by Marion Leonard earned her first place among film actresses. Much can be attributed to the work of the director SEV Taylor. The continuity is unbeatable and some of the double exposures were among the best of the film year.
Harry Warner , one of the four Warner Brothers , stated shortly after the film was released that he did not hesitate to call it one of the greatest film productions he had ever seen ( I do not hesitate in proclaiming it one of the greatest dramatic feature productions I have ever seen ).
Web links
- As in a Looking Glass in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d H. C. Judson: "As in a Looking Glass" (Monopole Film) . In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 15, No. 8, February 22, 1913, p. 783, digitized .
- ↑ monopoly. As in a Looking Glass . In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 15, No. 11, March 15, 1913, p. 1140, digitized .
- ^ Eileen Bowser: The transformation of cinema, 1907-1915 (= History of the American cinema , Volume 2). Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City 1990, ISBN 0-684-18414-1 , p. 140 and footnote 9 on p. 286.
- ↑ As in a Looking Glass in the Internet Movie Database (English) , accessed on January 10 of 2019.
- ^ Sarah Delahousse: Marion Leonard . In: Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal and Monica Dall'Asta (eds.): Women Film Pioneers Project . Center for Digital Research and Scholarship. Columbia University Libraries, New York, NY 2013, September 27, 2013, accessed January 11, 2019.
- ↑ a b As in a Looking Glass , Advertisement from Monopol Film Company. In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 15, No. 8, February 22, 1913, p. 741, digitized .