The Defender of the Name
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Defender of the Name |
,_film_still_with_Marion_Leonard_and_Graham_Velsey_in_uniform.jpg) | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1912 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Stanner EV Taylor |
| production | Marion Leonard |
| occupation | |
| |
,_film_still_with_Marion_Leonard_and_Graham_Velsey,_before_the_war.jpg)
,_film_still_with_Marion_Leonard_and_Graham_Velsey,_return_in_disgrace.jpg)
The Defender of the name ( German : The lawyer of the name ) is a US Civil War - melodrama of the director Stanner EV Taylor from the year 1912 , produced by Stanners wife, the actress Marion Leonard .
action
John Potter is the son of a distinguished family of old Virginia who is praised for the bravery of their soldiers . When news of the attack on Fort Sumter in the south spreads, he decides to join the Confederate States Army . He is given the job of working as a spy behind enemy lines in a United States Army uniform to gather enemy plans for attack. During the operation, he observes how a supposed Confederation spy is executed by soldiers from the Northern States . Potter realizes that if discovered, he faces the same fate. Scared, he sneaks back home. There his sister becomes the only witness of his return and confronts him. Ashamed, Potter commits suicide , which is only hinted at in the film.
As a member of the southern aristocracy, the sister cannot bear the idea that her family has produced a coward . Spontaneously, she decides to carry out her brother's mission herself and thus save the family honor. Behind the lines of the enemy, she penetrates their headquarters and steals the necessary documents. On the way back she shoots a Northern officer and flees under enemy fire. When she got home, she dragged her brother's body outside and put the documents in his breast pocket. He is found and buried with military honors as a hero who paid for his mission with his life . Nobody knows the truth, except the sister, the "Defender of the Name".
Production notes
The Defender of the Name was a representative of the films popular at the time, in which a young heroine spied behind enemy lines against the backdrop of the Civil War . This theme was made particularly popular by the actress Gene Gauntier , who repeatedly played such roles.
In 1911, Marion Leonard , a successful film actress and after Florence Lawrence the second biograph girl of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company , and her husband Stanner EV Taylor decided to found their own production company, the Gem Motion Picture Company . The silent film The Defender of the Name was made as their first production in 1911. Like all Gem films, it was only acquired and distributed by the Rex Motion Picture Manufacturing Company after it ceased operations. The first cinema screening took place on January 28, 1912.
The Defender of the Name is a one-reeler on 35mm film with a length of 300 meters.
criticism
The Moving Picture World published a table of contents and a brief review in its February 1, 1908 issue. The reviewer praised the atmosphere of the film and the historically accurate depiction of the Civil War era in terms of costumes and set design. Another critic praised Leonard's performance as a self-confident heroine, but rejected the implausible story.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Gem Company Announces First Releases . In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 11, No. 1, January 6, 1912, p. 48, digitized .
- ^ According to The Defender of the Name . In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 11, No. 3, January 20, 1912, pp. 242-244, digitized .
- ^ A b c 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 10, 2019.
- ^ Karen Ward Mahar: True Womanhood in Hollywood: Gendered Business Strategies and the Rise and Fall of the Woman Filmmaker, 1896–1928 . In: Enterprise and Society 2001, Volume 2, No. 1, pp. 72-110, doi : 10.1093 / es / 2.1.72 .
- ^ A New Gem in the Rex Crown . In: The Moving Picture World , Volume 11, No. 3, January 20, 1912, p. 191, digitized .
- ↑ The Defender of the name in the Internet Movie Database (English) , accessed on January 10 of 2019.