Thomas Harper Ince

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Thomas H. Ince (1919)

Thomas Harper Ince (born November 16, 1880 in Newport , Rhode Island , † November 19, 1924 in Beverly Hills ) was an American film director and film producer of the silent film era . Ince is one of the pioneers in film history.

Career

Like his parents, Ince was a stage actor. His older brother John Ince and younger brother Ralph Ince also later became actors and silent film directors. He performed for the first time at the age of six. A number of engagements with traveling acting troupes followed. He made his Broadway debut at the age of 15 , but his acting career stagnated. He came in front of the camera through his wife Alice Kershaw , who was already under contract with Biograph . He didn't have much acting success there, but after a while he got the chance to switch behind the camera.

In 1911 he became a director for Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Picture Company . He shot his films in Cuba to be out of reach of the Motion Pictures Patent Company, which tried to prevent all independent film productions. Mary Pickford starred in a number of his early films . In 1911 he switched to Bison Motion Pictures, for which he mainly shot early westerns , the success of which was based on their impressive images and their exciting rhythm. There was also careful organization. Ince was the first filmmaker to establish a series of processes in film production that are taken for granted today: Before the film was shot, detailed information about the characters appearing in each scene and the necessary locations were recorded in the scripts. Ince also established careful budget plans. He divided the tasks of scriptwriter, director and film editor among different people instead of doing everything himself (as was still common at the time). Several scenes could be filmed and edited at the same time.

Ince also set new standards in the approach to authenticity in the western genre and in films about the civil war . He bought a 20,000 acre piece of land near Santa Monica ( called Inceville ), on which he had a complete western town built with backdrops to be able to make spectacular outdoor shots. He also hired real cowboys and Indians and aspiring directors such as Francis Ford , Frank Borzage , Fred Niblo , Jack Conway and Henry King for his films. In 1914, Ince cast actor William S. Hart for the first time in a western , whose star potential he recognized early on.

Ince's productions became bigger and more demanding, he employed thousands of technicians and produced films in a meticulously organized process literally on the assembly line. In 1915 he founded the Triangle Motion Picture Company with David Wark Griffith and Mack Sennett . Above all, the star status of William S. Hart received the company profitably. After Griffith's great success with The Birth of a Nation , Ince produced and directed his most ambitious project to date, the anti-war film Civilization , in 1916 , which, however, was not a commercial success because the mood of the Americans had now turned against isolationism .

1918 founded Ince with Adolph Zukor , the company Paramount Pictures . In Culver City , he again built a huge studio and impressive sets, which David O. Selznick later took over for MGM . When William S. Hart did not renew his contract with Paramount, that was the reason for Zukor to force Ince out of the company. In 1919 Ince founded the next production company with partners Mack Sennett , Marshall Neilan , Maurice Tourneur and Allan Dwan .

Death and afterlife

The reason for Ince's untimely death remains controversial to this day. The official cause of death is a myocardial infarction that Ince suffered during a celebration of his 44th birthday on William Randolph Hearst's yacht in 1924 . Prominent guests such as Charles Chaplin and Louella Parsons were present . The morning papers said Ince had been shot, but the evening papers stopped reporting the incident, while Hearst's papers said Ince had died of an acute upset stomach. What actually happened is unknown, but rumor has it that Ince was shot by Hearst while he chased Chaplin over the yacht with his revolver drawn. Hearst caught Chaplin with his lover, actress Marion Davies . He missed Chaplin and met Ince who happened to be on deck. Hearst then misused his press power to cover up the crime; Louella Parsons was rewarded for her silence with a lifelong job as a Hollywood reporter for his newspapers. The fact that Ince's body was cremated without an autopsy did nothing to stop the rumors. In 2001 Peter Bogdanovich filmed the story as The Cat's Meow .

The Film 100 website lists Ince as number 19 on the list of the most influential people in film history, especially for his introduction of the well-organized studio system. A star commemorates Ince on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Filmography

Thomas H. Ince (1910)
  • 1911: The Dream
  • 1911: When The Cat's Away
  • 1911: The Mirror
  • 1911: A Manly Man
  • 1911: In Old Madrid
  • 1911: Sweet Memories
  • 1911: The Lighthouse Keeper
  • 1911: Behind The Stockade
  • 1911: War on the Plains
  • 1912: Battle of the Redskins
  • 1912: Custer's Last Raid
  • 1912: War on the Plains
  • 1912: Blazing the Trail
  • 1912: The Invaders
  • 1913: The Drummer of the 8th
  • 1913: Granddad
  • 1913: The Battle of Gettysburg (The Battle of Gettysburg)
  • 1913: The Scourge of the Desert
  • 1914: The Typhoon
  • 1915: The Coward
  • 1915: In the Tennessee Hills
  • 1915: Rumpelstiltskin
  • 1915: The Darkening Trail
  • 1916: Civilization
  • 1916: Hell's Hinges
  • 1923: Anna Christie
  • 1916: The Return of Draw Egan
  • 1916: The Vagabond Prince
  • 1917: The Pinch Hitter
  • 1917: The Narrow Trail
  • 1918: Blue Blazes Rawden
  • 1918: Selfish Yates
  • 1918: Broadway branded
  • 1919: The Homebreaker
  • 1919: The Busher
  • 1919: Wagon Tracks
  • 1919: 23 1/2 hours' leave
  • 1919: Behind the Door
  • 1920: Dangerous Hours
  • 1920: Hairpins
  • 1920: The Leopard Man
  • 1921: Hail the Woman
  • 1922: Lorna Doone
  • 1922: The Hottentot
  • 1923: Soul of the Beast

literature

  • Robyn Karney (Ed.): Cinema. Year by year. 1894-2005 . Dorling Kindersley, London 2005, ISBN 1-4053-1160-6 .

Web links

Commons : Thomas H. Ince  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This version was spread among others in Kenneth Anger's book Hollywood Babylon (1959).
personal data
SURNAME Ince, Thomas Harper
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film director and producer of the silent film era
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Newport , Rhode Island
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1924
Place of death Beverly Hills