Thanhouser Company

Silent adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear

Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.

A recreation of the Thanhouser Studio fire of 13 January 1913, it includes the rescue of a small child from the flaming building.

Following a bright wandering star, three magi from the East travel to Bethlehem of Judea to meet a very special newborn baby. Meanwhile, King Herod, driven by a hideous prophecy, orders him to be found and murdered.

The production vindicated the new feature-length movie format by restoring several characters, plot complications, and atmosphere that had been truncated in Thanhouser’s 1910 version of less than one-sixth the length.

In "The World and the Woman", Jeanne Eagels plays Mary, a prostitute (which is implied by her walking the streets and being hassled by policemen) who reluctantly takes a better position at a country lodge as a maid. In this woodland community, she attends church and the path to Salvation becomes clear to her. Through Mary's faith, the injured folk of the countryside are healed. However, her old employer, whose lustful advances she'd previously spurned, still has designs on her.

A messenger boy is wrongfully accused of stealing bonds worth $20,000. Luckily, a film crew is shooting a moving picture on the same street. The boy's accuser has the police convinced, until...

A one-reel crime drama with crooks, ruses, kidnapping, escape, and a twist, all wrapped in a coherent narrative.

"In Hidden Valley," Valkyrien is a white goddess who has been captured by savage blacks in South Africa. She is found by a young missionary, played by Boyd Marshall, and rescued from a sacrificial altar. Valkyrien was selected as the most perfectly formed girl in Denmark in a competition conducted by the government. The dance of the white goddess before the natives is one of the most beautiful scenes in the production. The Moving Picture World, August 5, 1916

Zudora, not knowing she's an heiress to a $20 million fortune, lives with her uncle, a mystic and detective, who covets her inheritance. She wants to marry John Storm but her uncle is against it. However, the uncle makes a bargain; if Zudora can solve the next twenty mysteries brought to him, she can marry as she chooses. Episodes 1,2 and 8, plus another unidentified chapter, survive. The rest is believed to be lost.

The Thanhouser Co. has reissued a number of its surviving films on video. FIRES OF YOUTH existed at around 52 minutes in its original release. A shortened version running just over 31 minutes has survived at the George Eastman House and has now been released by Thanhouser. Jeanne Eagels does well as the neglected young daughter in a factory town. She appears in 22 scenes and delivers a sensitive performance.

Released on June 7, 1910, THE TWO ROSES was Thanhouser's 16th release and was advertised as "A powerful, pathetic, pretty story of life in Little Italy." The film featured Marie Eline (Tony, an Italian boy), Frank H. Crane (Tony Prolo, young Tony's father), and Anna Rosemond (Tony Prolo's wife). In this film Marie Eline was billed as "The Thanhouser Kid" for the first time.

Two young people marry in a Continental village and receive the congratulations of all save the rejected suitor. He bides his time while the couple live happily and are blessed twice with children. War is declared after the husband has suffered an injury for life and the rejected suitor enlists.

Little Helen, Mayor Southwick's child, straying away from an automobile party, gets lost in the woods. She comes to the house where the her father's political rival holds his secret conferences, and he orders his housekeeper to keep guard over the child while he motors to the city. His plan is to hold the child until her father has signed the bills he wants passed.

With her week's wash only half done, Diana drops her work to peruse the Paris fashion magazines. Poring over the beautiful fashions delineated in the highly colored pages of the publications, Diana falls asleep. She dreams that she is wealthy and a society leader in Washington. A short film (273 meters) which marked James Cruze's debut as director.

Forester and Maywood, two wealthy neighbor planters, volunteered their services to defend their country when the war of the Revolution broke out. Forester was made colonel of his regiment, while Maywood became a captain. The men mortgaged their plantations and gave the benefits to the government, which was hard pressed for funds. Colonel Forester was mortally wounded at the battle of Cowpens, but before he passed away, Captain Maywood promised that he would care for Forester's motherless little girl.

Young Bernick and Johan Tonnesen are close friends, living in Norway. Bernick is engaged to marry Johan's sister, who is an heiress. He is simply marring her for her money, as he is really in love with the wife of an actor. While on a visit to his old love, in which he hopes to break off the affair, the woman's husband unexpectedly enters the room, and Bernick is compelled to escape by the window. Johan, upon learning of his friend's threatened disgrace, assumes Bernick's guilt, and leaves the country for America. Bernick takes advantage of his friend's chivalry by allowing it to be generally believed that Johan also misappropriated funds. In reality, Bernick was guilty of this crime as well as the other.

With The Old Curiosity Shop and David Copperfield, both released in 1911, and Nicholas Nickleby in 1912, Thanhouser established itself as producer of the best Dickens adaptations in American film.

Drama of life in the foreign legion of Africa

Adele has grown up in a tenement, but she longs for greater things. She gets her chance at the stage when her mother runs into an old friend, Blanche. Blanche has been working steadily in the theater, and she helps Adele get work. The young girl finds romance with Vincent Harvey, an aspiring composer. One day Adele suffers an accidental fall out of a window.