Tangled Lives (1910)

The tragic story of bank cashier John Hill, who fakes his own suicide to escape justice over a cash shortage, leaving his wife May alone. A couple of years later, John, now a tramp, returns to his wife, only to find that she is preparing to remarry. The film was discovered in Gosfilmofond of Russia during an examination of the uncatalogued portion of the foreign film collection. It had been listed under its German release title, Ein zerstörtes Leben (A Shattered Life), which had led to its initial classification as a German production. Subsequent identification established that it was in fact the American film Entangled Lives, produced by Edwin Thanhouser’s (1865–1956) film company and previously believed to be lost. To date, this is the only known surviving copy of the film in the world. The film was discovered and identified by Kirill Vlaskin and Alexandra Ustyuzhanina, chief art historians of the Analytical Department of Gosfilmofond of Russia.

Date of release
1910-09-13
Runtime
16m
Genres
Drama

Casting

Interesting facts

Tangled Lives is a 1910 American silent drama short film produced by the Thanhouser Company. The plot focuses on, John Hill, a bank cashier who decides to fakes his death after the manager finds his accounts are short. Before he can go through with the plan, a reporter interviews the wife, May, and decides to suppress the story because he has become infatuated with her. Five years pass, May and the reporter decide to marry, but John returns on the day of the wedding. Upon sneaking into the house, he sees their love and decides to disappear. As he attempts to leave he accidentally falls to his death and the reporter removes his body before he leads May to the altar.

Production

The writer of the scenario is unknown, but it was most likely Lloyd Lonergan. He was an experienced newspaperman employed by The New York Evening World while writing scripts for the Thanhouser productions. The plot was likened by Walton of The Moving Picture News to Enoch Arden, but the story differs in several ways.

The film director is unknown, but it may have been Barry O'Neil. Film historian Q. David Bowers does not attribute a cameraman for this production, but at least two possible candidates exist. Blair Smith was the first cameraman of the Thanhouser company, but he was soon joined by Carl Louis Gregory who had years of experience as a still and motion picture photographer. The role of the cameraman was uncredited in 1910 productions.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended