A Victim of the Mormons

A Victim of the Mormons (1911)

Mormonens offer

On a holiday, the family Gram meets a young, mysterious man who turns out to be a Mormon. In spite of her fiancèe's presence, the daughter Nina is drawn to the stranger. Hypnotized, she soon follows his every step. When she finally awakes from her trance, she finds herself on a ship to Utah, in the clutches of a dangerous man. (Stumfilm.dk)

Date of release
1911-10-02
TMDB
4.8 / 10 (4)
Runtime
50m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
August Blom

Casting

Interesting facts

A Victim of the Mormons is a 1911 Danish silent drama film directed by August Blom. The film was controversial for demonizing the Mormon religion, and its box-office success is cited for initiating a decade of anti-Mormon propaganda films in America. It tells the story of an attractive young woman who is seduced and kidnapped by a Mormon missionary, then forced to accompany him to Utah to become one of his wives. The film became a hit, partly due to the popularity of its star, Valdemar Psilander, and partly due to the publicity arising from objections by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its failed campaign to ban the film.

Production

A Victim of the Mormons followed a series of films by the Nordisk Film studio which portrayed young naive women who are kidnapped, held captive and in imminent danger of sexual assault. Early titles included The White Slave Girl (Den hvide slavinde, 1907), The White Slave Trade (Den hvide slavehandel, 1910) and The White Slave Trade's Last Victim (Den hvide slavehandels sidste offer, 1910).

Nordisk Film stated that the films were made to expose the social dangers of white slavery, but audiences enjoyed the sensationalized melodrama and the exploitation of young women placed in compromising positions. Because of the popularity of the earlier "white slave" films, Victim of the Mormons became a prestige project for Nordisk.

In 1911, Nordisk Film had begun to concentrate on longer feature-length movies, and, as such, Blom used three reels for A Victim of the Mormons. With a length of 3200 feet, it was one of the longest Danish films at that time.

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