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| D. W. Griffith: Betrayed by a Handprint (US 1908). Florence Lawrence (Myrtle Vane). |
US © 1908 American Mutoscope & Biograph Company.
Dir: D. W. Griffith. Story: ?. Photog: Arthur Marvin, Billy Bitzer. Cast: Florence Lawrence, Harry Solter, George Gebhardt, Linda Arvidson, Mack Sennett.
Filmed: 6.8, 19.8.1908 (NY Studio). Rel: 1.9.1908.
Copy: DCP (4K), 14'49" (from paper print, 833 ft, 15 fps); titles: ENG. Source: Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus, Culpeper, VA.
Film Preservation Society (FPS) / Tracey Goessel / digital scan 2017. Given the absence of original intertitles, new ones have been written by the Film Preservation Society. 2024 edition.
43rd Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone: Early Cinema - The Biograph Project.
Grand piano: José Maria Serralde Ruiz..
Viewed at Teatro Verdi with e-subtitles in Italian, 9 Oct 2024
There is no credit information in the film itself, just the title card with the year of copyright and the name and the address of the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, like in The Adventures of Dollie.
Tracey Goessel (GCM/FPS The Biograph Project 2024): "Here is a detective film with no detective. Yet we know who the culprit is from the start. In fact, we get to see lovely and desperate Florence Lawrence commit the crime. We discover, by way of two close-up cut-in shots, both how she hid the jewels and how her identity was uncovered by the victim. In The Griffith Project, Vol. 1 (pp. 103-104), Tom Gunning notes these insert shots are isolated from their setting by a pitchblack background, arguing that each serves an explanatory purpose, but not a dramatic one."
"Still, Griffith is effectively moving his characters through and about contiguous spaces. The audience has a clear sense of the layout, and the dangerous distance Lawrence has to travel across the second-floor exterior ledge. Soon he will move his actors, like frightened chess pieces, through a series of telescoping rooms as danger threatens. But for now he is learning the rudiments of manipulating his tight little spaces (most, of necessity, the size of the Biograph stage.)"
Tom Gunning (GCM 1997): " A fascinating early detective film, in which both the methods and the detection of a crime are detailed. Rather than further exploring the devices off parallel editing that Griffith had just begun to make use of this film relies on editing between contiguous spaces bridged by simple actions." (DWG Project # 46)
AA: Memorable images: the dynamic blocking in the opening scene of the bridge party with 11 characters. The jolt experienced by Myrtle Vane (Florence Lawrence) as she loses everything. Her midnight journey in pyjamas on the dangerous ledge to steal Mrs. Wharton's (Kate Bruce) diamonds. The pre-Langian impact of the two handprints (qf. the giant fingerprint enlargement in M). There are elements of a true thriller, but all in all the performance resembles too much a Sunday school play or a Kindergarten play. The pantomime, the language of gestures, is not always convincing.
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I saw Betrayed by a Handprint in GCM's Griffith Project (DWG 46), pomeriggio 14 October 1997 at Ridotto del Verdi on 16 mm at 330 ft /15 fps/ 14 min without intertitles and Ulrich Rügner at the piano.
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Moving Picture World synopsis from Biograph Bulletin, No. 166, September 1908: "The art of palmistry is decried and we may say tabooed by many, still we must admit that it at times has its use, as this Biograph subject will show."
"While spending the night at wealthy widow Wharton's home, Myrtle steals a pearl necklace and cleverly hides the loot. Little does she know the widow knows a thing or two about fingerprinting."
"Dashing widow Mrs. Wharton gives a party at her beautiful villa in honor of the presentation to her of a handsome diamond necklace by her fiancé, during the evening bridge party participated in by a number of the guests. "
"One, Miss Myrtle Vane, is having wretched luck and Mrs. Wharton advises her several tomes to desist, but she plays on in the vain hope of fortune's tide turning, until finally, in extreme desperation, she stakes her all--and loses. Shame and disgrace stare her in the face. What can she do to recoup her depleted fortune?"
"Another guest is eminent palmist Professor Francois Paracelsus, who of course, was called upon to read the palms of those present. Sheets of paper were prepared and each imprinted their hand on a sheet to be read by the erudite soothsayer at his leisure, so were left on the drawing room table. All have now retired to the apartments assigned them by Mrs. Wharton, but there seems to be a sleepless night before Myrtle, and she suffers mental agony until the thought of the necklace flashes before her mind's eye--if she only possessed those treasures all would be well. "
"The more she thought of it the more unconquerable became her covetousness, until the inimitable determination to secure them seized her, but how? To enter her room by the door would not only arouse the hostess, but maybe the guests as well. "
"There was but one way, by the window, and this undertaking was decidedly hazardous, for it meant that she must crawl along the narrow ledge between her window and that of Mrs. Wharton, a distance of 20 feet, and one slight misstep would result in her being dashed to death on the walk below. "
"But she makes the trip without mishap, and entering the room she searches noiselessly for the top of the dresser, finds it, secures the necklace, and makes her way back to her apartment. Now to hide the jewels. An ingenious idea strikes her. She cuts in two a bar of soap, and hollowing it out, places the treasure inside and joins the parts together. "
"Meanwhile Mrs. Wharton, aroused from her slumber, intuitively looks to her diamonds, but finds them gone. "What's this? A clue!" On the dresser there is a sheet of the palmister's paper on which there is a handprint of dust. Down to the drawing room for the corresponding imprint. There it is, and signed "Myrtle Vane." "
"To Miss Vane's room goes the furious Mrs. Wharton, and during the scene that transpires the soap is brushed from the table and breaks open, exposing the necklace, at the same time convicting the poor girl."
"Upon the recovery of her jewels, Mrs. Wharton's anger subsides and she is inclined to be charitable towards the unfortunate girl kneeling at her feet, so she not only forgives her, but insists upon aiding her financially." —Moving Picture World synopsis from Biograph Bulletin, No. 166, September 1908
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