Thanhouser Company

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.

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.

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

Silent adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear

Thanhouser's version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

She was the first attempt in film to depict the story of H. Rider Haggard's 1886 novel She: A History of Adventure.

Film realization of the Biblical story of Joseph, played here by future director James Cruze.

Two boys from Labrador, Canada, visit their aunt in Westcheser, New York. Although it's in the middle of a cold winter in New York, the nephews from Labrador are used to much colder weather and think the New York winter is too warm for them, and act accordingly.

Several married couples go on a camp-out together, but the women soon realize that the men expect them to do all the dirty work.

The Thanhouser Company's two-reel adaptation of Oscar Wilde's eponymous novel. “The plot is unusual, and even though none of the familiar epigrams of the author find their way into the subtitles there is an artistic flavor to the production. Dorian's picture shows evidence in the passing years of his selfish, dissipated life, though his own countenance remains unchanged. Harris Gordon handles the leading role effectively, and Helen Fulton was pleasing as the ill-fated young actress who won Dorian's heart." - The Moving Picture World, July 31, 1915.

The lead Florence La Badie plays dual roles. Clever editing is used for the scene where her two characters meet. La Badie, however, does appear twice within a scene via superimposition, but that's in a flashback-within-a-mirror scene. There are a couple such scenes where La Badie's reflection in the mirror reflects her reflective melancholy mood.

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.

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.

A painter in New York City discovers that he has inherited a harem. Since he's already married and his wife would definitely not approve, he must find a way to rid himself of his inheritance.

Edwin Thanhouser re-made The Vicar of Wakefield in 1917 as a eight-reel feature film providing us with a frame of reference for the maturation of film language and cinematic techniques over the ensuing eight year period.

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 series of flashbacks where a penniless, friendless tramp and his dog relates the story of his downfall due to drink.

A lawyer is given the execution of a will, which bequeaths to the child of a disinherited son a large fortune. The disinherited son is now dead. The father, on his deathbed is penitent. By way of making amends he leaves to his son's offspring, his entire fortune. He is ignorant of his grandchild's fate, but provides that a thorough search should be made.

A truncated version of Wilkie Collins' popular mystery story.