The Innocence of Lizette (1916)
Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:23 pm
This was uploaded to YouTube by the EYE Film Institute with Dutch intertitles which I've translated to English and changed the names of characters back to the way they appeared in the original American version. Following are excerpts from F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre's review on imdb:
"I saw 'Innocence of Lizette' at the Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy, in 2006; their Desmet print was restored from a beautifully tinted and toned source print in the Nederlands Filmmuseum with Dutch translations replacing the original American credits and intertitles. As is often the case in foreign prints of silent films, there has been some rewriting as well: the heroine's name is now Liesje, and the film's new (Dutch) title translates as "Liesje's Un-Guilt".
The supporting cast includes two performers named Eugene Forde and Eugenie Forde. I'd previously seen their names (separately) in other films, and I'd assumed they were related. Viewing them here in the same film, I see no resemblance between them ... and apparently this is the only time they ever worked together, at least in a movie. (They separately had long stage careers.) Eugene Forde, elsewhere a movie director but here an actor, is spelt in the cast list as 'Ford', possibly to emphasize that he's no relation to Eugenie Forde.
In the Nederlands print, all the characters' names have been 'Dutched' ... not only does Lizette become Liesje, but Dan Nye becomes Daniel Clarck, Granny Page becomes Mother Nelton, and so forth. The real gobsmacker on this cast list is the wealthy industrialist played by Harvey Clark. In the original American prints of this film, he was named Henry Fauer. For some reason -- maybe anti-German sentiment? -- the Dutch exhibitors have changed his name to Henry Ford! Viewers of this retitled Dutch print might make the understandable error of assuming that the wealthy industrialist named Henry Ford in this film is THE Henry Ford, the real-life automobile magnate. Since there are already two Fordes in this movie, confusion is rampant.
One plot detail may elude modern viewers: in 1916, when abortions were illegal and extremely dangerous, an unmarried girl who got 'in trouble' was often sent away from home for several months, so that the neighbours wouldn't notice her developing pregnancy.
Mary Miles Minter is one of those tragic figures (others being Roscoe Arbuckle, Wallace Reid, William Desmond Taylor and -- arguably -- Louise Brooks) whose career can never be merely regarded in its own right, as it's so thoroughly overshadowed by a scandal. Minter was the protégé and lover of Taylor at the time of his murder and the ensuing scandal; she was also a leading suspect in the crime, which remains unsolved. I believe that the explanation in the excellent book 'A Cast of Killers' is the nearest we'll ever get to the truth in the Taylor case. Following Taylor's murder, Minter's promising career ended quickly: she was washed-up in silents even before the arrival of talkies, and she spent the last decades of her life as a child-like recluse, a grotesque combination of Norma Desmond and Shirley Temple."
"I saw 'Innocence of Lizette' at the Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy, in 2006; their Desmet print was restored from a beautifully tinted and toned source print in the Nederlands Filmmuseum with Dutch translations replacing the original American credits and intertitles. As is often the case in foreign prints of silent films, there has been some rewriting as well: the heroine's name is now Liesje, and the film's new (Dutch) title translates as "Liesje's Un-Guilt".
The supporting cast includes two performers named Eugene Forde and Eugenie Forde. I'd previously seen their names (separately) in other films, and I'd assumed they were related. Viewing them here in the same film, I see no resemblance between them ... and apparently this is the only time they ever worked together, at least in a movie. (They separately had long stage careers.) Eugene Forde, elsewhere a movie director but here an actor, is spelt in the cast list as 'Ford', possibly to emphasize that he's no relation to Eugenie Forde.
In the Nederlands print, all the characters' names have been 'Dutched' ... not only does Lizette become Liesje, but Dan Nye becomes Daniel Clarck, Granny Page becomes Mother Nelton, and so forth. The real gobsmacker on this cast list is the wealthy industrialist played by Harvey Clark. In the original American prints of this film, he was named Henry Fauer. For some reason -- maybe anti-German sentiment? -- the Dutch exhibitors have changed his name to Henry Ford! Viewers of this retitled Dutch print might make the understandable error of assuming that the wealthy industrialist named Henry Ford in this film is THE Henry Ford, the real-life automobile magnate. Since there are already two Fordes in this movie, confusion is rampant.
One plot detail may elude modern viewers: in 1916, when abortions were illegal and extremely dangerous, an unmarried girl who got 'in trouble' was often sent away from home for several months, so that the neighbours wouldn't notice her developing pregnancy.
Mary Miles Minter is one of those tragic figures (others being Roscoe Arbuckle, Wallace Reid, William Desmond Taylor and -- arguably -- Louise Brooks) whose career can never be merely regarded in its own right, as it's so thoroughly overshadowed by a scandal. Minter was the protégé and lover of Taylor at the time of his murder and the ensuing scandal; she was also a leading suspect in the crime, which remains unsolved. I believe that the explanation in the excellent book 'A Cast of Killers' is the nearest we'll ever get to the truth in the Taylor case. Following Taylor's murder, Minter's promising career ended quickly: she was washed-up in silents even before the arrival of talkies, and she spent the last decades of her life as a child-like recluse, a grotesque combination of Norma Desmond and Shirley Temple."