“The Fatal Marriage” (Enoch Arden) – Chicago Tribune – 1922
“The Fatal Marriage” (Enoch Arden) – Chicago Tribune – 1922
Chicago Tribune – Sunday June 25, 1922 Page 91
Back, Back, Back to Days That Are Gone Forever
“The Fatal Marriage”
Presented by Robertson-Cole, Directed by Christy Cabanne, under supervision of D.W. Griffith.
The Cast:
- Philip ………….…..…………. Wallace Reid
- Annie …………………………… Lillian Gish
- Enoch Arden ……..….……… Alfred Paget
- Annie’s Daughter …..…. Mildred Harris
By Mae Tinee
“The Fatal Marriage,” you must be informed quickly, is a reissue. It was made, I believe, at least seven years ago. O, yes, at LEAST – for D.W. Griffith himself has a small part in the picture. He only appears for a moment or so, but you know the movies were pretty young when he was doing any acting. Then, Wallace Reid and Lillian Gish in the same picture – yes, pretty old!
“The Fatal Marriage” is from Tennyson’s “Enoch Arden,” and is well worth your time and money for several reasons.
It is interesting to see how far Griffith has come once this picture was made. Then, you might say, he was a simple country boy who entered the big city of filmdom unostentatiously and told the little story he was sent to tell with a touching simplicity. Now he enters with blare of trumpets, clad in purple and fine linen, and writes his tales with a golden pen on the mountain sides, while heralds herd the populace to see what he has written.
Then – before the fans crowned Wallace Reid king of moviedom – what sort of a chap was he?
An earnest chap with lots of talent anxious to hold down a job that I warrant didn’t pay him anymore than was necessary to keep a roof over his head. A nice, lovable chap with an eye to the future.
Lillian Gish? How was she some seven years ago? Older, apparently then than now, and just as good an actress.
What about the photography? Surprisingly good. Minus the sensational effects achieved nowadays, but satisfactory.
Most of Us Know the Story.
The story of Enoch Arden is known to most. It is a tale of honest love and friendship. Two men love one woman. Annie, the woman, marries Enoch Arden, a sailor who goes to a foreign port to win a fortune for her and his beloved children. The years pass and he does not return. Annie waits, her constancy never wavering, and Phillip, friend of her husband, and worshipper of herself, stands by, seeing to it that she does not want, and, finally, when convinced that Enoch is dead, pressing her to marry him.
Still Annie waits. Still Enoch does not come. So, at last she becomes Phillip’s wife.
Enoch, who has been shipwrecked on the coasts of Africa, is at last rescued. He returns to his native village a white bearded stranger. Nobody knows him. He finds his old home deserted. He asks of the woman who keeps the inn:
“And what became of Annie who married Enoch Arden?” She replies that Annie waited many years, but at last married Phillip and had just borne him a child.
Enoch, finding that his adored wife is safe and happy, goes to his death without revealing himself to her.
The picture is quite as well acted as many we see today. I was surprised to see Mildred Harris in the cast. As Annie’s young daughter she showed herself an infinitely better actress that at the present time.
The picture will drag a bit, I’m afraid, for most. It will seem like a fairy tale to many. I suppose there are constant loves and honest friendships nowadays, but certainly one doesn’t hear much of them.
Below, original Lillian Gish portrait by APEDA NY used to illustrate this Chicago Tribune article.
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