in 1908 Edward Thanhouser, his wife Gertrude and her brother, Lloyd Lonergan decided to open a movie production company. Thanhouser and his wife came from the theater. Lonergan was a police reporter. The Patents Trust turned down their license. The studio they founded produced more than a thousand movies over the next nine years, launched the film career of James Cruze and then was forgotten.
It was a common fate for the industry. However, the Thanhousers' grandson, Ned, has spent a couple of decades tracking down the one hundred fifty or so surviving films, making them available and creating this documentary.
Thanhouser (the studio) was an enormously ambitious studio for the era. Because of its roots, its production values were excellent, with costumes, scenery and actors drawn from the New York stage. The stories were a mix of original scripts and classics, including works of Shakespeare and Dickens.
This informative "talking heads" documentary offers some obvious errors, like referring to Cruze's THE COVERED WAGON as the first western feature (surely a surprise anyone who has seen William S. Hart's features from the previous decade). However, the production is eked out with many colorful and beautiful posters and will be of great interest to people with any interest in that turbulent era of film.
It was a common fate for the industry. However, the Thanhousers' grandson, Ned, has spent a couple of decades tracking down the one hundred fifty or so surviving films, making them available and creating this documentary.
Thanhouser (the studio) was an enormously ambitious studio for the era. Because of its roots, its production values were excellent, with costumes, scenery and actors drawn from the New York stage. The stories were a mix of original scripts and classics, including works of Shakespeare and Dickens.
This informative "talking heads" documentary offers some obvious errors, like referring to Cruze's THE COVERED WAGON as the first western feature (surely a surprise anyone who has seen William S. Hart's features from the previous decade). However, the production is eked out with many colorful and beautiful posters and will be of great interest to people with any interest in that turbulent era of film.