Pre-production In the book, "American Cinema's Transitional Era," the authors point out, One aspect of this transition was the longer duration of films.
Feature films were slowly becoming the standard fare for Hollywood producers. Before 1913, you could count the yearly features on two hands. Between 1915 and 1916, the number of feature movies rose times or from 342 films to 835. There was a recurring claim that Carl Laemmle was the longest-running studio chief resisting the production of feature films. Universal was not ready to downsize its short film business because short films were cheaper, faster, and more profitable to produce than feature films. Laemmle would continue to buck this trend while slowly increasing his output of features. In 1914, Laemmle published an essay titled - In 1916, Laemmle ran an advertisement extolling Bluebird films while adding the following vocabulary on the top of the ad.{{efn|The moving picture business is here to stay. That you must admit, despite carping critics and blundering sore-heads, true, some exhibitors have found business so good lately — but if you get down to facts when you look for a reason why, it's a 100 to 1 shot that they are, and for some time have been, dallying with a feature program. Some of these wise ones will tell you that business has picked up since they went into features, — BUT — ask them whether they are talking NET or GROSS. They will find they have an immediate appointment and terminate your queries unceremoniously. Funny how we like to kid ourselves, isn't it? The man who is packing 'em in and losing money on features is envied by his competitor, who is laying by a bit every day, and has a good steady, dependable patronage but admits to a few vacant seats at some performances. When this chap wakes up, he will realize that he has a gold mine and that good advertising will make it produce to capacity. The moral is that if you can tie up to the Universal Program, DO IT. If you can't NOW, watch your first chance. Let the people know what you have, and let the feature man go on to ruin if he wants to. You should worry!
Motion Picture News - May 6, 1916
Casting •
Dorothy Davenport (1895–1977) was an established star for
Universal when the year-old actress played Beverly Hope. She had acted in hundreds of movies by the time she starred in this film. Most of these films were 2-reel shorts, as was the norm in Hollywood's teen years. She had been making movies since 1910. She started dating
Wally Reid when she was barely 16, and he was 20. They married in 1913. After her husband died in 1923, she used the name "Mrs. Wallace Reid" in the credits for any project she took part in. Besides being an actress, she would eventually become a film director, producer, and writer. •
Emory Johnson (1894–1960) was years old when he acted in this movie as Mason Van Horton. In January 1916, Emory signed a contract with
Universal Film Manufacturing Company.
Carl Laemmle of
Universal Film Manufacturing Company thought he saw great potential in Johnson, so he chose him to be Universal's new leading man. Laemmle hoped Johnson would become another
Wallace Reed. A significant part of his plan was to create a movie couple that would sizzle on the silver screen. Laemmle thought Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson could make the chemistry he sought. Johnson and Davenport would complete 13 films together. They started with the successful feature production of
Doctor Neighbor in May 1916 and ended with ''The Devil's Bondwoman'' in November 1916. After completing the last movie, Laemmle thought Johnson did not have the screen presence he wanted. He decided not to renew his contract. Johnson would make 17 movies in 1916, including six shorts and 11 feature-length Dramas. 1916 would become the second-highest movie output of his entire acting career. Emory acted in 25 films for Universal, mostly dramas with a sprinkling of comedies and westerns. •
Richard Morris (1862–1924) was a year-old actor when he played Prince Vandloup. He was a character actor and former opera singer known for
Granny (1913). He would eventually participate in many Johnson projects, including |
In the Name of the Law (1922),
The Third Alarm (1922),
The West~Bound Limited (1923),
The Mailman (1923),
The Spirit of the USA (1924) until his untimely death in 1924. •
Adele Farrington (Mrs. Hobart Bosworth) (-1936) was years old when she portrayed Doria Manners. She was also a Universal contract player appearing in 74 films between 1914 and 1926. Although she got her start in movies when she was 47 years old (1914), Universal cast her mostly in
character leads. She frequently acted alongside her husband, Hobart Bosworth, whom she married in 1909 and divorced in 1920. Besides being an actress, she was also a music composer and writer. •
Arthur Hoyt (1874–1953) was years old when he portrayed the Alchemist. He was an American film
character actor who appeared in more than 275 films. He began his serious acting career in 1916 and remained active in the industry until 1947.
Director Lloyd B. Carleton (–1933) started working for
Carl Laemmle in the Fall of 1915. Carleton arrived with impeccable credentials, having directed some 60 films for the likes of
Thanhouser,
Lubin,
Fox, and
Selig. Between March and December 1916, 44-year-old Lloyd Carleton directed 16 movies for Universal, starting with
The Yaqui and ending with
The Morals of Hilda released on December 11, 1916.
Emory Johnson acted in all 16 of these films. Of Carleton's total 1916 output, 11 were feature films, and the rest were two-reel shorts. After completing this film, Carleton would make
The Morals of Hilda and sever his connections with Universal.
Screenplay F. McGrew Willis (1891–1957) and
Walter Woods (1881–1942) were
scenarists. Their business advertisements in the trade journals would advertise themselves as "Willis - Woods Photoplaywrights," adding to the copy "Collaborating for Better Results." Thus, when they jointly wrote a
Screenplay, they would use the pseudonym The copyright for this film reads, Both were contract members of the Universal cadre of screenwriters. Willis Woods also wrote
A Stranger from Somewhere at the same time they wrote this story. Walter Woods (Walter Woods was sometimes called Walter Wood)
Filming On March 15, 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility,
Universal City Studios. Since this film required no location shooting, it was filmed in its entirety at the new studio complex. ==Release and reception==