View source for Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910 Thanhouser film)

{{short description|1910 film by Barry O'Neil}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2015}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Uncle Tom's Cabin
| image          = Uncle Tom's Cabin TC1.jpg
| caption        = A surviving film still.
| director       = [[Barry O'Neil]]
| producer       = [[Thanhouser Company]]
| writer         =
| narrator       =
| starring       =
| music          =
| cinematography =
| editing        =
| distributor    =
| released       = {{film date|1910|7|26}}
| runtime        =
| country        = United States
| language       = Silent film<br> [[English language|English]] inter-titles
}}
'''''Uncle Tom's Cabin''''' is a 1910 American [[silent film|silent]] [[short film|short]] [[drama]] produced by the [[Thanhouser Company]]. The film was adapted by from the 1852 novel ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' by [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]. The plot of the Thanhouser production streamlined the actual story to portray the film over the course of a single reel. The film was released on July 26, 1910, on the same day that [[Vitagraph]] released the first reel of their own three reel version of ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910 Vitagraph film)|Uncle Tom's Cabin]]''. This prompted the Thanhouser Company to advertise against the Vitagraph film by referring to the other as being overly drawn out. The film garnered mixed, but mostly positive reception in trade publications. The film is presumed [[lost film|lost]].{{refn|group=note|Some sources erroneously claim this film is extant while the Vitagraph version is not. One such source is ''Nineteenth-century Women at the Movies: Adapting Classic Women's Fiction to Film''.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mGnV1wT4zgC&q=Uncle+Tom%27s+Cabin+1910+Thanhouser+film&pg=PA226 | title=Nineteenth-century Women at the Movies: Adapting Classic Women's Fiction to Film | publisher=Popular Press | author=Barbara Tepa Lupack | year=1999 | pages=227| isbn=9780879728052 }}</ref> There is no known surviving print of the Thanhouser Production, in full or in part.}}
== Plot ==
Though the film is presumed [[lost film|lost]], a synopsis survives in ''[[The Moving Picture World]]'' from July 30, 1910. It states: "The story opens in winter when Mr. Shelby has to sell some of his slaves due to business problems. Until this time they have lived all their lives with him, and he has been noted for his kindness to them.... Unfortunately the person to whom he was compelled to sell is the slave owner of the other sort, brutal, heartless, and a hard master - Simon Legree. Legree agrees to buy as many slaves as he desires, provided that Mr. Shelby gives him his choice. The slaves are passed and reviewed, and Legree selects Uncle Tom, one of the oldest and trusted, and the young son of Eliza, also a slave who has been with Shelby for many years. Despite the protestations of Mr. Shelby and the entreaties of the slaves themselves, these two are heartlessly taken from their homes and families. Legree refuses to buy any of the others, and as Shelby needs immediate money, he is forced to sell these two. The small boy is torn from his mother's arms and placed in Uncle Tom's care to be taken with him to Legree's [[plantations in the American South|plantation]]. But Uncle Tom cannot resist a mother's pleading, and when Eliza entreats him to give her back her child he does so and aids her to escape with him."<ref name=Tom>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Filmography_files/ind64g1ff.htm | title=Volume 2: Filmography - Uncle Tom's Cabin | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=February 11, 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=February 11, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211185303/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Filmography_files/ind64g1ff.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>
"For this deed he is beaten by Legree and forced to join the bloodhounds in which Legree institutes to recover the slave. Eliza, with her boy in her arms, escapes over the Kentucky border to [[Ohio]], a free state, making a perilous crossing on one block of ice to another on the [[Ohio River]]. Terribly overcome by the cold and faint from exposure, Eliza is carried unconscious to the home of Senator Bird of Ohio. Tracked down by the purchaser, Simon Legree, to Bird's home, Mr. Bird out of goodness buys the boy and, giving him his freedom, gives him to his mother. Uncle Tom is not fortunate enough to find another purchaser and is taken by Legree to the plantation in [[Mississippi]], finding on the trip that the new owner has taken a dislike to him and treats him with great brutality."<ref name=Tom />
== Cast ==
*[[Frank H. Crane]] as Uncle Tom<ref name=Tom />
*[[Anna Rosemond]] as Eliza<ref name=Tom />
*[[Marie Eline]] as Little Eva<ref name=Tom />
*[Grace Eline as Topsy<ref name=Tom />
== Production ==
[[File:Uncle Tom's Cabin TC2.jpg|thumb|left|Another surviving film still]]
The 1852 publication of ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' by [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible.<ref name=bookrags>{{cite book|url-access=registration |url=http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-uncletomscabin/intro.html|title=Introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin Study Guide|publisher=BookRags.com|access-date=May 16, 2006}}</ref><ref name="GailSmith">"The Sentimental Novel: The Example of Harriet Beecher Stowe" by Gail K. Smith, ''The Cambridge Companion to Nineteenth-Century American Women's Writing'' by Dale M. Bauer and Philip Gould, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 221.</ref> It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s.<ref name="abolitionism2001">Goldner, Ellen J. "Arguing with Pictures: Race, Class and the Formation of Popular Abolitionism Through Uncle Tom's Cabin." ''Journal of American & Comparative Cultures'' 2001 24(1–2): 71–84. {{ISSN|1537-4726}} Fulltext: online at Ebsco.</ref> The writer of the adapted scenario is unknown, but it was most likely [[Lloyd Lonergan]]. He was an experienced newspaperman employed by ''[[The New York Evening World]]'' while writing scripts for the Thanhouser productions.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Biography_Files/2fyqag.htm | title=Volume 3: Biographies - Lonergan, Lloyd F. | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=January 17, 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=January 17, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150117081847/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Biography_Files/2fyqag.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> The director of the film was [[Barry O'Neil]], whose real name was Thomas J. McCarthy. He would direct many important Thanhouser pictures, including its first two-reeler, ''[[Romeo and Juliet (1911 film)|Romeo and Juliet]]''.<ref name=begin>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Narrative_files/c3s1.htm | title=Volume 1: Narrative History -Chapter 3 - 1910: Film Production Begins | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=January 14, 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304104643/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Narrative_files/c3s1.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[Marie Eline]], popularly known as "The Thanhouser Kid" played the role of Little Eva.<ref name=Tom /> Marie Eline would also play this role in the five-reel [[World Film Corporation]] version of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'', released on August 10, 1914.<ref name=Tom /> The role of Eliza was played by [[Anna Rosemond]], one of two leading ladies of the Thanhouser company in this era.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Biography_Files/iyv5el.htm | title=Volume 3: Biographies - Rosemond, Anna | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=January 16, 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=January 22, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150122221001/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Biography_Files/iyv5el.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Frank H. Crane]], cast in the role of Tom, was a leading male actor of the company. Crane was also involved in the very beginnings of the Thanhouser Company and would later become a director at Thanhouser.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Biography_Files/2_m8hp.htm | title=Volume 3: Biographies - Crane, Frank H. | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=January 16, 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=January 19, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150119090018/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Biography_Files/2_m8hp.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> Surviving film stills, from advertisements in ''Moving Picture World'', show Crane in [[blackface]] in order to portray the part of Uncle Tom.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/stream/moviwor07chal#page/226/mode/1up | title=Moving Picture World | publisher=New York, Chalmers Publishing Company | date=1910 | access-date=February 11, 2015 | pages=225}}</ref> The other players in the production are uncredited because their identities are unknown. Bowers states that most of the credits are fragmentary for 1910 Thanhouser productions.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Filmography_files/ind6i4_n5.htm | title=Volume 2: Filmography - Thanhouser Filmography - 1910 | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=12 February 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=February 9, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209190737/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Filmography_files/ind6i4_n5.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> The cast and credits of this film are sometimes erroneously given because of confusion with other films of the same name. Robert K. Klepper, ''Silent Films, 1877-1996: A Critical Guide to 646 Movies'', misidentifies the Thanhouser release as "Thanhouser/Minot" and lists the director as [[William Robert Daly]].<ref>{{cite book | title=Silent Films, 1877-1996: A Critical Guide to 646 Movies | publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] | author=Klepper, Robert K. | year=1999 | pages=73}}</ref> The 1914 [[Minot Films Inc.]] release was not produced by Thanhouser.<ref name=goble />
== Release and reception ==
The one reel drama, approximately 1,000 feet long, was released on July 26, 1910.<ref name=Tom /> The release of the film fell on the same date of [[Vitagraph]]'s ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910 Vitagraph film)|Uncle Tom's Cabin]]''. Vitagraph had previously released multi-reel works, but a three reel drama was considered a bold innovation by ''[[The New York Dramatic Mirror]]''. The ''Mirror'' article stated the multi-reel release was risky because [[Pathé]]'s two reel adaptation of ''[[Drink (film)|Drink]]'' was not followed by other two reel releases.<ref name=Tom /> The sudden competition prompted Thanhouser to advertise against Vitagraph's production in ''[[The Moving Picture World]]'' by declaring the three reel film as being overly drawn out and that audiences could get the full story in a single reel from Thanhouser.<ref name=Tom /> Edward Wagenknecht, author of ''The Movies in the Age of Innocence'', refers to Thanhouser advertising against a two reel version with, "You can see the whole thing in one reel - why buy two?"<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qyOhBAAAQBAJ&q=Uncle+Tom%27s+Cabin+Thanhouser&pg=PA55 | title=The Movies in the Age of Innocence | publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] | author=Wagenknecht, Edward | year=2014 | pages=55| isbn=9780786494620 | edition=3rd }}</ref> This is actually an erroneous reference to the three reel Vitagraph version by [[Edwin Thanhouser]] that was published in ''The Moving Picture World'' on March 10, 1917.{{refn|group=note|This reference is composed of three separate links. The attribution of the quote to Edwin Thanhouser is confirmed by Bowers in the narrative history of the Thanhouser Encyclopedia.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Narrative_files/c2s18.htm | title=Volume 1: Narrative History - Chapter 2: Into the Film Industry Additional Reminiscences | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=February 11, 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=February 11, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211184259/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Narrative_files/c2s18.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> The erroneous two-reel reference is resolved by Q. David Bowers in a footnote.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Notes_Files/n2_60.htm | title=Volume 1: Narrative History Chapter 2: Into the Film Industry Additional Reminiscences - Footnote 60 | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=February 11, 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=February 11, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211194236/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Notes_Files/n2_60.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> The citation for the publication and date in which the error appears is given in another separate footnote.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Notes_Files/n2_56.htm | title=Volume 1: Narrative History Chapter 2: Into the Film Industry Additional Reminiscences - Footnote 56 | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=February 11, 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=February 11, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211185132/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Notes_Files/n2_56.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>}}  H. Philip Bolton, author of ''Women Writers Dramatized: A Calendar of Performances from Narrative Works Published in English to 1900'', would identify the Thanhouser and Vitagraph release, but is unable to identify and attribute the directorial and casting credits to the productions.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3n1msu2y1WgC&q=Uncle+Tom's+Cabin+Thanhouser | title=Women Writers Dramatized: A Calendar of Performances from Narrative Works Published in English to 1900 | publisher=A&C Black | date=2000 | access-date=February 11, 2015 | author=H. Philip Bolton | pages=380| isbn=9780720121179 }}</ref> A third 1910 adaptation, also named ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'', release by [[Pathé]] is cited in ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''.<ref name=goble>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yyqc0Qa6b60C&q=Uncle+Tom%27s+Cabin+Thanhouser&pg=PA445 | title=The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film | publisher=Walter de Gruyter | author=Goble, Alan | year=1999 | pages=445| isbn=9783110951943 }}</ref> According to Bowers, most Thanhouser posters of this era were of one-sheet size, but an additional six-sheet format poster was created for ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''.<ref name=Tom /> The film likely had a wide national release, but specific identification of the Thanhouser film is muddied by the prevalence of Vitagraph's production and stage plays. Two advertisements in [[Indiana]] and [[Kansas]] specifically note that the film to be shown will be the Thanhouser production.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1768452/seymour_daily_republican/ | title=Rustic | publisher=Seymour Daily Republican (Seymour, Indiana) | date=October 5, 1910 | access-date=February 12, 2015 | pages=1|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1768449/arkansas_city_daily_traveler/ | publisher=Arkansas City Daily Traveler (Arkansas City, Kansas) |title=Uncle Tom's Cabin| date=July 29, 1910 | access-date=February 12, 2015 | pages=4|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref>
By the time of the film's release, the quality of the Thanhouser films in general stood out amongst the Independent producers. An editorial by "The Spectator" in the ''Mirror'' contained specific praise for Thanhouser productions by stating, "...practically all other Independent American companies, excepting Thanhouser, show haste and lack of thought in their production. Crude stories are crudely handled, giving the impression that they are rushed through in a hurry - anything to get a thousand feet of negative ready for the market. Such pictures, of course, do not cost much to produce, but they are not of a class to make reputation. The Thanhouser company, alone of the Independents, shows a consistent effort to do things worthwhile..."<ref name=com>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Narrative_files/c3s6.htm | title=Volume 1: Narrative History - Chapter 3: 1910 Thanhouser Quality Commended | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=February 10, 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=February 10, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210093338/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Narrative_files/c3s6.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> The editorial was written by [[Frank E. Woods]] of the [[American Biograph Company]], a Licensed company, and like the publication itself had a considerable slant to the Licensed companies.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Filmography_files/ind6i4_n5.htm | title=Volume 2: Filmography - Thanhouser Filmography - 1910 . | encyclopedia=Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History | date=1995 | access-date=February 10, 2015 | author=Q. David Bowers | archive-date=February 9, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209190737/http://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Filmography_files/ind6i4_n5.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>
Still, the film received mixed praise from trade publications. The ''Mirror'' commended the film for the clever adaptation which preserved coherency in the story, the good acting and adequate costuming despite a few flaws in the production. Among the errors highlighted by the ''Mirror'' was Eliza's ice scene and another scene where the black actors wore inaccurate attire such as a laborer who wore a fine shirt and tie.<ref name=Tom /> ''[[The Morning Telegraph]]'' reviewer did not care for the production much, finding issues with the adaptation, the acting and the scenes.<ref name=Tom /> ''[[The Moving Picture News]]'' was more positive in its review, praising the photography and the sensible adaptation of the book to the film format. Three different reviews in ''The Moving Picture World'' were published, each of which were positive. In contrast to the fault found in the ''Mirror'', one of the reviewers specifically praised the ice scene by stating, "This part of the picture seems to have been conceived and carried out with extraordinary realism. You see the snow falling, the ice floes cracking and moving, you felt the danger that the woman and child were running as they made their escape across the ice, pursued by their remorseless enemy through the blinding snowstorm. This is one of the finest effects I have seen on the moving picture screen, and the whole story, so far as I have seen it, is worked out with wonderful realism, effect and verisimilitude. It's as good a rendering of the subject as I have ever seen, and I have seen Uncle Tom's Cabin played several times."<ref name=Tom />  ''[[The Leavenworth Times]]'' of [[Leavenworth, Kansas]] had an article reviewing the production and offered much praise for adaptation.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1768450/the_leavenworth_times/ | title='Uncle Tom's Cabin' In Film at Fern Theatre | publisher=The Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, Kansas) | date=August 13, 1910 | access-date=February 12, 2015 | pages=2|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[List of American films of 1910]]
==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{Commons category-inline|Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910 Thanhouser film)}}
{{Uncle Tom's Cabin}}
{{Barry O'Neil}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1910 film}}
[[Category:1910 films]]
[[Category:1910 drama films]]
[[Category:Silent American drama films]]
[[Category:American silent short films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Thanhouser Company films]]
[[Category:Lost American drama films]]
[[Category:Films based on American novels]]
[[Category:Uncle Tom's Cabin]]
[[Category:Blackface minstrel shows and films]]
[[Category:1910 lost films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Barry O'Neil]]
[[Category:1910s American films]]
[[Category:1910s English-language films]]
[[Category:American drama short films]]
[[Category:English-language drama short films]]