A Victim of the Mormons
About A Victim of the Mormons
On a Danish holiday, Nina (Clara Pontoppidan; Florence Grange in the American version) meets Andrew Larson (Valdemar Psilander), a Mormon missionary. Her fiancé Leslie (Carlo Wieth) neglects her. Andrew draws her to a meeting, then to the railway station. With help from another Mormon he drugs her, swaps her coat and hat with another couple, and gets her aboard a ship for America. In Salt Lake City he locks her in. Leslie and her brother George (Henry Seemann) search the house. She finds the catch of a cellar trapdoor. Andrew draws a pistol, the struggle turns the gun on him, and he dies.
Cast & crew
More about A Victim of the Mormons
August Blom directed. Alfred Kjerulf wrote it. Ole Olsen produced. Axel Graatkjær photographed it. Nordisk released it on 2 October 1911, in three reels (3,200 feet). The American release followed in February 1912. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints asked the National Board of Censorship to remove every reference to Mormonism. The film went out unchanged. Utah governor William Spry called the Danish picture a perversion of the truth exceeded only by its absurdity, and tried to ban it. It played in Utah theaters that year anyway.
Themes
Background
A Nordisk sensational film of 1911 whose American success was cited as the start of a run of anti-Mormon pictures.
Preservation
About 30 minutes survive from the original 35mm. A copy is held in the LDS Church archives in Salt Lake City. A print is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- In the Danish version the young woman is Nina Gram. The American version calls her Florence Grange.
- Pontoppidan is billed as Clara Wieth.
- Emilie Sannom plays Andrew's first wife.
- Wikidata lists a running time of 45 minutes.
Scenes
- Andrew swaps her hat and coat so the harbor patrol stops the wrong couple.
- She opens the cellar trapdoor as Leslie searches the house.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Mormonens offer (1911).webm)
