Anna Christie
About Anna Christie
Anna Christie, played by Blanche Sweet, comes to live with her father, Chris Christopherson, a barge captain on the New York waterfront, played by George F. Marion. The sailor Matt Burke, played by William Russell, falls in love with her. Chris and Matt both take her for a woman with a clean past. She tells them what she has been. She tries to kill herself. Chris stops her. Matt, knowing the past, still wants to marry her.
Cast & crew
More about Anna Christie
John Griffith Wray directed. Thomas H. Ince produced for First National. Bradley King adapted Eugene O'Neill's 1921 play. Henry Sharp photographed it. Ince's company paid $35,000 for the rights. First National released the film on November 25, 1923. It runs 96 minutes, eight reels. Eugenie Besserer plays Marthy. Ralph Yearsley, Chester Conklin, and George Siegmann are also credited. The production budget is listed as $165,236.
Themes
In film history
The first film of O'Neill's Anna Christie, made seven years before the Greta Garbo version, and still extant.
Making
Ince bought O'Neill's play for $35,000 and built the picture around Sweet, with Marion, who plays Chris, and Russell as Matt. Sharp shot the waterfront scenes and the barge.
Look
Henry Sharp photographed the barge and the waterfront for Ince, in a 96-minute feature.
Preservation
Prints survive at the Museum of Modern Art, the George Eastman Museum, Gosfilmofond, the Cineteca del Friuli, and the Harvard Film Archive. One archive copy has Russian titles. A digital file is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The rights payment, $35,000, was treated at the time as a very high price for a play.
- Silent Era dates the release November 28, 1923. The film's own listings more often give November 25.
- Prints are at the Museum of Modern Art, the George Eastman Museum, Gosfilmofond in Moscow, the Cineteca del Friuli, and the Harvard Film Archive.
- One surviving print carries Russian intertitles.
- The film is in the public domain in the United States.
Scenes
- Anna tells Chris and Matt what her life has been.
- Chris pulls her back from suicide, and Matt says he still wants to marry her.
Influenced by
- Anna Christie (Eugene O'Neill play)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Anna Christie (1923).webm)
