Betrayed by a Handprint
About Betrayed by a Handprint
Mrs. Wharton gives a party for the diamond necklace her fiancé has given her. Myrtle Vane keeps playing bridge and loses what she has. She takes the necklace from the dresser and hides it in a hollowed bar of soap. Mrs. Wharton wakes, finds a dusty handprint on a sheet of the palmist's paper, and matches it to the signed print Myrtle left downstairs. In Myrtle's room the soap is knocked off the table and breaks. The necklace is inside. Mrs. Wharton forgives her and gives her money.
Cast & crew
More about Betrayed by a Handprint
D. W. Griffith wrote and directed it. Arthur Marvin and Billy Bitzer photographed it. Biograph copyrighted it on 27 August 1908 (H115136) and released it on 1 September 1908. The original length is 833 feet. A later timing is 13 minutes. A viewable copy runs 10 minutes 43 seconds. Moving Picture World printed the synopsis on 5 September 1908.
Themes
Making
Griffith uses the palmist's sheet as the clue: one dusty print upstairs, one signed print in the drawing room, the same hand.
Look
Arthur Marvin and Billy Bitzer photographed the party, the dresser, and the broken soap.
Preservation
A print survives. One copy runs 10 minutes 43 seconds. The 1908 release length was 833 feet.
Notes
- Florence Lawrence plays Myrtle Vane. Kate Bruce plays Mrs. Wharton. Harry Solter plays Mr. Wharton.
- George Gebhardt plays Professor François Paracelsus, the palmist whose paper takes the handprint.
- The hiding place is a bar of soap cut in two.
- A print exists.
Scenes
- Myrtle loses the last of her money at bridge.
- She seals the necklace inside a bar of soap.
- The soap breaks on the floor and the diamonds show.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Betrayed by a Handprint.webm)
