Confidence
About Confidence
Nellie Burton, an orphan on a Western ranch, leaves the dive and Jim Colt, the sweetheart she has decided is a villain. In New York she becomes a nurse. The head surgeon falls in love with her and, after she first refuses, they marry. Colt comes east, sees her with her husband, and blackmails her with old love letters. He takes money, then her jewels. When she cannot pay again, the surgeon walks in. Colt hands him the letters. The surgeon throws the packet in the fire and has Colt thrown out, with orders never to return.
Cast & crew
More about Confidence
D. W. Griffith directed the one-reel drama and is credited with the story. G. W. Bitzer and Arthur Marvin photographed it. Biograph copyrighted it on 8 April 1909, H125501, and released it on 15 April 1909. AFI records the length as 973 feet and also 990 feet. Florence Lawrence plays Nellie. Charles Inslee plays Jim Colt.
Themes
Making
Griffith shot it at Biograph's New York studio. The blackmail is the letters themselves: Colt produces them, and the surgeon burns the packet rather than read Nellie out of the house.
Look
G. W. Bitzer and Arthur Marvin photographed the New York studio scenes, including the hospital work and the room where the letters are burned.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
8mm reduction positives survive in private collections. Silent Era lists the film as public domain in the United States.
Notes
- The Biograph synopsis quotes Shakespeare: "Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.
- Silent Era also lists David Miles, Herbert Yost, Arthur V. Johnson, and Owen Moore.
- Wikidata adds John R. Cumpson, Linda Arvidson, Charles Avery, Kate Bruce, Raymond Hatton, and Anita Hendrie, without roles.
- Prints survive as 8mm reduction positives in private collections.
- It is in the public domain in the United States.
Scenes
- Colt threatens to show the old letters to the surgeon and takes Nellie's money, then her jewels.
- The surgeon throws the letters into the fire and has Colt put out of the house.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-confidence)
