Enoch Arden
About Enoch Arden
Enoch, Annie, and Walter grow up together. Annie marries Enoch, and Walter stays their friend. Enoch and Annie have two children. Enoch sails on a voyage he thinks will take less than a year and asks Walter to look after the family. He does not come back. After ten years, news of a wreck in the Pacific makes them believe he is dead, and Walter marries Annie. Enoch, alive, looks in the window, sees them happy, and has an old woman tell him what happened. He makes her keep the secret and leaves. He dies later with a smile.
Cast & crew
More about Enoch Arden
Christy Cabanne directed. D. W. Griffith wrote the script from Tennyson's 1864 poem Enoch Arden. William Fildew photographed it. Mutual released it on April 8, 1915. Alfred Paget plays Enoch, Lillian Gish plays Annie Lee, and Wallace Reid plays Walter Fenn. Griffith himself appears as Mr. Ray. Robertson-Cole reissued the film in 1922 as The Fatal Marriage.
Themes
Making
Griffith wrote it and took a small part, but he did not direct. Cabanne, who had been his assistant, signed the direction for Mutual.
Look
William Fildew photographed the film.
Music
Silent, with English intertitles.
Preservation
Prints survive at the George Eastman Museum and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Robertson-Cole reissued it in 1922 as The Fatal Marriage.
Notes
- Mildred Harris plays a child.
- Griffith had already filmed the poem in 1911, with different players. This 1915 version is Cabanne's, from Griffith's script.
- Prints are at the George Eastman Museum and the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
- The 1922 reissue title, The Fatal Marriage, drops Tennyson's name from the advertising.
Scenes
- Enoch looks through the window at Annie, Walter, and the children.
- He tells the old woman to keep his return a secret, and he dies smiling.
Influenced by
- Enoch Arden (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-enoch-arden)
