From the Submerged

1912 Drama 11 minutes Directed by Theodore Wharton

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About From the Submerged

A poor man on a Chicago bridge decides to jump. A poor girl stops him. He finds that his father is advertising for him, goes home, is forgiven, and comes into the money. Engaged to a rich girl, he takes her slumming through Chinatown and past a bread line. She laughs at the men waiting there. He puts his old clothes back on and returns to the river. The same girl is about to throw herself in. He stops her, knows her, and takes her home as his wife.

Cast & crew

More about From the Submerged

Theodore Wharton wrote and directed this one-reel Essanay melodrama. It was released November 12, 1912, and runs about 11 minutes. E. H. Calvert plays the man, Ruth Stonehouse the poor girl, and Dolores Cassinelli the rich girl. Scenes were shot in Lincoln Park, along the Chicago River, and on Argyle Street across from the Essanay studio. The last rescue was filmed under a bridge later called the suicide bridge.

Themes

Making

Wharton had come to Essanay from Pathé. On this short he uses a superimposition for the man's memory of the girl.

Reviews

Moving Picture World wrote that a fine idea sat behind the picture and that it still fell short, because the story "lacks probability" and the tramp performance seemed "overworked to excite pity."

Technique

A flashback is laid in over Calvert as he remembers the girl on the bridge.

Preservation

Held at the George Eastman Museum, the Library of Congress, the BFI, and the AFI. Issued in 2007 on the NFPF set Treasures III.

Notes

  • A memory of the first meeting is superimposed above Calvert's head.
  • Bryant Washburn, Mildred Weston, Billy Mason, and Charles Hitchcock are also in the cast.
  • Moving Picture World in 1912 said the double suicide attempt was too unlikely, and that Calvert's tramp "didn't ring true," while granting "good slum views.
  • In 2007 the National Film Preservation Foundation put it on the DVD set Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900–1934.
  • Prints are held at the George Eastman Museum, the Library of Congress, the British Film Institute, and the American Film Institute.

Scenes

  • Stonehouse pulls Calvert back from the river.
  • The rich girl laughs at the men in the bread line.
  • He stops her at the same water and takes her home.

Influenced by

  • D. W. Griffith's A Corner in Wheat (1909)

Also available

  • Internet Archive (silent-from-the-submerged)
  • Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900–1934 (National Film Preservation Foundation DVD)