Hypocrites
About Hypocrites
Gabriel the monk (Courtenay Foote) finishes a statue of Truth. When the crowd sees a naked woman, they kill him. The same actor is then a modern minister whose rich congregation keeps religion for show. A nude figure, the Naked Truth (Margaret Edwards), passes through scenes of money, sex, and power. Some people see her and some do not. The mirror she carries shows the congregation what the sermon will not.
Cast & crew
More about Hypocrites
Lois Weber wrote and directed the allegory for Bosworth, Inc. Nat Watt was assistant director, Frank Ormston technical director, and Dal Clawson and George W. Hill the cameramen. Bosworth copyrighted it on 30 September 1914. Paramount opened it on 20 January 1915 at the Longacre Theatre in New York. Publicity had called it a five-reel picture due in October 1914. The release print is four reels. It was reissued in the United States in 1916.
Themes
Background
The January 1915 opening sat in the middle of a fight, in New York and in city censor boards, over whether a religious allegory could carry a naked figure.
In film history
Edwards's appearances are regularly cited as the first full-frontal nudity by an actress in an American film outside the stag trade.
Making
Weber shot Margaret Edwards nude, with traveling double exposures that put Truth into crowded scenes. Distribution was held up for months over that footage.
Reviews
Moving Picture World of 13 February 1915 wrote that the Longacre run had drawn more comment, and more eager press notes, than almost any other picture yet shown in New York.
Look
Dal Clawson and George W. Hill shot the double exposures that walk the nude figure through the congregation.
Technique
The traveling double exposures, used to place Truth inside otherwise ordinary scenes, were widely remarked on in 1915.
Preservation
Prints are held by the Library of Congress (American Film Institute collection), the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Notes
- Anthony Comstock sat in the Longacre audience on opening night. Motography reported a rumor that he would stop the film after that showing. It kept playing.
- Ohio banned the picture. In Boston the mayor asked that the negative be painted so the woman would appear clothed.
- The British Board of Film Censors passed it.
- Myrtle Stedman, Herbert Standing, Adele Farrington, and Jane Darwell are in the dual-period cast. Hobart Bosworth's company produced it.
Scenes
- The mob smashes Gabriel when the finished statue is a naked woman.
- Truth's mirror is turned on churchgoers who do not see her standing there.
Also available
- Kino Lorber Blu-ray, Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers (2018)
