Resurrection
About Resurrection
Prince Dmitri returns home, seduces the peasant maid Katusha, and leaves her because of the difference in rank. Five years later she is arrested in a tavern. He sees what has become of her and pleads with the jury, which sends her to Siberia anyway. In the detention pen he gives her a Bible; she recognizes him and beats him, then reads John 11:25 and changes. On the march across the snow she shares what she has with the other prisoners. He catches up with a pardon and an offer of marriage. She refuses, stays with them, and kneels at a cross in the snow.
Cast & crew
More about Resurrection
Frank E. Woods adapted Leo Tolstoy’s novel Voskraeseniye (Resurrection), published in Moscow in 1899, for a Biograph one-reeler directed by D. W. Griffith. Biograph copyrighted the film on 19 May 1909 (H127268) and released it the next day. The negative length on the AFI record is 999 feet.
Themes
Look
G. W. Bitzer and Arthur Marvin photographed the one-reel Biograph short.
Music
Silent, with an English title card.
Preservation
A partial copy attached to the Wikipedia article runs 12 minutes 11 seconds. The original Biograph release was 999 feet.
Notes
- Arthur V. Johnson plays Prince Dmitri and Florence Lawrence plays Katusha.
- Mack Sennett is credited at court, as a guard, and at the inn. Owen Moore appears at court and at the prison.
- AFI also lists David Miles, Marion Leonard, and Charles Avery. Wikipedia names Linda Arvidson, Griffith’s first wife, among the players.
- Wikipedia gives the original running time as 15 to 16 minutes for the 999-foot reel.
- Moving Picture World noticed the release on 15 May and 29 May 1909, and the New York Dramatic Mirror on 22 May and 29 May 1909.
Scenes
- Katusha recognizes Dmitri in the detention pen and beats him with her fists and the Bible.
- She reads John 11:25 and her manner changes.
- After refusing his offer of marriage, she kneels in the snow at the foot of a cross.
Influenced by
- Leo Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection (Moscow, 1899)
Also available
- Internet Archive (Resurrection_201401)
- Wikimedia Commons (Resurrection (1909).webm)
