The Crisis
About The Crisis
Just before the Civil War, Boston lawyer Stephen Brice arrives in St. Louis and falls in love with Virginia Carvel. She rejects him for his abolitionism and accepts her cousin Clarence Colfax, a Confederate officer. Stephen is wounded fighting for the Union and becomes an aide to Abraham Lincoln. Virginia breaks with Colfax, then goes to Lincoln when Colfax is condemned as a spy. Lincoln commutes the sentence. Virginia finds Stephen at the president's side, and they embrace.
Cast & crew
More about The Crisis
William N. Selig produced and Colin Campbell directed and wrote the scenario from Winston Churchill's 1901 novel. This Churchill was the American novelist, not the British statesman. The novel had already been a Broadway play in 1902. G. McKenzie photographed it. Battle scenes at Vicksburg used the Mississippi National Guard on the ground of the 1863 siege. Limited screenings began on 29 September 1916. The general release was 25 February 1917. Matt B. Snyder, who plays Colonel Comyn Carvel, had served in the Union Navy on the gunship USS Essex. He and Sam D. Drane, who plays Lincoln, both died before the general release.
Themes
Background
Campbell and Selig were following the business of The Birth of a Nation with another Civil War spectacle. Interest dropped after the United States entered the World War in April 1917.
Making
Selig staged the siege of Vicksburg with the Mississippi National Guard, officers included, and thousands of men and horses, on the site of the battle.
Audiences
The film did well in theaters until April 1917, when American entry into the World War cut short the appetite for another Civil War picture.
Look
G. McKenzie shot the St. Louis streets and the Vicksburg battle scenes staged by the Mississippi National Guard.
Music
Michel Mowschine arranged the musical accompaniment.
Preservation
A copy is preserved at the Library of Congress. The circulating version runs 87 minutes.
Notes
- Tom Santschi plays Stephen Brice, Bessie Eyton plays Virginia Carvel, and Marshall Neilan plays Clarence Colfax.
- George Fawcett plays Judge Silas Whipple. Eugenie Besserer plays Mrs. Brice. Cecil Holland plays General Sherman. Tom Mix did stunts and is uncredited.
- The U.S. War Department lent Selig Lincoln's dispatch box for Drane's scenes.
- The Carvel house was a homestead outside St. Louis. Black performers were hired there as the servants.
- Grosset & Dunlap issued a photoplay edition of the novel illustrated with scenes from the film. Motography noted it on 21 October 1916.
- The AFI Catalog lists 87 minutes. A circulating copy runs 87 minutes 23 seconds.
- A copy is at the Library of Congress.
Scenes
- Virginia rejects Stephen because he is an abolitionist and accepts Clarence Colfax.
- She asks Lincoln to spare Colfax, and finds Stephen standing at the president's side.
Influenced by
- The Crisis (novel, 1901)
- The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons
