The Dumb Girl of Portici
About The Dumb Girl of Portici
In the seventeenth century the Duke d’Arcos, Spanish viceroy of Naples, puts a new tax on fruit. Fenella, a mute girl played by Anna Pavlova, loves his son Alphonso. Her brother Masaniello, a fisherman played by Rupert Julian, is pushed to lead the poor. The crowd takes the palace and names him their leader. Pietro, who wants Fenella, has Masaniello poisoned. When Masaniello comes to himself he lunges at Alphonso, and the blade strikes Fenella.
Cast & crew
More about The Dumb Girl of Portici
Lois Weber wrote the script from the libretto of Daniel Auber’s 1828 opera La muette de Portici, by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne, and directed with her husband Phillips Smalley. Carl Laemmle produced. Universal released it on April 3, 1916. Shelley Stamp has put the cost at $300,000, the studio’s most expensive film to that date. A Lois Weber project page files it under Universal’s Bluebird Photoplays brand.
Themes
Background
The story uses the 1647 revolt of Masaniello against Spanish rule in Naples. Auber’s opera on that rising, La muette de Portici, had itself set off a riot in Brussels in 1830.
Making
Dal Clawson, Allen G. Siegler, and R. W. Walter photographed it. The sets and the battle scenes are what pushed the budget. Weber was given the production, not hired as a second unit.
Look
Dal Clawson, Allen G. Siegler, and R. W. Walter are the credited cameramen.
Music
The 1916 release is silent, with English intertitles, and names no composer. For the 2018 Milestone disc, John Sweeney wrote a score drawn from Auber’s opera and recorded it with a small chamber group.
Preservation
In 2015 George Willeman and Valerie Cervantes at the Library of Congress assembled a 35mm print with 16mm material from the Library, the British Film Institute, and the New York Public Library. Lori Raskin cleaned the picture and Jere Guldin restored tints from notes in the NBC/Universal microfilm.
Notes
- It is Pavlova’s only feature.
- Wikipedia calls it the longest film directed by a woman in the 1910s.
- Douglas Gerrard plays Alphonso and Jack Holt plays Conde, the duke’s younger son. Betty Schade plays Isabella.
- Wikidata also lists Nate Watt as a director. The credits used by Milestone name Weber and Smalley.
- A file of the picture runs 1 hour 54 minutes 44 seconds. Wikidata lists 115 minutes. The Milestone disc is timed at 112.
Scenes
- The Duke d’Arcos adds a tax on fruit and the fishers go to Masaniello.
- The crowd breaks into the palace and Masaniello brings Fenella out.
- Pietro’s slow poison loosens Masaniello’s hold on the people.
- Masaniello strikes at Alphonso and the blade hits Fenella.
Influenced by
- Daniel Auber's opera La muette de Portici (1828)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916) by Phillips Smalley.webm)
- Milestone Cinematheque Blu-ray (February 6, 2018)
