The House of Darkness
About The House of Darkness
A doctor at an asylum, played by Lionel Barrymore, marries a nurse, played by Claire McDowell. A patient played by Charles Hill Mailes, whose violent fits ease when he hears music, breaks away, takes a pistol, and enters their house. The wife strikes the piano keys and then plays until he gives her the gun. She later goes to the hospital and plays for him until he is discharged as cured. Lillian Gish plays a nurse whose piano also quiets him.
Cast & crew
More about The House of Darkness
D. W. Griffith directed. Jere F. Looney wrote it. G. W. Bitzer photographed it. Biograph released the one-reeler, about 1,000 feet, on May 10, 1913. A Moving Picture World synopsis of the time describes the wife playing under the pistol until the patient hands it over.
Themes
Making
Biograph sold the short as a story about treating patients in an asylum with music rather than only with restraint.
Look
G. W. Bitzer shot the one-reeler for Biograph.
Preservation
Biograph's one-reeler is intact. A viewing copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Lionel Barrymore, then 35, plays the doctor, not the patient.
- Charles Hill Mailes plays the patient. Claire McDowell plays the doctor's wife.
- Lillian Gish has a short part as the nurse at the piano.
- The original length was 1,000 feet.
Scenes
- The doctor's wife hits the piano by accident and the patient lowers the gun.
- She plays for him outside the hospital window until he is sent home.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The House of Darkness (1913).webm)
