The Painted Lady
About The Painted Lady
The elder daughter (Blanche Sweet) keeps her father's rules and is shocked to find her younger sister (Madge Kirby) putting on makeup. At a church festival the younger girl draws the men, until the minister introduces a stranger (Joseph Graybill) who seems taken with the elder one, and her father sends him away. She slips out, tells him about her father's business, and later shoots him when he breaks in masked. Seeing who he is breaks her mind. She paints her face, talks to him where they met, turns from her mirror, and collapses as her father reaches her.
Cast & crew
More about The Painted Lady
D. W. Griffith wrote and directed this Biograph short, released October 24, 1912. The catalog calls the meeting an ice cream social. Wikipedia's plot calls it a church festival, and the cast list puts several players at an ice cream festival.
Themes
Look
G. W. Bitzer photographed the Biograph short. It runs 12 minutes when projected at 18 frames a second.
Music
Silent, with English intertitles.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Blanche Sweet is the older sister. Madge Kirby is the younger. Charles Hill Mailes is their father. Kate Bruce is their mother. Joseph Graybill is the stranger. William J. Butler is the minister.
- The festival crowd includes Lionel Barrymore, Elmer Booth, Harry Carey, Dorothy Gish, Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Jack Pickford, and Henry B. Walthall.
- Gladys Egan is a little girl in an arbor. W. E. Lawrence is a boy with a dog. Charles Gorman is a hired hand.
Scenes
- The younger sister puts on makeup while the elder watches in shock.
- The masked stranger breaks in and is shot with the pistol she fetched.
- She paints her face, speaks to the dead man, and turns from her reflection.
Also available
- Internet Archive (ThePaintedLady)
