Spellbound (1916)
Melodrama | 17 May 1916
Director:
Harry HarveyWriter:
Bess MeredythProducers:
H. M. Horkheimer, E. D. HorkheimerProduction Company:
Balboa Amusement Producing Co.According to the 11 March 1916 Motion Picture News, director Harry Harvey recently completed The One-Eyed God, actress Lois Meredith's first film shot at the Balboa Studio in Long Beach. Two months later, as the film was being released under its new title, Spellbound, the 6 May 1916 Motion Picture News reported that the film's important courtroom scene had been supervised by Canadian Lord Chief Justice Howell, who was visiting the studio at the time. That same week's Moving Picture World added that the "exteriors showing the ancestral home of Elsie Yorke...were filmed by special permission of a wealthy Californian whose great country estate [was] modeled on a famous English homestead." The interiors of Elsie's manor were built at the Balboa studio: "Even the foliage and glimpses of parks and driveways, shown through open windows, have bene reproduced as closely as possible." The manor's hallway was "sixty feet deep, and shows through long French windows perspective of more than three hundred yards." The interior of a Hindu temple, from which "Cavendish" stole the bronze idol, was "an exact reproduction of the great temple of Prithi-Devi at Benaros" in India.
Spellbound was the first Knickerbocker Star Feature, the name under which the General Film Co. released the Balboa Amusement Producing Co.'s five-reel films.
Some sources, including the 29 April 1916 and 3 June 1916 issues of Moving Picture World, credited Balboa's owners, H. M. and E. D. Horkheimer, with the direction.
See also The Moonstone (1915), based on Wilkie Colliins' novel and play.
According to the Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film ...
According to the 11 March 1916 Motion Picture News, director Harry Harvey recently completed The One-Eyed God, actress Lois Meredith's first film shot at the Balboa Studio in Long Beach. Two months later, as the film was being released under its new title, Spellbound, the 6 May 1916 Motion Picture News reported that the film's important courtroom scene had been supervised by Canadian Lord Chief Justice Howell, who was visiting the studio at the time. That same week's Moving Picture World added that the "exteriors showing the ancestral home of Elsie Yorke...were filmed by special permission of a wealthy Californian whose great country estate [was] modeled on a famous English homestead." The interiors of Elsie's manor were built at the Balboa studio: "Even the foliage and glimpses of parks and driveways, shown through open windows, have bene reproduced as closely as possible." The manor's hallway was "sixty feet deep, and shows through long French windows perspective of more than three hundred yards." The interior of a Hindu temple, from which "Cavendish" stole the bronze idol, was "an exact reproduction of the great temple of Prithi-Devi at Benaros" in India.
Spellbound was the first Knickerbocker Star Feature, the name under which the General Film Co. released the Balboa Amusement Producing Co.'s five-reel films.
Some sources, including the 29 April 1916 and 3 June 1916 issues of Moving Picture World, credited Balboa's owners, H. M. and E. D. Horkheimer, with the direction.
See also The Moonstone (1915), based on Wilkie Colliins' novel and play.
According to the Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database, this film is extant.
Elsie York possesses a small bronze Hindu statue that her guardian, Major Cavendish, brought back to England from India, but in many ways the statue possesses her, or at least has an influence over her life. At one point, Elsie is almost certain that she saw it move. When she invites noted yogi Katti Hab to speak to her friends at a reception, the Indian immediately sees the value of the statue and returns later to steal it. However, although he murders Cavendish, he flees without his prize, and Elsie's sweetheart, Harrington Graeme, is accused of the crime. He is acquitted in court, and they marry, but the statue continues its strange hold. They soon have a child, but Elsie can't stand it. She becomes a compulsive gambler, and Harrington begins philandering. Just when the couple appear destined for a divorce, Katti Hab returns and makes another attempt to steal the statue, but it moves on its own, knocking over a lamp and setting the house on fire. The yogi is devoured by the flames, the statue melts, and as a result, the spell lifts from Elsie and Harrington. She now loves her infant, they reconcile their differences, and they discover that the head of the statue had hidden dozens of ...
Elsie York possesses a small bronze Hindu statue that her guardian, Major Cavendish, brought back to England from India, but in many ways the statue possesses her, or at least has an influence over her life. At one point, Elsie is almost certain that she saw it move. When she invites noted yogi Katti Hab to speak to her friends at a reception, the Indian immediately sees the value of the statue and returns later to steal it. However, although he murders Cavendish, he flees without his prize, and Elsie's sweetheart, Harrington Graeme, is accused of the crime. He is acquitted in court, and they marry, but the statue continues its strange hold. They soon have a child, but Elsie can't stand it. She becomes a compulsive gambler, and Harrington begins philandering. Just when the couple appear destined for a divorce, Katti Hab returns and makes another attempt to steal the statue, but it moves on its own, knocking over a lamp and setting the house on fire. The yogi is devoured by the flames, the statue melts, and as a result, the spell lifts from Elsie and Harrington. She now loves her infant, they reconcile their differences, and they discover that the head of the statue had hidden dozens of jewels.
Viewed by AFI
Partially Viewed
Offscreen Credit
Name Occurs Before Title
AFI Life Achievement AwardTOP SEARCHES
Blue Movie
The 25 Jun 1969 Var review noted that Blue Movie was shot in Sep 1968 in New York City. Along with several other contemporary sources, ... >>
2001: A Space Odyssey
Opening credits precede a title card that reads: "The Dawn of Man."
In an interview in the 16 Jan 1966 NYT, writer-director-producer Stanley Kubrick discussed ... >>
The Grapes of Wrath
According to materials contained in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, Fox paid John Steinbeck $70,000 for the rights to his ... >>
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
According to HR news items, "The Gentleman from Montana" (an unpublished story by Lewis R. Foster, alternately called "The Gentleman from Wyoming" by both contemporary and modern ... >>
The Best Years of Our Lives
The working titles of the film were Glory for Me and Home Again . In the opening credits, actor Fredric March's name is spelled correctly, but ... >>
