Believe Me Xantippe (1918)
Comedy | 27 May 1918
Cast:
Wallace Reid, Ann Little, Ernest Joy [ More ]Director:
Donald CrispWriter:
Olga PrintzlauProducer:
Jesse L. LaskyProduction Company:
Famous Players-Lasky Corp.Believe Me Xantippe was based on Frederick Ballard’s play of the same name, one of the first Craig Prize plays at Harvard University. It was copyrighted on 18 November 1912, and its first professional production opened on 20 January 1913 at the Castle Rock Theatre in Boston, MA. Famous Players-Lasky Corp.’s plans to make a screen adaptation starring Wallace Reid were announced in the 19 November 1917 Motion Picture News. Filming was slated to begin by December 1917; however, the 29 March 1918 [Rock Island, IL] Rock Island Argus claimed that principal photography had only recently begun.
An article in the 19 May 1918 [Washington, D.C.] Washington Herald stated that a fire at Famous Players-Lasky’s studio in Hollywood, CA, had briefly threatened to destroy prints of the film. Although the laboratory where the film was being stored did not burn down, director Donald Crisp retrieved the negatives, along with negatives from his other film The Firefly of France (1918, see entry), to keep them safe.
Following the film’s theatrical release on 27 May 1918, the July 1918 issue of Picture-Play Magazine published a shorty story version of the picture by Fannie Kilbourne.
The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this picture on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021. ...
Believe Me Xantippe was based on Frederick Ballard’s play of the same name, one of the first Craig Prize plays at Harvard University. It was copyrighted on 18 November 1912, and its first professional production opened on 20 January 1913 at the Castle Rock Theatre in Boston, MA. Famous Players-Lasky Corp.’s plans to make a screen adaptation starring Wallace Reid were announced in the 19 November 1917 Motion Picture News. Filming was slated to begin by December 1917; however, the 29 March 1918 [Rock Island, IL] Rock Island Argus claimed that principal photography had only recently begun.
An article in the 19 May 1918 [Washington, D.C.] Washington Herald stated that a fire at Famous Players-Lasky’s studio in Hollywood, CA, had briefly threatened to destroy prints of the film. Although the laboratory where the film was being stored did not burn down, director Donald Crisp retrieved the negatives, along with negatives from his other film The Firefly of France (1918, see entry), to keep them safe.
Following the film’s theatrical release on 27 May 1918, the July 1918 issue of Picture-Play Magazine published a shorty story version of the picture by Fannie Kilbourne.
The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this picture on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021.
George MacFarland, a wealthy young man who loves adventure, bets his friends Thornton Brown and Arthur Sole $20,000 that he can commit a crime and elude the police for a year. After he forges a check, George heads West and does escape arrest for nearly a year, despite the proliferation of police circulars bearing his name and his favorite expression, "Believe me, Xantippe." In a Colorado hunting lodge, he meets Sheriff Kamman's pretty daughter Dolly, who recognizes and tries to arrest him. According to the terms of the bet, however, he must be captured by a genuine officer of the law, which Dolly is not. With the stroke of midnight, the year elapses and George wins the bet as well as the sheriff's ...
George MacFarland, a wealthy young man who loves adventure, bets his friends Thornton Brown and Arthur Sole $20,000 that he can commit a crime and elude the police for a year. After he forges a check, George heads West and does escape arrest for nearly a year, despite the proliferation of police circulars bearing his name and his favorite expression, "Believe me, Xantippe." In a Colorado hunting lodge, he meets Sheriff Kamman's pretty daughter Dolly, who recognizes and tries to arrest him. According to the terms of the bet, however, he must be captured by a genuine officer of the law, which Dolly is not. With the stroke of midnight, the year elapses and George wins the bet as well as the sheriff's daughter.
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