Aladdin's Other Lamp (1917)
Comedy-drama, Fantasy | 25 June 1917
Director:
John H. CollinsWriter:
June MathisProducer:
B. A. RolfeProduction Company:
Rolfe Photoplays, Inc.The scenario was based on the playlet, The Dream Girl by Willard Mack. The start of principal photography at “Metro-Rolfe-Columbia studios” in New York City was reported in the 12 May 1917. Location scenes were to be filmed on the coast of Maine. That day’s issue of Motion Picture News credited John H. Collins as director.
Articles in the 2 June 1917 [Brooklyn, NY] The Chat and the 9 June 1917 Motion Picture News revealed that a cast of eighty, along with lead actress Viola Dana, worked nineteen consecutive hours at the studio, beginning at 9:00 AM. The sequence was filmed on a ballroom set that occupied an entire stage. The set was designed by technical director Edward J. Shulter. The long hours were necessitated by the many double-exposure shots featured in the production. Three meals were served to the cast and crew, one in the studio dining room and the others on set. After the completion of forty-eight scenes, Dana, Collins, and cameraman John Arnold left almost immediately for a location shoot in Marblehead, MA. The 9 June 1917 Moving Picture World included Emma Jean Parker among the cast. An item in the 30 June 1917 Motion Picture News noted that of the thirty-four men featured in the ballroom scene, twenty-six had since enlisted for military service.
The 14 July 1917 Motion Picture News and 4 August 1917 Moving Picture World stated that the residents and merchants of Marblehead profited from the film company’s presence, as it attracted “yachtsmen and ...
The scenario was based on the playlet, The Dream Girl by Willard Mack. The start of principal photography at “Metro-Rolfe-Columbia studios” in New York City was reported in the 12 May 1917. Location scenes were to be filmed on the coast of Maine. That day’s issue of Motion Picture News credited John H. Collins as director.
Articles in the 2 June 1917 [Brooklyn, NY] The Chat and the 9 June 1917 Motion Picture News revealed that a cast of eighty, along with lead actress Viola Dana, worked nineteen consecutive hours at the studio, beginning at 9:00 AM. The sequence was filmed on a ballroom set that occupied an entire stage. The set was designed by technical director Edward J. Shulter. The long hours were necessitated by the many double-exposure shots featured in the production. Three meals were served to the cast and crew, one in the studio dining room and the others on set. After the completion of forty-eight scenes, Dana, Collins, and cameraman John Arnold left almost immediately for a location shoot in Marblehead, MA. The 9 June 1917 Moving Picture World included Emma Jean Parker among the cast. An item in the 30 June 1917 Motion Picture News noted that of the thirty-four men featured in the ballroom scene, twenty-six had since enlisted for military service.
The 14 July 1917 Motion Picture News and 4 August 1917 Moving Picture World stated that the residents and merchants of Marblehead profited from the film company’s presence, as it attracted “yachtsmen and vacationists.” Viola Dana was given a “round robin” by the town’s U.S. Navy personnel to show their appreciation for the courtesies she extended to them.
Aladdin’s Other Lamp was released on 25 June 1917. A review in the 13 July 1917 Variety commented that the picture’s double-exposure effects would more likely appeal to children than to adults.
The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this film on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021.
When she was a baby, Patsy Smith's father quarreled with his wife and kidnapped Patsy. After her father died at sea, Captain Barnaby took Patsy to Mrs. Duff's boardinghouse for seafarers. Dissatisfied with drudgery, Patsy, inspired by Barnaby's tales of Aladdin, searches for her father's Asian lamp which Mrs. Duff sold to a junk peddler. Patsy buys the lamp and after rubbing it, the Genie Jehaunarara appears. He beautifies her room, restores Barnaby's leg, and turns Mrs. Duff into a rag doll. Because love is beyond his magic, however, the Genie cannot reunite Patsy with her mother. At a masquerade ball, when the Genie's costume wins first prize, Patsy's applause unwittingly causes him to disappear. Clad only in her underwear, Patsy runs to her mother, and awakens from a dream. Disheartened, she throws the lamp out the window, and it nearly strikes her friend Harry, a grocer's boy who wants to become a lawyer, and then, like Lincoln, president. From letters found in the lamp, they locate Patsy's mother, who arrives with her brother, a distinguished judge. Taken under his wing, Harry now imagines himself president with Patsy as his first ...
When she was a baby, Patsy Smith's father quarreled with his wife and kidnapped Patsy. After her father died at sea, Captain Barnaby took Patsy to Mrs. Duff's boardinghouse for seafarers. Dissatisfied with drudgery, Patsy, inspired by Barnaby's tales of Aladdin, searches for her father's Asian lamp which Mrs. Duff sold to a junk peddler. Patsy buys the lamp and after rubbing it, the Genie Jehaunarara appears. He beautifies her room, restores Barnaby's leg, and turns Mrs. Duff into a rag doll. Because love is beyond his magic, however, the Genie cannot reunite Patsy with her mother. At a masquerade ball, when the Genie's costume wins first prize, Patsy's applause unwittingly causes him to disappear. Clad only in her underwear, Patsy runs to her mother, and awakens from a dream. Disheartened, she throws the lamp out the window, and it nearly strikes her friend Harry, a grocer's boy who wants to become a lawyer, and then, like Lincoln, president. From letters found in the lamp, they locate Patsy's mother, who arrives with her brother, a distinguished judge. Taken under his wing, Harry now imagines himself president with Patsy as his first lady.
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