Unprotected (1916)
Drama | 13 November 1916
Director:
James YoungWriters:
Beatrice C. de Mille, Leighton Osmun, James HattonProduction Company:
Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co.The 15 July 1916 Motion Picture News announced that James Younger was about to start filming Blanche Sweet's next film, The Unconquered, which had been "especially written for this actress by Mrs. H. C. deMille, mother of Cecil B. and William C." (Material in the Paramount studio records indicated that the film was based on a story by Beatrice C. de Mille and Leighton Osmun.) Two weeks later, the 29 July 1916 issue of the same magazine mentioned that the Jesse Lasky studio in Hollywood, CA, was overrun by "men in stripes" playing in "a story of an Alabama prison camp." At one point, the company went to Bear Valley, CA, for exteriors, the 19 August 1916 Moving Picture World reported. The film at this point was being called both Unconquered and The Unconquered.
The 28 October 1916 Moving Picture World reported that the film, now called Unprotected, had been completed, and that the entire company had returned from filming for three weeks at a genuine turpentine camp hundreds of miles away, in an unidentified state. However, Miss Sweet herself told the December 1916 Film Fun, "It was while we were fllming Unprotected, and it was impossible to find a serpentine camp for a great many scenes in which I was to be shown as a convict hired out to work among negro prisoners. The sort of thing is done only in the Southern and Southeastern States. The director received permission to use one of the camps of this type in the Carolinas, but only on condition that we go there ...
The 15 July 1916 Motion Picture News announced that James Younger was about to start filming Blanche Sweet's next film, The Unconquered, which had been "especially written for this actress by Mrs. H. C. deMille, mother of Cecil B. and William C." (Material in the Paramount studio records indicated that the film was based on a story by Beatrice C. de Mille and Leighton Osmun.) Two weeks later, the 29 July 1916 issue of the same magazine mentioned that the Jesse Lasky studio in Hollywood, CA, was overrun by "men in stripes" playing in "a story of an Alabama prison camp." At one point, the company went to Bear Valley, CA, for exteriors, the 19 August 1916 Moving Picture World reported. The film at this point was being called both Unconquered and The Unconquered.
The 28 October 1916 Moving Picture World reported that the film, now called Unprotected, had been completed, and that the entire company had returned from filming for three weeks at a genuine turpentine camp hundreds of miles away, in an unidentified state. However, Miss Sweet herself told the December 1916 Film Fun, "It was while we were fllming Unprotected, and it was impossible to find a serpentine camp for a great many scenes in which I was to be shown as a convict hired out to work among negro prisoners. The sort of thing is done only in the Southern and Southeastern States. The director received permission to use one of the camps of this type in the Carolinas, but only on condition that we go there secretly and take along no unnecessary people. So we left one night and were gone three weeks, reappearing as mysteriously as we had gone." She added the the company stayed on a plantation while filming in the South.
Paramount's full-page advertisement for Unprotected, which ran in trade magazines, including the 18 November 1916 Motion Picture News, stated that the drama was "written especially for Miss Sweet by James Hatton," whose name was also given in the film's copyright descriptions. Given that no other film credit for "James Hatton" could be found, the name could have been a pseudonym for Mrs. deMille.
According to an item in the 11 November 1916 Moving Picture World, "The story is based on an actual incident and shows the evil effect of leasing convicts to private firms for labor."
No reviews were located for this film.
The 28 October 1916 Motion Picture Mail ran a two-page, photo-illustrated short story adaptation of the scenario of Unprotected.
Adding to the confusion, Unconquered (see entry) was the title of a Lasky film released in 1917, which was based on a story by de Mille and Osmun entitled The Conflict.
The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included Unprotected on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021.
Unconquered
After her parents die, Barbara King, a Southerner, goes to live with her uncle Rufus Jamison, who reminds her that her mother ruined her life by marrying an artist. Rufus forces Barbara to do domestic work to pay for her keep. One day, Barbara slips away to enter her father's last work in an exhibition and, while there, meets artist Gordon Carroll and his father, the governor. When Jamison discovers Barbara's secret attic studio, he destroys her father's statue, and Barbara hits him with a candlestick. He falls through a trap door and dies. Barbara is convicted, sentenced, and sent to a prison, which makes money by farming its convicts out to Joshua Craig's turpentine plant, where Black prisoners labor under harsh conditions. After Barbara attempts to protect convict Tony Salvarro from a beating, she is tied to a tree. Taken into Craig's house to replace his convict mistress, Barbara plots a mutiny with the other prisoners. When the governor inspects the camp, Craig hides Barbara's identity. Later, Craig drunkenly attacks her, but Gordon, who is hunting nearby, arrives to rescue her. Tony sacrifices his life for Barbara, while the prisoners mutiny and kill Craig. Barbara then convinces the governor to have the conditions of the camp ameliorated. Pardoned, she marries Gordon and they have a ...
After her parents die, Barbara King, a Southerner, goes to live with her uncle Rufus Jamison, who reminds her that her mother ruined her life by marrying an artist. Rufus forces Barbara to do domestic work to pay for her keep. One day, Barbara slips away to enter her father's last work in an exhibition and, while there, meets artist Gordon Carroll and his father, the governor. When Jamison discovers Barbara's secret attic studio, he destroys her father's statue, and Barbara hits him with a candlestick. He falls through a trap door and dies. Barbara is convicted, sentenced, and sent to a prison, which makes money by farming its convicts out to Joshua Craig's turpentine plant, where Black prisoners labor under harsh conditions. After Barbara attempts to protect convict Tony Salvarro from a beating, she is tied to a tree. Taken into Craig's house to replace his convict mistress, Barbara plots a mutiny with the other prisoners. When the governor inspects the camp, Craig hides Barbara's identity. Later, Craig drunkenly attacks her, but Gordon, who is hunting nearby, arrives to rescue her. Tony sacrifices his life for Barbara, while the prisoners mutiny and kill Craig. Barbara then convinces the governor to have the conditions of the camp ameliorated. Pardoned, she marries Gordon and they have a child.
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