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HISTORY

Actress Florence Arto Vidor, the wife of director King Vidor, was the nominal producer of Dusk to Dawn through Florence Vidor Productions. However, film credits and a full page ad in the 23 Sep 1922 Exhibitors Trade Review bill the movie as “A King Vidor Production.”
       According to the 30 Aug 1922 FD, Dusk to Dawn was opening at the huge Capitol Theatre on Broadway in New York City, sharing the bill with a Johnny Jones comedy short called “Makin’ Movies,” a couple of opera singers, and a dancer, Doris Miles, performing “Dance Hindu.”
       In his 2012 book, American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913-1929, John T. Soister pointed out that Dusk to Dawn was adapted from a short story in the June 1916 Munsey’s Magazine, not from a “famous novel,” as claimed in the film’s advertising.
       Critics praised the film’s technical values, but were puzzled by the story’s strange spirituality. A reviewer in the 25 Sep 1922 LAT felt the story never explained how the “wild idea” of two women sharing a single soul during their opposite waking hours worked. “What if one of them happened to doze overtime? What if she didn’t give the other the proper chance to wake up?”
       Dusk to Dawn is apparently a lost film.
...

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Actress Florence Arto Vidor, the wife of director King Vidor, was the nominal producer of Dusk to Dawn through Florence Vidor Productions. However, film credits and a full page ad in the 23 Sep 1922 Exhibitors Trade Review bill the movie as “A King Vidor Production.”
       According to the 30 Aug 1922 FD, Dusk to Dawn was opening at the huge Capitol Theatre on Broadway in New York City, sharing the bill with a Johnny Jones comedy short called “Makin’ Movies,” a couple of opera singers, and a dancer, Doris Miles, performing “Dance Hindu.”
       In his 2012 book, American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913-1929, John T. Soister pointed out that Dusk to Dawn was adapted from a short story in the June 1916 Munsey’s Magazine, not from a “famous novel,” as claimed in the film’s advertising.
       Critics praised the film’s technical values, but were puzzled by the story’s strange spirituality. A reviewer in the 25 Sep 1922 LAT felt the story never explained how the “wild idea” of two women sharing a single soul during their opposite waking hours worked. “What if one of them happened to doze overtime? What if she didn’t give the other the proper chance to wake up?”
       Dusk to Dawn is apparently a lost film.

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SOURCE CITATIONS
SOURCE
DATE
PAGE
Exhibitors Trade Review
9 Sep 1922
p. 1025
Exhibitors Trade Review
23 Sep 1922
p. 1
Exhibitors Trade Review
4 Nov 1922
p. 1457
Film Daily
30 Aug 1922
p. 4
Film Daily
3 Sep 1922
p. 13
Los Angeles Times
25 Sep 1922
---
CAST
PRODUCTION CREDITS
NAME
PARENT COMPANY
PRODUCTION COMPANY
PRODUCTION TEXT
A King Vidor Production
NAME
CREDITED AS
CREDIT
DIRECTOR
WRITER
PHOTOGRAPHY
Dir of photog
SOURCES
LITERARY
Based on the story The Shuttle Soul by Katherine Hill ( Munsey's Magazine, June 1916).
LITERARY SOURCE AUTHOR
DETAILS
Release Date:
2 September 1922
Premiere Information:
New York opening: 2 Sep 1922
Production Date:

Copyright Info
Claimant
Date
Copyright Number
Florence Vidor Productions
9 August 1922
LU18125
Physical Properties:
Silent
Black and White
Length(in feet):
5,200
Length(in reels):
5
Country:
United States
Language:
English
SYNOPSIS

Marjorie has nightly dreams wherein she enacts the life of Aziza, a beggar girl in India who shares her soul whenever Marjorie is sleeping. To save her fugitive brother Ralph from imprisonment for forgery, Marjorie appeals to bank president Mark Randall. He agrees not to prosecute if Marjorie can use her wiles to break up an affair between his son, Philip Randall, and a notorious dancer named Babette. Masquerading as a vamp, Marjorie gains Babette's trust and exposes her as the real forger, thus exonerating her brother. She also falls in love with Philip, but cannot marry him because her soul is not completely her own. However, when Aziza kills herself on her husband's funeral pyre in India, Marjorie regains control of her own soul and agrees to wed ...

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Marjorie has nightly dreams wherein she enacts the life of Aziza, a beggar girl in India who shares her soul whenever Marjorie is sleeping. To save her fugitive brother Ralph from imprisonment for forgery, Marjorie appeals to bank president Mark Randall. He agrees not to prosecute if Marjorie can use her wiles to break up an affair between his son, Philip Randall, and a notorious dancer named Babette. Masquerading as a vamp, Marjorie gains Babette's trust and exposes her as the real forger, thus exonerating her brother. She also falls in love with Philip, but cannot marry him because her soul is not completely her own. However, when Aziza kills herself on her husband's funeral pyre in India, Marjorie regains control of her own soul and agrees to wed Philip.

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GENRE
Genres:


Subject

Legend
Viewed by AFI
Partially Viewed
Offscreen Credit
Name Occurs Before Title
AFI Life Achievement Award

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The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.