"Love's Prisoner" (1919)

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OUR DOCUMENTARY

We are proud to present to all silent film lovers our multiple award-winning documentary! In March 2015 it won the distinction "Award of Merit" at the San Francisco Film Awards. In May it won the Silver Award at the 2015 International Independent Film Awards. In September 2015 it won the Award of Recognition at the Accolade Global Film Competition. Of equal merit is the inclusion of the documentary in the Official Selection of the San Jose International Short Film Festival in October 2015. In December the documentary won the extremely prestigious Diamond Award at the 2015 California Film Awards. The amazing run of recognition for our documentary continued in 2016. In February it was included in the Official Selection of the Buffalo Niagara International Film Festival.

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Olive-Thomas-in-Loves-Prisoner-1919

Olive Thomas as lady Cleveland

Directed by              John Francis Dillion
Written by    E. Magnus Ingleton
Starring    Olive Thomas, Joe King, William V. Mong
Cinematography    Stephen S. Norton
Distributed by    Triangle Distributing Corporation
Release date    June 8, 1919
Running time    47 min
Country                   United States
Language       Silent film, English intertitles

This film is part of our Silent Gems Collection and the DVD is available on Ebay.

Update:
You don't have to leave our website in order to obtain the films from our Silent Gems Collection. These gems are now available to our users in exchange for donation. For details click here.

This film is part of our series 'Hidden Gems'. It can be watched by registered users who make a donation. For more details, please click here.

"Love's Prisoner" is a crime drama included this film in our program to illustrate the work and contributions of our star Olive Thomas.

Olive Thomas plays the role of Nancy, an impecunious teenage girl, who is left to care for her two younger sisters after their father is framed by police for a crime he did not commit. Even though she is bitter at the system that allows an innocent man to be sent to prison, she follows her father's advice to earn an honest living. The three girls are helped by a lonesome elderly neighbor, who invites them to live in his home.

Olive Thomas finds work as a saleslady in a retail store, where she meets an English nobleman. They marry and she becomes lady Cleveland, but soon after that her husband dies and leaves her only a big house with no means of support.

After a while the police is baffled by a mysterious criminal, whom they call "The Bird", because he escapes all their traps and disappears into thin air. The police department assigns the job of catching "The Bird" to their most experienced investigator. He is called to action right away when a diamond necklace is stolen from the neck of a rich lady attending a party at lady Cleveland's house.

Comments

The only surviving copy of "Love's Prisoner" is incomplete - it is missing the film’s ending. However, after the available film runs out, a narrative tells the rest of the story, so the viewer is not going to wonder how it all ends.

The only surviving copy of the film is of poor quality. Why then, you may ask, are we showing a film with poor quality that is also missing the ending?

Classic movie lovers know that 70% of all silent films have been lost because of nitrate film degradation, neglect and willful destruction. We can only dream of having those 70% even in this poor shape. We are all incredibly lucky that this film has survived the trials and tribulations of time and abuse. We at Silent Hall of Fame are proud to show this film to you, so that you can get a rare glimpse of the acting performance of our star Olive Thomas.

Click to enlarge:

Olive-Thomas-in-Loves-Prisoner-1919-5

Olive Thomas

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Below is a short preview of the film.