
Two years after beginning his film career as a scenery painter, John H. Collins had become Edison’s most advanced director, with a crisp, modern style quite divorced from the Victorian stage trappings that still stuck to much of the prewar cinema. His talent is already visible in his first solo directing effort, Making a Convert, a public service film warning New Jersey residents to stay out of the way of oncoming streetcars that doubles as a romantic comedy. The Portrait in the Attic is one of Collins’s first films with the Edison star Viola Dana, who would become his wife and star of several of the feature-length films he made after his departure from Edison. Piano accompaniment by Ben Model (September 16), Makia Matsumura (September 20).
Program approx. 60 min.
Making a Convert. 1914. USA. Directed by John H. Collins.
The Everlasting Triangle. 1914. USA. Directed by John H. Collins.
The Man in the Dark. 1914. USA. Directed by John H. Collins.
Mission of Mr. Foo. 1915. USA. Directed by John H. Collins.
The Portrait in the Attic. 1915. USA. Directed by John H. Collins.