The Woman in White - Production & Contact Info

The Woman in White (I) (1912)
Short | Drama, Mystery, Short

The Woman in White (I) (1912)

Short | Drama, Mystery, Short

"The Woman in White" is the story of a bold substitution made because a young wife refused to transfer her property to her scheming husband, Laura being the wife and Sir Percival Glyde being the husband. The Woman in White of the story is ...See more"The Woman in White" is the story of a bold substitution made because a young wife refused to transfer her property to her scheming husband, Laura being the wife and Sir Percival Glyde being the husband. The Woman in White of the story is a girl of about Laura's general age and personal appearance, who has exhibited mental peculiarities from childhood. They were harmless in a way, one of the principal eccentricities being that of always dressing in white. When she finally became a source of distress to her own mother, the latter preferred to have her placed in a private establishment rather than a pauper asylum, and the mother thus played a part in the strange deception which was practiced by Sir Percival Glyde and Count Fosco. In order to obtain an enormous estate which would descend to Sir Percival in case of Laura's death without issue, the feeble minded and feeble bodied Woman in White was drilled to impersonate Laura while the latter was incarcerated in a private madhouse. Such is the plot of the story with Count Fosco as the principal conspirator and a little Italian named Professor Pesca as the real instrument of justice, although Laura's lover, Walter Hartwright, was an active agent. The photodrama opens with a revelation of the existence of one of those brotherhoods organized in Latin countries for political or criminal purposes. The members of the secret society are all gathered when Count Fosco betrays them by signaling to the police. A raid and terrific struggle follow; but little Professor Pesca escapes to the consternation of the Judas who has betrayed his fellow-members of the society. The love story of Walter Hartwright follows. He is the drawing master at the home of Laura and falls deeply in love with her. His love is reciprocated by the charming young girl, but the usual obstacle interposes that makes stories oi this kind interesting. Laura's husband has already been selected for her and the discovery of her affection for the drawing master results in his discharge. An end being made to the intimate relations she enjoyed with Walter Hartwright, and the young girl being completely under the dominance of her English father, she is compelled to marry the baronet that he has chosen, Sir Percival Glyde. Sir Percival Glyde is one of the decadent gentlemen of title who come to this country every year in search of some weak-minded heiress; and as his main purpose in matrimony is that of obtaining property he falls into the scheme of substitution suggested by bold Count Fosco. He has borrowed money from Fosco, and is such a moral idiot himself that he consents to have his wife drugged and incarcerated in a madhouse when she refuses to transfer her inheritance to him. It is almost unbelievable at this stage of our civilization that such a scheme could be carried out without immediate discovery because of the large number of people involved in transferring the young wife from her home to the private asylum and in the acceptance as a substitute of the half-witted woman who is nearly at the point of death. There could be no intelligent and honest acceptance of the sickly idiot in the place of the bright and charming girl she resembled, but as a matter of fact, the use of private asylums in England for the purpose of incarcerating people who are in the way was so common at that time that the great novels of Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade on that subject stirred up a political and moral revolution. Laura manages to escape from the private asylum after her substitute has died and been buried and she visits the graveyard where a stone has been raised sacred to her memory. Walter Hartwright meets her there. Believing her to be dead he visits her tomb as a matter of sentiment and finds a woman in black who is none other than the one supposed to be lying beneath the sod. The story now turns to the re-establishment of Laura's identity and this is brought about by the intuitive steps taken by Hartwright to follow up the associations of Sir Percival Glyde. He finds him in company with Count Fosco, then shadows the latter persistently, but without result, until he describes the arch villain to his particular friend and associate, little Professor Pesca. Pesca has not forgotten the treachery of Count Fosco and might be excused for writing the latter's death warrant on the spot. Instead, he gives Walter a communication to deliver which warns Fosco that he will meet his death by secret violence unless he re-establishes the right of the living Laura to her inheritance and to her place in society. Armed with this letter Walter extorts a written confession from the arch conspirator, the consideration being that Count Fosco shall be permitted two days' time to escape vengeance at the hands of the Brotherhood. The interesting and impressive Count Fosco, one of the boldest villains ever delineated in the social drama, removes the hirsute ornaments on his face and otherwise disguises himself to escape what should be coming to him. We feel that he is well out of the way, but what about the drunken decadent of attractive title, Sir Percival Glyde, who has slipped into matrimony and a tremendous inheritance with a conscienceless lack of scruples peculiar to his kind? A visitation of God causes the death of Sir' Percival Glyde in a highly dramatic fire scene. He is partially destroyed when rescued by Walter Hartwright and carried into the open to perish miserably. His dying confession completes the chain of evidence necessary to prove his own infamy and the true identity of the young wife he had placed in a private madhouse. The play ends with the final terror of Count Fosco. He has been detected by members of the Brotherhood in spite of his disguise and is shadowed from point to point in some very effective scenes until we see him in the last one lying dead at the heads of those he betrayed, alone in a humiliating end of a long life of degraded ability. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less

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Cast	+ Add Cast
6 cast members

Name	Known for
Alexander F. Frank Count Fosco (as Alec Frank) Count Fosco (as Alec Frank) See fewer	A Suspicious Wife (1914)
Viola Alberti Countess Fosco Countess Fosco See fewer	David Copperfield (1911)
Charles Perley Walter Hartridge Walter Hartridge See fewer	The Chosen Prince, or the Friendship of David and Jonathan (1917)
Charles Craig Sir Percival Glyde Sir Percival Glyde See fewer	The Last Door (1921)
Lyman R. Abbe Professor Pesca (as L. R. Abbe) Professor Pesca (as L. R. Abbe) See fewer	The Woman in White (I) (1912)
Janet Salisbury Laura Fairlie / The Woman in White Laura Fairlie / The Woman in White See fewer	The Princess of Lorraine (1912)