The Bells (1926 film)
| The Bells | |
|---|---|
Leopold Lewis) | |
| Produced by | I. E. Chadwick |
| Starring | Lionel Barrymore Caroline Frances Cooke |
| Cinematography | L. William O'Connell |
| Distributed by | Chadwick Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
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The Bells is a 1926 American
The play was adapted into a number of film adaptations; an
Footage from The Bells (1926) was re-used in two short films: The Mesmerist, and Light Is Calling by Bill Morrison.
Plot
Mathias, an innkeeper with several other businesses, seeks to be burgomaster of a small Austrian hamlet. In order to gain favor with local leaders, he offers food and alcohol on credit, but often refuses to collect, much to the dismay of his wife Catharine. Mathias is deeply in debt to Frantz, who seeks Mathias' businesses. He will forgive the debt if Mathias allows him to marry his daughter, Annette. Mathias refuses, and is worried about the debt which will come due soon.
One evening a Polish Jew enters Mathias' inn. The man displays a money belt filled with gold, which Mathias, having had much to drink with the man, eyes closely. When the man leaves in a blizzard, Mathias pursues and kills him; before he dies, the man shakes a set of horse bells at him. Having come into money through murder, Mathias pays off his debt, provides a dowry for his daughter to marry, and is elected burgomaster. However, he is haunted by the sound of bells and hallucinations of the man he killed. The man's brother comes and offers a reward, bringing a "mesmerist" to help find the murderer. Mathias is pursued by the mesmerist and his own guilt throughout the rest of the film. He suffers hallucinations and nightmarish dreams of the murdered man until the final reel, in which he confesses his crime aloud to the ghost, then collapses, dead.
Cast
- Lionel Barrymore as Mathias
- Caroline Frances Cooke as Catharine
- Gustav von Seyffertitz as Jerome Frantz
- Lorimer Johnston as Hans
- Eddie Phillips as Christian (as Edward Phillips)
- Lola Todd as Annette
- Laura La Varnie as Fortune teller (as Laura Lavarnie)
- Boris Karloff as The Mesmerist
- E. Alyn Warren as Jethro Koweski / Baruch Koweski
- John George (uncredited)
See also
- Boris Karloff filmography
- Lionel Barrymore filmography
- The Bells (1911 film)
- The Bells (1918 film)
- The Bells (1931 film)
- The Burgomeister (1935 film)
References
- ^ "Progressive Silent Film List: The Bells (1926)". silentera.com. Retrieved April 12, 2008.
- ^ "Erlanger, Camille | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com.
- ^ Erlanger, Camille; Cain, Henri; Gheusi, P.-B. (Pierre-Barthélemy) (November 24, 1900). "Le juif polonais; conte populaire d'Alsace en trois actes et six tableaux d'après Erckmann-Chatrian. Poème de Henri Cain et P.B. Gheusi. Partition chant et piano réduite par l'auteur". Paris P. Dupont – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Mary Bateman, 'W. J. Lincoln', Cinema Papers, June–July 1980, p. 174
- ISBN 9780786400362– via Google Books.
- ^ "Progressive Silent Film List: The Bells (1918)". silentera.com.
- ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
- ^ "The Bells". australiancinema.info. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
External links
