The Devil's Bondwoman is a 1916 American silent Melodrama directed by Lloyd B. Carleton. The film was based on the story by F. McGrew Willis and scenarized by Maie B. Havey and Fred Myton. The movie features Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson and employed the same cast seen in other Red Feather films, e.g., Barriers of Society, Black Friday.
The film has an allegorical prologue taking place in Hell and an epilogue. Wealthy banker Mason Van Horton becomes involved with socialite Doria Manners, who is married to businessman John Manners. When Mason falls in Love with another woman named Beverly Hope, he tries to end the affair with Doria. A revengeful Doria tells her husband Mason tried to seduce her and wants John to ruin Van Horton financially. An incensed John Manners arranges for one of Mason's central banks to go bankrupt but discovers his wife making Love to Prince Vandloup. John instantly realizes Doria lied about Mason while having an affair with the prince. John Manners leaves her, and Prince Vandloup changes into the Devil and carts Doria away.
The movie was released by Universal on November 20, 1916.
The film's prologue transports the moviegoers to the grottoes of Hell. Life's Creator has gathered the underworld spirits to help him create a mortal. They work non-stop and complete their creation. While the spirits admire their work, the Devil enters. Examining the Creator's mortal, Satan determines one attribute is missing. He instills the mortal with the Love of Self. The Devil knows pride is the most sinister of the Seven Deadly sins, and all other immoralities spring forth from the sin of pride.
Satan has added his last touches to the mortal and feels the "Man" is ready to navigate the road of life. The Devil chooses the easiest path for the man and sends him forth into the world. Satan returns to Hell, discovering the spirits have created another mortal. Satan declares this mortal a "Woman." The Devil adds no other attributes to the woman and sends her to follow life's pathways. Satan knows the man will take care of her downward spiral. Maniacal laughter fills the cavernâÂÂSatan knows he has done well.
Mason Van Horton is the young president of Van Horton bank, a self-made millionaire, and a ranking member of society. The bank is in an impoverished section of town. Hundreds of workers have placed their hard-earned life savings in the bank. Mason has taken a carefree approach toward the bank, and it is on the precipice of failure. The elder John Manners is wealthy and married to his wife, Doria. She is a social vampire who seeks to raise her social standing. John Manners has assisted Mason in his ascent to the top of his business. However, he is not above taking advantage of Mason's missteps whenever they present themselves.
Doria tires of her husband's company and focuses her flirtatious talents on Mason Van Horton. She flirts and entices Mason, and he does not resist her overtures. Beverly Hope visits her aunt, Barbara. Mason meets Beverly at a social function and falls in Love. Beverly is so sweet and virtuous that Mason reflects upon his past life. Could he have done anything differently so he could ask her to marry him?
There is a gala at the Manners' home. They have invited all the social elites. During the party, Doria snuggles up to Mason and asks him to meet her privately. Mason agrees, and after all the guests have gone, he sneaks upstairs to Doria's apartment. She is sitting on a divan, waiting for his arrival. Mason enters the room, sits on the sofa, and they embrace. He pulls back after a brief sigh and then leans forward to kiss Doria. Mason takes one last glance at Doria as their lips are about to meet. The room seems to darken around them, and he can only see the face of his beloved Beverly. He reels back in fear and stumbles to his feet. Mason rushes from the room while every fiber of his body is writhing in guilt. After all, he almost betrayed the woman he loved, but the thought of Beverly broke Doria's spell. As he leaves the room, he passes a curious John Manners.
Doria is beside herself when she cannot win the affection of Mason Van Horton. Mason's rejection of Doria triggers a vengeance response. She tells her husband; Mason had forced his way into her room and tried to have his way. An enraged Manners wants to kill Van Horton. Doria pleads with her husband not to harm him but to ruin him financially. With Manner's business acumen, it doesn't take long for him to bankrupt Van Horton's bank. The bank's investors lose every penny of their savings. Mason holds himself responsible for the failure of his bank. He commits to making total restitution. He sacrifices his entire fortune to repay the poor people that invested in his bank. While all the other intrigues occur, Beverly falls in Love with Mason. Beverly has agreed to marry Mason and help him work his way through his plans for restitution.
Doria throws a reception at her house and invites Mason. He accepts, hoping he can find some private time with John Manners. The reception is in full swing when a strange woman shows up. She was a former Van Horton failed bank member and had lost her life savings. Doria discovers her background and orders her from the house. Instead of leaving, the woman slips upstairs to Doria's room. Once in the room, she stabs herself and falls, bleeding to the floor. At the reception, the dinner guests gather around a table. Doria is entertaining the guests when a drop of blood falls from the ceiling. The shaken dinner guests are astonished. During the confusion in the other room, Mason and John Manners are in the library discussing business when a guest hurries in and tells them about the drops of blood. John Manners rushes upstairs to see what happened. After assessing the situation, he returns to the library. Passing one of the upstairs rooms, he hears Doria and Prince Vandloup making Love. He enters the room, confronts the two, and condemns Doria. John Manners now recognizes how Doria had manipulated him. Manners heads downstairs and explains to his bewildered guests that Doria was behind the collapse of the Van Horton bank. Under the circumstances, Manners will help Mason make restitution. He expels Doria from the house and banishes her forever.
Mason and Beverly profess their Love for each other and get married. Doria has always had an infatuation with Prince Vandloup. The prince made Love to her at every opportunity. Because Doria failed to seduce Mason, she must now pay the Devil his due. Prince Vandloup transforms into the Devil, and Doria learns she is in the power of evil and forever the Devil's Bondwoman.
In the book, "American Cinema's Transitional Era," the authors point out, One aspect of this transition was the longer duration of films. Feature films were slowly becoming the standard fare for Hollywood producers. Before 1913, you could count the yearly features on two hands. Between 1915 and 1916, the number of feature movies rose times or from 342 films to 835. There was a recurring claim that Carl Laemmle was the longest-running studio chief resisting the production of feature films. Universal was not ready to downsize its short film business because short films were cheaper, faster, and more profitable to produce than feature films.
Laemmle would continue to buck this trend while slowly increasing his output of features. In 1914, Laemmle published an essay titled - In 1916, Laemmle ran an advertisement extolling Bluebird films while adding the following vocabulary on the top of the ad. Universal made 91 feature films in 1916, including 44 and 47 productions.
This film was labeled with Universal's brand, indicating it was a low-budget feature film. This film was the 43rd Red Feather feature film produced by Universal in 1916.
Lloyd B. Carleton (âÂÂ1933) started working for Carl Laemmle in the Fall of 1915. Carleton arrived with impeccable credentials, having directed some 60 films for the likes of Thanhouser, Lubin, Fox, and Selig.
Between March and December 1916, 44-year-old Lloyd Carleton directed 16 movies for Universal, starting with The Yaqui and ending with The Morals of Hilda released on December 11, 1916. Emory Johnson acted in all 16 of these films. Of Carleton's total 1916 output, 11 were feature films, and the rest were two-reel shorts.
After completing this film, Carleton would make The Morals of Hilda and sever his connections with Universal.
F. McGrew Willis (1891âÂÂ1957) and Walter Woods (1881âÂÂ1942) were scenarists. Their business advertisements in the trade journals would advertise themselves as "Willis - Woods Photoplaywrights," adding to the copy "Collaborating for Better Results." Thus, when they jointly wrote a Screenplay, they would use the pseudonym The copyright for this film reads, Both were contract members of the Universal cadre of screenwriters. Willis Woods also wrote A Stranger from Somewhere at the same time they wrote this story.
In the copyright descriptions of the film, the names of scenarist Maie B. Havey and author Willis Woods have been crossed out, and Willis Woods and Fred Myton are acknowledged as the story's authors. However, as stated in the Moving Picture Weekly cast list, Myton was responsible for the prologue and epilogue that made up the allegory book.
F. McGrew Willis was born Frank McGrew Willis in Pleasanton, Iowa, on August 18, 1891. He was years old when he worked on this project. In 1914, after experiencing a brief stage career with various traveling companies, he became a freelance screenwriter focusing on scenarios for short films. His first screen credit for a feature film came after writing "The Quest" scenario in 1915.
Walter Woods (Walter Woods was sometimes called Walter Wood) was born in Pennsylvania on January 14, 1881. He was years old when he worked on this script. Woods started as a leading man in several stock and road productions, eventually becoming a manager and director of stock productions. After he joined Universal, one of Woods's most significant projects was writing 20 two-reel episodes for the serial movie Graft. He wrote scripts for 76 films between 1915 and 1938.
On March 15, 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios. Since this film required no location shooting, it was filmed in its entirety at the new studio complex.
During the production of films, a project must have a way to be referenced. The project is given a working title. An is another term for a Working Title. Frequently, the working title turns into the release title.
During this film's development, the working title was listed as - Later, the movie acquired another working title
As part of Universal's in-house publication, The Moving Picture Weekly, a section was devoted to proposing musical selections for specific Universal movies. The musical selections were "Specially Selected and Compiled by M. Winkler." Each reel of the movie had recommendations, as shown below:
An image of the complete music recommendations for this film are located in the Gallery section of this page.
The copyright was filed with U.S. Copyright Office on November 10, 1916, and entered into the record as shown:
In 1916, movies were always released on Mondays. This film was officially released on Monday, November 20, 1916.
By bringing paying customers to the theater, advertising plays a critical role in ensuring the success of a movie. A successful marketing campaign generates excitement among potential stakeholders by sharing plotlines, actors, release dates, and other essential information. Theater owners gained knowledge that helped them make better booking choices in a competitive market. Alongside a movie's advertising campaign, Carl Laemmle introduced an added feature to aid potential stakeholders in choosing to watch or lease the film.
Universal pioneered the classification of feature films by production cost in 1916, making it the first Hollywood studio to do so. One of the reasons behind this move was that the "Big Five" film studios owned their own movie houses, enabling them to have guaranteed outlets for their entertainment products. In contrast to the majors, Universal did not have ownership of theaters or theater chains. By branding Universal-produced feature films, theater owners would have an added tool to evaluate films for leasing. At the same time, fans could use it to determine which movies they prefer to see.
Universal's trade journal, The Moving Picture Weekly, features an advertising section called "PUTTING IT OVER." Exhibitors would receive suggestions from Universal on how to advertise specific movies. The November 11, 1916, issue had the following advertising suggestions for this movie:
The magazine movie critics generally panned this movie.<br /> In the November 25, 1916 issue of the Motion Picture News, Peter Milne writes:
In the November 22, 1916 issue of The New York Clipper, the staff critic opines:
Many silent-era films did not survive for reasons as explained on this Wikipedia page. According to the Library of Congress, all known copies of this film are lost.