As a lifelong silent film enthusiast, I have been collecting Thanhouser films since they first became available on the home market. Originally there was a 6 volume set on VHS in 1997 and then I got the 2009 DVD-R upgrade which came in 12 volumes. I even have the long deleted 2002 Marengo Films edition of the best of the VHS set. Then I didn’t hear or see anything from the company for a long time. That all changed when I recently came across this set on Amazon. I quickly ordered it to add to my Thanhouser collection and here are my thoughts.
This LIBRARY OF CONGRESS set features 11 titles. There are 9 short films (12 minutes), one longer one (24 minutes), and one animated cartoon (6 minutes). The longer film is another one of Thanhouser’s many adaptations of classic literature, in this case Oscar Wilde’s THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY. One of the things I so admire about movies from this time period is how they can condense a major work into such a short running time and still manage to capture the essence of it. PICTURE is not Wilde’s book but it works well on its own terms
The short films run the gamut from broad comedy (WHEN HUNGRY HAMLET FLED, LITTLE BROTHER) to drama (NOT GUILTY, THE TELL-TALE SCAR) to several with elements of both. The one cartoon (DOWN ON THE PHONY FARM) is an early offering from Paul Terry (MIGHTY MOUSE) featuring farmer Al Falfa. They are all entertaining with one notable exception. That is the last title on the DVD which is THE MISTAKE OF MAMMY LOU. It features an “Aunt Jemima” stereotype with a white actress in blackface. Need I say more.
The condition of the films varies. DORIAN GRAY is in pretty good shape as are several others. A couple (WHEN A COUNT COUNTED, THE TELL-TALE SCAR) suffer from some nitrate decomposition while the cartoon is from a very worn and scratchy print. But these versions are all we have and we are lucky to have them. Thanks to all the private collectors and collections who donated the films to the Library of Congress and to the LOC for their preservation efforts. Over 100 years after their demise, Thanhouser is still very much with us.
The Capsule Critic 