Bondage (1917)

Directed by

Ida May Park

Genre

drama

Country

United States

Runtime

50 min

Rated

NR

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A story from 1917 follows a woman caught in a difficult romantic situation. It explores her choices and their consequences.

silent-eramelodramaticrestrainedfocusedperiodemotional

What happens

Bondage is a 1917 American silent drama film written and directed by Ida May Park (based on the story by Edna Kenton), and starring Dorothy Phillips, William Stowell, Gretchen Lederer and J.B. MacLaughlin. Many sources over the years, including the authoritative Michael F. Blake book, have listed Lon Chaney as appearing in the film in an uncredited capacity, but Chaney historian Jon Mirsalis states, "There is no evidence to support that claim. The formal documents submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office do not list Chaney in the cast, nor do the cast lists submitted to trade publications such as Moving Picture World. None of the reviews of the time mention Chaney. Recent texts attribute Chaney to the role of "the seducer," but reviews of the time confirm that this part was played by J. B. McLaughlin. How this enormous piece of misinformation began is a mystery." Photos exist showing the cast members, but in all of them, Chaney is conspicuously absent. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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