Richelieu (1914)

Directed by

Allan Dwan

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This silent film follows Cardinal Richelieu, the powerful French statesman, as he navigates court intrigue. It is based on a play by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

slowhistoricaltheatricalmelodramaticstatelylost

What happens

Richelieu is a 1914 American silent historical drama film written and directed by Allan Dwan, based on the play Richelieu written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It featured Lon Chaney, Murdock MacQuarrie and Pauline Bush. This was Allan Dwan's last film for Universal, as he moved to New York afterward to work at the Famous Players Company and married his lead actress Pauline Bush in 1915. Originally released in March 1914 at six reels in length (making it Chaney's first full-length feature), Universal eventually cut it down to four reels and put it out on Sept. 26, 1914 as part of its regular programme of pictures. Upon viewing the original 6-reel version, Moving Picture World had written in their review, "A six-reel production of the celebrated Cardinal Richelieu, following the lines of the famous play by that name.... The plot is a highly interesting one toward the close, but the action in the first three reels is rather slow and confusing. This would have been much stronger as either a three or four reel production." The film is now considered to be lost. Neither the 6-reel nor the 4-reel version survives. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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