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The Strange Case of Mary Page
Also known as Um Caso Estranho in Portugal
(1916) United States of America
B&W : Serial / 15 chapters
Directed by J. Charles Haydon
Cast: Henry B. Walthall [Attorney Philip Langdon], Edna Mayo [Mary Page], Sydney Ainsworth [David Pollock], Harry Dunkinson [E.H. Daniels, the show manager], John Cossar [the prosecuting attorney], Frank Dayton [Dan Page], Frances Raymond [Mrs. Page], John Thorn [Jim Cunningham], Edward Arnold [Doctor Foster], Arthur W. Bates [the young gambler], Thomas Cummerford (Tom Cummerford) [the judge], Richardson Cotton [a juror], Frances Benedict, William Chester, Edmund Cobb, Ernest Cossart, Frank Hamilton, Miss Valli (Virginia Valli)
Essanay Film Manufacturing Company production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Costume design by Lady Duff Gordon. / 15 chapters (two reels each): [1] 24 January 1916; [2] released 31 January 1916; [3] released 7 February 1916; [4] released 14 February 1916; [5] released 21 February 1916; [6] released 28 February 1916; [7] released 6 March 1916; [8] released 13 March 1916; [9] “The Accusing Eye,” released 20 March 1916; [10] released 27 March 1916; [11] released 3 April 1916; [12] released 10 April 1916; [13] released 17 April 1916; [14] released 24 April 1916; [15] released 1 May 1916. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Valli’s film debut.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Episode 1: Mary Page, actress, is playing the leading role in “The King’s Daughter,” in rehearsal at the opening of the story. The show is secretly backed by David Pollock, man about town, who is in love with the girl. Mary is in love with Philip Langdon, a young lawyer. Pollock attends every rehearsal. He is really watching Mary. Philip Langdon, attorney-at-law, one day, keeps an appointment with Mary. He is talking to her on the stage when they are discovered by Pollock. Pollock is overcome with rage and orders the manager to show Langdon out. Langdon smilingly leaves the theater and waits outside. Mary goes to her dressing room. Pollock follows and attacks her. He is worsted in a fight by Langdon, who hears Mary’s cries. On its premier, the play is declared a huge success and Mary attends a banquet given for the company. She is accompanied by Langdon, who waits in the hotel lobby. Pollock also goes to the hotel and engages a room, drinking heavily. He sends a bellboy to Mary with the message that Langdon wants to see her and she comes to the room. There she discovers herself trapped. Langdon, meanwhile, sees Mary leave the dining room and follows her. While he is trying to find out where she went, he hears a scream and a shot. He leads the crowd to Pollock’s room, where he finds him dead. Mary is arrested. Episode 2: Mary Page is placed on trial for her life for the murder of David Pollock. She is defended by Philip Langdon. The first witness to go on the stand is the bellboy whom Pollock sent to summon Mary from the banquet table to his room. He tells the jury how Pollock had bribed him to tell Mary it was Mr. Langdon who wished to see her. The hotel detective is next to take the stand. He tells of the finding of Pollock’s body with Mary in a dead faint beside it, and of the pistol which lay at her side. The theater carpenter’s testimony is damaging to the State’s evidence. Mary Page, the defendant, finally takes the stand. When asked why she took a pistol to the banquet, she explains that she intended to give it to Langdon. It was the pistol Langdon wrested from Pollock in their fight in her dressing room. After giving her testimony, Mary Page falls in a faint and court is adjourned. Episode 3: The leading man in Mary Page’s theatrical company has just created a sensation in the courtroom, where Mary is on trial charged with the murder of Dave Pollock. “Langdon was either in the room or at the door when Dave Pollock was murdered!” is the accusation made by the witness. The courtroom is quickly quieted and the charge seemingly is forgotten. Ruth Pollock, sister of the murdered man, takes the stand. Her startling testimony carries the spectators back to the time when Philip, Mary and Dave Pollock were young people together in a country town. Mary, it seems, had been engaged to Pollock. Her father, a heavy drinker, had forged Pollock’s name to a check and to save her father from prosecution, although she loved Philip, she promised to marry Dave. The announcement was made at a dance. Philip, not knowing of the forgery, believed Mary had jilted him and went into the bar and began drinking. Mary tried to get him out of the place and as she stood there, her arms around Philip, Pollock appeared. Mary announced that she could marry no one but Langdon and Pollock, enraged, produced the check bearing the signature forged by Dan Page, Mary’s father. Langdon, for the first time, realized the power Pollock had over Mary, and seized the check and destroyed it. The check proved to be only a copy and Pollock browbeats Mary into promising again to wed him. “But,” Mary threatened Pollock, “you will regret this to the end of your life.” Brandon, the reporter, who testified to the scene at the dance, swore that during the struggle he saw on Mary’s shoulder finger prints that came and faded away in an uncanny manner. Brandon was another of the young people in Mary’s home town who went to New York. He was in police headquarters the morning after the murder, discussing the mysterious affair when Mary Page, in evening gown, without hat or coat, was brought in by a policeman who had found her wandering in the street. As Brandon stood there and heard Mary murmuring incoherently again he saw on her shoulder those uncanny finger prints. As he approached Mary the door opened and Langdon entered. “I give myself up,” said Mary to the sergeant and turned and fell into Langdon’s arms. Episode 4: Mary Page is charged with the murder of Dave Pollock. Langdon loves Mary and is her attorney in the trial. Langdon has a chance to save his sweetheart by confessing the murder, but he ignores the opportunity. Insanity is Mary Page’s defense. “If Mary Page murdered Dave Pollock,” Langdon announces, “she did it while suffering from ‘repressed psychosis.’” Then he brings witnesses who tell thrilling incidents of Mary’s early life. Mary’s father, Dan Page, was a drunkard. Because of a powerful pre-natal influence Mary always had a horror of liquor. At times of great mental stress, upon her left shoulder have appeared the shadowy imprints of heavy fingers, a strange phenomenon caused by the fact that before Mary was born Dan Page brutally attacked Mary’s mother. Mary had loved Langdon almost as long as she could remember. Pollock, who lived in the same small town, wanted to wed Mary and Dan, because Pollock knew of shady transactions in Dan’s career, favored Pollock’s suit. In a drunken rage, in his home, Dan Page attacked Langdon with a hot poker. A glancing blow struck Mary on the forehead. She was rendered temporarily insane, and she fled into the wood. There Langdon found her and carried her home. Episode 5: While a way out seems to have shown itself to Philip Langdon, unforeseen circumstances serve to lessen the advantage he imagined he possessed. The young attorney defending Mary Page, accused of murder of Dave Pollock, calls a specialist in brain disorder, a Dr. Foster, who testifies concerning the unusual circumstances surrounding his first acquaintance with the case. He describes how Mary Page, insane, had lost herself in a wood for a night and how, when found by her lover, Langdon, had been brought to his attention. He found her to be suffering from repressed psychosis, a stage of mind originating in a prenatal influence which caused her to lose her reason at the sight of intoxication. His operation on her and later meeting in New York, shortly before Dave Pollock spirited her away, were retold for the jury. During the course of the testimony of the alienist, Langdon is obviously worried concerning a paper which the prosecutor’s assistant presents to his chief. “Serve it,” Langdon hears him order. But before there is an opportunity for any development along this line a juror is stricken with heart trouble and court is adjourned. Mary Page goes back to her cell and Langdon, worried, wanders about and finds himself walking into the office of Daniels, the theater manager, head of the show in which Mary Page was appearing when Pollock, the “angel” of the production, interfered. A torn piece of paper catches his eye. He finds more and pieces together part of a note. It read: “For any repetition of today’s outrage you will answer to ME, even with your life. Daniels.” Langdon becomes a changed man as he reads. The note has changed his whole program of defense. Episode 6: Dr. Foster continues his testimony. He tells how Langdon, a detective and himself were led to an insane asylum by a crook. Here they found Mary Page under the care of quack doctors who had issued a written statement adjudging her insane. While here Pollock enters. All of them, including Pollock, go to the office of Dr. Foster, where Pollock offers Foster money to adjudge Mary insane. He is refused. Dr. Foster then testifies that his wife had seen Mary at work two weeks afterward and that was the last he had heard of her. Daniels, the theater manager, is then called to the witness stand. He tells of accompanying Mary to the banquet the night of the murder and how he left through the back entrance after discovering the murder. He says he was unaware that Mary had escaped. Langdon then produces the note he had found in Daniels’ office, which threatened Pollock and was signed by Daniels. The jury is asked to leave the courtroom during the showing of this evidence. The judge rules that the letter is not admissible, unless proven that Pollock received the note. This is a blow to Langdon and a victory for the prosecuting attorney. Daniels then goes on to tell how he met Mary’s father in a saloon the night of the murder, and how he nearly went insane when told of Mary being suspected, declaring that he had told her not to kill him. The jury is puzzled by the new evidence. Episode 7: Philip Langdon calls Amy Lerue, companion of Mary Page, as a witness, and she tells bow the two girls were even forced to steal off a dumbwaiter in order to eat, so frequently were they rejected in seeking employment. How Pollock luckily happened to find them at this time and saved them from an embarrassing situation for their theft is related. How he further places Mary in his debt by saving her from the advances of a crooked theatrical man also furnishes part of her testimony. Finally, according to the witness, the girls find places with a show. So well does Mary please the manager that he shortly advances her to speaking parts and then suddenly gives her a place as leading woman. Thankful to him for making her a star, Mary goes to dinner, taking with her Amy, her companion. Pollock is introduced to them by the theater manager, and while he had seen them shortly before, he accepts the presentation without indicating previous acquaintance. At this point in her testimony Langdon’s aide hands him a note, which tells that the missing Dan Page, father of Mary, has been found. Langdon asks an adjournment, goes to the place with a detective and discovers his man. “She’s not guilty,” shrieks Page. “I killed Dave Pollock.” Langdon is dumbfounded. Episode 8: This episode opens with a continuation of the testimony of Amy Lerue, companion of Mary Page, who was interrupted in the last episode by the sudden discovering of the missing Dan Page, which caused an adjournment of the trial. The girl told how the show managed by Daniels strangely went on the road for one-night stands, although doing quite well in the city. How it finally became stranded and only the appearance of Pollock saved their trunks from the sheriff. This was their first intimation that Pollock was backing the show. Dan Page, found the preceding day by Philip Langdon, is offered as a witness by the latter. Page, the drunken father of Mary, relates the story of the crime in all its details, saying that he had gone to Pollock’s office with the frenzied idea of killing him or doing anything else which would release him from the hold the capitalist maintained on him. Here, according to the testimony, he found Mary, and, taking a pistol away from her, he shot Pollock. Then, excited, he forgot his faint-daughter and passed out of the room by another door. The prosecuting attorney, skeptical, places five pistols before the eyes of the witness. Page picks out one with which he was supposed to have killed Pollock. It was not the right one. He is held as a perjurer. Episode 9: This episode deals with the testimony of Meredith, an actor known to Mary Page and her friend Amy, who obtain employment as an artist’s model. He helps the girls find like employment, and they, while disliking it, are compelled to accept. Dave Pollock finds a painting of Mary and later seeks to force an entrance to her apartment, only to be frustrated and beaten by Meredith. The police surgeon who rushed to the scene at the death of Pollock is the next witness examined. He hurls a bombshell into the camp of the defense by declaring the retina of the dead man’s eye held a picture of the last person he saw. A photograph is produced. In the man’s eye is seen the image of Mary Page. Episode 10: The mayor of the small town is on the witness stand with the opening of this episode. He tells how at the time of the murder Pollock was a candidate for congress against Langdon, and that the former failed in his attempt to buy off the younger man, and therefore attempted to discredit him. In a debate Pollock is made to look ridiculous by Langdon and he resolves to straightway put a blot on the lawyer’s reputation. A fraudulent photograph of Langdon and a woman whose questionable reputation is obvious is exhibited and it reaches Mary Page. She is astounded and having learned of other plots, attempts to warn her lover, and comes under the power of the woman who is helping to entrap him. Bound and imprisoned in a room, she removes the ’phone receiver with her teeth and communicates with Langdon. At this point in the testimony Philip receives word from his detective that he has discovered men who had a difference with Pollock in a card game of the night preceding. It is a new clew. Episode 11: This episode opens with Detective Sergeant Callahan on the witness stand and takes up his testimony of how Philip Langdon himself was for a long time suspected of killing Dave Pollock, a crime for which he was defending his sweetheart, Mary Page. The police officer detailed how he raided the gambling den of Big Jim and found Mary Page a prisoner. Arresting her together with the gamblers she was immune to questioning, as she was suffering from psychosis, although this was unknown to the police at the time. Langdon was seen in the vicinity and suspected and shadowed by Callahan. As it developed the young lawyer’s visit to Pollock’s office was in an attempt to discover some trace of the missing Mary. Finding her, Callahan overheard Langdon ask her to give herself up and that he would defend her to his utmost. It was then that Langdon was no longer suspected. Episode 12: The testimony of Bennett, friend of Pollock’s, takes up this episode. He tells how, with Pollock, he dined with Mary Page and Amy Lerue, and how after dancing they made a slumming tour. Chinese opium joints followed visits to gambling dens and the city was thoroughly “done.” Pollock, by this time strangely lively, invited the party to enter a shooting gallery in the heart of the district. They did, and all tried with both rifle and pistol. Mary was the last to shoot and surprised her companions by her skill with the revolver. Pollock, who had been drinking, lurched toward the girl he desired at this exhibition of another of her various capabilities. He made a remark, unheard by the rest, but sufficient to make Mary wheel suddenly and declare: “Another word like that from you and I will discharge this gun in your face!” That ended the party, and Bennett’s only further knowledge of the case was overhearing Pollock instructing gunmen to “get” Philip Langdon, Mary’s sweetheart. Episode 13: The calling of the gambler Jim Bates to the stand at the opening of court brings the information that he has been missing for two days. Langdon, defending Mary Page for the murder of Dave Pollock, is visibly worried. Mayer, the impresario, testifies how he starred Mary Page after taking her out of the chorus at Pollock’s behest. Finding Pollock irritated her he warned him the show would be abandoned as he could not tolerate his actions. At the conclusion of his testimony Langdon asks for an adjournment. He hastened to locate Bates and finds him in a saloon. Bates, trapped, is aided by companions and Langdon is tossed into a room. Bates is warned to catch a fast freight west and Langdon, hearing the scheme, drops out of a window and follows. He pushes open a door and Bates crouched in a corner is ready to shoot. He hesitates, however, and Langdon gets the gun, but not before the train is moving too rapidly for flipping. Episode 14: The gambler, Bates, stubbornly refuses to talk to Langdon, who has him covered with a pistol in the box car. A shot warns the passing brakeman and the train is stopped. Langdon, pushing his prisoner ahead of him, walks to the nearest station. All night he had watched his man. Court opens in the morning and Langdon fails to appear. His assistant is refused an adjournment. Chester, with Bates, the chief aids of Big Jim Cunningham, is on the stand telling how Pollock and the gambling house owner split, the latter at the time intimating that something might happen to Pollock if there was any further conflict. As Chester was describing the events just preceding the death of Pollock he mentioned that following a shot he saw Bates running down an alley. Bates and Langdon enter at that moment and the former, infuriated, by the apparent accusation, cries out: “He lies. He killed Pollock himself.” Court is adjourned to take up the new accusation which promises to solve the mystery for which Mary Page is held. Episode 15: The concluding episode of the Essanay serial does not give the answer as to who killed Dave Pollock until just before the finish. In a story of this kind the main object is to sustain the interest by preventing the spectator from making the right guess. The way in which everyone has been made to suspect first one person then another during the progress of the trial stamps the author and the producer of the serial as adepts in the art of play construction. The efforts of the cast have never slackened from the opening reel, and the long trial has been conducted in an impressive and always interesting manner.
Survival status: The film is presumed lost.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Serials
Listing updated: 26 April 2020.
References: Braff-Short n. 56; Lahue-Continued pp. 45-46, 174-175, 288; Stedman-Serials p. 38; Tarbox-Lost p. 222 : Website-SerSq.
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