Enoch Arden: Part II (1911)

Director:

D.W. Griffith

Writers:

Linda Arvidson
Alfred Lord Tennyson (story)

Release Date:

15 June 1911 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Drama

Plot:

Annie remains faithful to her husband, Enoch, even though he's been lost at sea for many years. Finally...

Plot Keywords:

Ocean | Melodrama

Cast

Wilfred Lucas	...	Enoch Arden
Linda Arvidson	...	Annie Lee
Francis J. Grandon	...	Philip Ray
Robert Harron	...	Teenage Arden Son
Florence La Badie	...	Teenage Arden Daughter
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William J. Butler	...	In Bar
Edward Dillon	...	Rescuer
Joseph Graybill	...	Dead Shipmate
Guy Hedlund	...	On Rescue Ship
Dell Henderson	...	Rescuer
Grace Henderson	...	Innkeeper
Henry Lehrman	...	On Rescue Ship
Jeanie Macpherson	...	Ray's Maid
George Nichols
W.C. Robinson	...	Rescuer
Charles West	...	In Bar (as Charles H. West)

Directed by
D.W. Griffith

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Linda Arvidson
Alfred Lord Tennyson		story

Cinematography by
G.W. Bitzer

Production Companies

• Biograph Company

Distributors

• General Film Company (1911) (USA) (theatrical)
• American Mutoscope & Biograph (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• American Mutoscope & Biograph (2008) (worldwide) (all media) (as Biograph Company)

Runtime:

17 min (16 fps)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica, California, USA

Company:

Biograph Company

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Amazing Road to 'Move Over, Darling' (2007) (V)

A Good Finish to the Story

This short feature completes the story of Tennyson's "Enoch Arden", starting with a short summary of the first part, and then picking up right where the earlier film left off. It is most notable for the effective use of cross-cutting, as it goes back-and-forth between Arden's predicament and the lives of his family.

The basic premise of the story contains a lot of possibilities, so it is no surprise that besides the direct renderings of "Enoch Arden", both comedies like "My Favorite Wife" and dramas like "Cast Away" have been based on similar premises, and end up going in very different directions. The Cary Grant/Irene Dunne feature, for example, went for comedy, and thus started at a much different point in the story.

On the other hand, the strong point of "Cast Away" was in how Tom Hanks and the production team made his experience on the island so believable and compelling. Unfortunately, almost all of the sequences away from the island were much less believable, and too often were rather routine.

Here, the story continually switches back-and-forth, and in general it works pretty well. It would be next to impossible for a movie to convey the depths of emotions as well as a fine writer like Tennyson could do in a poem, but Griffith does well enough, especially given the limitations of cinema in 1911. Besides the parallel editing, he uses an occasional detail to help emphasize the themes and possibilities.

As for the cast, Linda Arvidson again is probably the most effective, as Annie. The two male characters are less fully developed, but things still fit together pretty well in telling the somber yet interesting story.