An Unexpected Guest (1909)

Release Date:

12 August 1909 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Short

Plot:

Consequences result when a father breaks up his son's engagement.

Produced by
Siegmund Lubin	....	producer

Production Companies

• Lubin Manufacturing Company

Distributors

• Lubin Manufacturing Company (1909) (USA) (theatrical)
• Nostalgia Family Video (199?) (USA) (VHS) (on "Origins of Cinema")

Runtime:

USA:10 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Lubin Manufacturing Company

Solid & Rather Effective Melodrama

This short melodrama is rather effective in telling its story, and also in evoking an emotional response from the viewer. Within just a few years, this kind of story would become one of the most common in silent cinema, and the techniques and conventions would become much more polished and well-defined. The technique and pacing in this film are not very refined, but it is a pretty good effort for its year.

The movie starts with a young couple of different social classes courting each other, and they are obviously in love with each other. Soon, though, they run into a roadblock, in the form of the young man's small-minded father. The couple's innocent joy and optimism in the early scenes set the stage quite effectively for the more serious events that follow. Even though the characters in themselves are never developed very far - that is the kind of thing that later film-makers would refine in this kind of picture - the way that the opening scenes are filmed makes the couple wholly sympathetic to the audience, just because it is so easy to identify with them.

While, like many features of its kind, "The Unexpected Guest" is probably going to be of interest only to devoted silent movie fans, it represents a solid effort for its time and genre. Even if most of the techniques are still basic, the construction of the film shows that the film-makers and cast had an understanding of how effective it is to make their characters sympathetic before exposing them to difficulties.