Suspense

The title tells it all. A woman and her child are alone at the house because the hired help decides to take off. Her husband is at work. She realizes there is a man outside, a hobo. He gets into the house after she has called her husband. Then we have the classic "Will he get there" plot. He steals a car and leaves he driver, who immediately gets the police involved. This was directed by a woman and for a short film is edited very well and tells a convincing story.

This silent drama short was directed by Phillips Smalley and his wife Lois Weber who also appears. She plays a woman with a baby left alone in the house after her maid leaves a notice of her quitting. A wandering tramp finds the key under the outside mat left over by the maid. When the mother realizes her situation she calls her husband at work who rushes in a stolen car with police and car's owner in pursuit...While melodramatic, this was quite an exciting thriller for the early days of cinema that still provides some moments today. And how fascinating to see one of the earliest uses of the split-screen in seeing various actions happening simultaneously which in this instance is in three ways in what was called the triptych. So on that note, I highly recommend Suspense.

This film was included in the three DVD set "Saved From the Flames"--a collection of mostly ephemeral movies that have managed to avoid turning to powder, catching fire or melting--something that usually happened with the nitrate film stock used up through the 1950s.

This is a feature film included in the collection--though feature film in 1913 often meant 10-15 minutes. It wasn't until a couple years later that true full-length films were created. So, this meant that a complete story had to be told quickly and efficiently.

"Suspense" begins with a servant sneaking away from her employer's house. Apparently the place is too isolated and dull and she can't stand the place any more. However, being called 'Suspense', you just know something will happen to the lonely wife who is still at home with her baby--especially when her husband calls to say he'll be coming home late. What happens next you'll just need to see for yourself---let's just hope they can save them! I really admired the style of this film--such as the nice use of the multiple split-screen. It also really helped that the Flicker Alley folks included a very nice musical accompaniment that seemed both fitting and appropriately tense. Well constructed and effective...and it seems to illustrate the 1910s perception that hobos are a menace!

Lois Weber was one of the most interesting filmmakers of the 1910s and early 1920s, and despite being one of the most successful directors during that period, she is now largely neglected in the history books and by many silent film enthusiasts. This film of hers "Suspense" is only one of seven I've seen available on home video (as of yet). In 1996, Anthony Slide ("Lois Weber: The Director Who Lost Her Way in History") said that only a dozen or so of her films survive, which according to IMDb is out of the 132 pictures she directed. Regardless, it's a shame that such features of hers as "Discontent", "The Dumb Girl of Portici", "Shoes" (all 1916), "To Please One Woman" (1920) and "What's Worth While?" (1921) which exist aren't more accessible. It's no consolation that the films of many of Weber's contemporaries suffer worse fates.

Weber specialized in producing social-problem dramas, or message films. "Suspense", however, is the only film of hers that I've seen which did not sermonize. It's a straightforward entry in the genre of last-minute rescue, action-suspense pictures made especially popular in the Nickelodeon age by D.W. Griffith, with such one-reelers as "The Lonely Villa" (1909), "The Lonedale Operator" (1911), "An Unseen Enemy" and "The Girl and Her Trust" (both 1912). Kevin Brownlow said that "Suspense" more specifically took from and one-upped the plot of Griffith's "A Woman Scorned" (1911). Indeed, the editing of "Suspense" is as fluid as in any of Griffith's short films, and Weber uses some novel camera perspectives that Griffith and his cinematographer Billy Bitzer never had.

"Suspense" isn't quite as fast paced as Griffith's last-minute rescue films, or probably as hectic as the Keystone parodies of them, such as "The Bangville Police" and "Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life" (both 1913). I roughly counted 46 shots in "Suspense", which would be approximately just fewer than five shots per minute or 15.5 feet of film per shot. On the other hand, Griffith's "An Unseen Enemy", with about 119 shots, has approximately seven shots per minute or an average shot length of 8.4 feet. Even Griffith's earlier picture "The Lonely Villa" I counted to have about six shots per minute. Some of my numbers might be a bit off, but they give you a general idea: Weber's film is slower than Griffith's films. This isn't a weakness, though; the somewhat not as fast pace allows for a different tension over whether the husband speeding in a stolen car and chased by police will rescue his wife before the slowly approaching tramp reaches her, and it allows more time to capture the advanced viewpoints of Weber's camera. Moreover, the crosscutting, matching and rapid succession of shots is excellent.

"Suspense" is a surprisingly advanced film for 1913, especially in regards to the camera angles. The oft-mentioned triptych shots had already been used in the Danish "The White Slave Trade" films (Den hvide slavehandel) (1910)--also for telephone conversations. The shot of the tramp where he approaches and passes nearby the camera for a close-up while climbing the staircase was borrowed from Griffith's "The Musketeers of Pig Alley" (1912). More original perspectives in "Suspense" include the overhead angles and mirror reflections. Overhead angles are employed when the tramp enters the home, such as one point-of-view shot from the perspective of the housewife (played by the director) looking down from a window, which menacingly catches the tramp looking back at her and thus the camera. A mirror shot in the bedroom shows the wife's reflection in frame before she enters it. Rearview mirror reflections show the police approaching the stolen car of the husband as he races home. Clearly, Weber thoughtfully considered and executed the perspectives of her camera views, as relating to the characters or the audience, and the connectivity and rhythm of the shots placed together. Quite exceptional for a generic one-reel plot.

Looking through keyhole for the first time in cinema history? Servant, apparently bored in the "lonesome place", picks up and leaves, leaving the wife and infant child home alone. Hobo, lurking outside, sees the servant leaving and breaks into home.

Prism in centre of the frame, with man in it, talking to wife on telephone, in upper left corner, hobo sneaking in house in upper right corner. Later, man in centre of prism, wifey in upper left, hobo sneaking into house in top right as he cuts the phone line. He chops down and punches down the door, while wifey frantically calls hubby to come to the rescue.

Noticeably filmed out of doors, as wind picks up and blows paperwork off desk, several early uses of mirror reflections, all to good effect. Good trick shot of a guy being hit by a car during pursuit.