The Headless Horseman (1922 film)

The Headless Horseman
Film poster
Directed by Edward D. Venturini
Produced by Carl Stearns Clancy
Written by Carl Stearns Clancy
Based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
by Washington Irving
Starring Will Rogers
Lois Meredith
Ben Hendricks Jr.
Cinematography Ned Van Buren
Production
company
Sleepy Hollow Corporation
Distributed by W.W. Hodkinson
Grapevine Video
Reelclassicdvd.com
Alpha Video Distributors
Cinefear
Finders Keepers Video
Release date
 November 5, 1922
Running time
 68 minutes
Country United States
Language Silent (English intertitles)
Film still with Will Rogers and Lois Meredith

The Headless Horseman is a 1922 American silent film adaption of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow directed by Edward D. Venturini. It stars Will Rogers, Lois Meredith (in her last major on-screen appearance), and Ben Hendricks Jr.[1] It was the first panchromatic black-and-white feature film.[2]

Plot

The village of Sleepy Hollow is getting ready to greet the new schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane, who is coming from New York. Crane has already heard of the village's legendary ghost, a headless horseman who is said to be searching for the head that he lost in battle. The schoolteacher has barely arrived when he begins to pursue the beautiful young heiress Katrina Van Tassel, angering Abraham Van Brunt, who is courting her. Crane's harsh, small-minded approach to teaching also turns some of the villagers against him. Soon there are many who would like to see him leave the village altogether.

Cast

  • Will Rogers – Ichabod Crane
  • Lois Meredith – Katrina Van Tassel
  • Ben Hendricks Jr. – Abraham Van Brunt ("Brom Bones")
  • Charles Graham – Hans Van Ripper
  • Mary Foy – Dame Martling
  • Bernard A. Reinold – Baltus Van Tassel
  • Downing Clarke – Dominie Heckwelder
  • Jerry Devine – Adrian Van Ripper
  • James Sheridan – Jethro Martling
  • Kay MacCausland – Elsa Vanderdonck
  • Nancy Chase – Gretchen

Production

The unlikable, stern schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, who at one point beats a student, was played by Rogers, a popular actor playing against his typical roles[3] for which he received $19,583.20.[4] For authenticity, filming took place in the Hudson River Valley around Tarrytown, New York, the setting of Washington Irving's story, with its Dutch farm houses and covered bridges.[3] The Headless Horseman was the first black-and-white feature film photographed entirely on panchromatic stock, which, while two to three times more expensive,[2] did not have the tendency to turn blue eyes and skies white and lipstick as black like the commonly used orthochromatic film did.[3] One effective special effect was the use of a double exposure to give the headless horseman a phantom-like appearance.[3]

Preservation

Copies of The Headless Horseman exist in several collections[5] and it has been released on DVD.

References

  1. ↑ "The Headless Horseman (1922)". IMDB.
  2. 1 2 Koszarski, Richard (1994). An Evening's Entertainment: The Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915-1928. University of California Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-520-08535-0.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hallenbeck, Bruce G. (2009). Comedy-Horror Films: A Chronological History, 1914-2008. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-0-7864-3332-2.
  4. ↑ Rogers, Will (2005). Wertheim, Arthur Frank; Bair, Barbara; et al., eds. The Papers of Will Rogers: From the Broadway Stage to the National Stage, September 1915-July 1928. The Papers of Will Rogers. 4. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 261. ISBN 0-8061-3704-5.
  5. ↑ Progressive Silent Film List: The Headless Horseman at silentera.com
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.