| The Fatal Wedding | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Raymond Longford |
| Produced by | Charles Cozens Spencer |
| Written by | Raymond Longford Lottie Lyell |
| Based on | play by Theodore Kremer |
| Starring | Raymond Longford Lottie Lyell |
| Cinematography | Arthur Higgins |
| Studio | Spencer's Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 24, 1911 |
| Running time | 3,500 feet |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
| Budget | ₤600 (Longford estimate)[1] or £4,000[2] |
| Box office | ₤18,000 (est.)[3] |
The Fatal Wedding is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford based on a popular American stage melodrama which he and Lottie Lyell had toured around Australia.[4]
Contents |
An adventuress, Cora Williams (Miss Clare) destroys the happy marriage of Howard (Raymond Longford) and Mabel Wilson (Lottie Lyell) and drives them to divorce. Howard gets custody of their children Jessie (Elsie Rennie) and Frankie (Master Anson) but Mabel winds up abducting them. Five years later Cora discovers Mabel living in poverty with the children. She tries to poison Mabel and frame Jessie on a charge of theft but is unsuccessful. Howard and Mabel eventually reconcile and live with their children.
Although Longford had appeared in several films as an actor and helped make a documentary about the Burns-Johnson fight in 1908,[5], this was his first feature as director. It was also Lottie Lyell's first movie.[6]
The play on which the script was based had recently toured around Australia under the management of entrepreneur Philip Lytton with both Longford and Lyell playing lead roles.[7]
Shooting took place largely in an artist's studio in Bondi with a roof taken off and six foot reflectors used to improve the lighting.[8]
The Fatal Wedding was a big success at the box office and launched the cinema careers of Longford and Lyell, as well as enabling producer Charles Cozens Spencer to establish a film studio at Rushcutter's Bay in Sydney.[9]
Longford later claimed the movie was the first domestic drama picture using interiors made in Australia.[10] Some have also argued this film was the first to introduce the close up.[11]
It is considered a lost film.
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