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The Confession
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 960 feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: Martha Russell
Essanay Film Manufacturing Company production; distributed by Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. / Released 22 January 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [The Moving Picture World, 22 January 1910, page ?] Brandon Sherman, our hero, is a phonograph enthusiast and a poet. As he writes his verses he records them upon his phonograph that, in his morbid fancies, he may, ‘Listen to the children of his thoughts, the passions of his soul.’ He is interrupted one afternoon while at his phonograph by the entrance of his sister Jane and his betrothed, Gertrude Hale. He is finally persuaded to leave his work to accompany them to the home of Gertrude’s uncle, Philip Hale, an exacting man, at whose hands Gertrude suffers indignities and much cruelty. While wandering about the beautiful Hale gardens the old gentleman meets them and being bitterly opposed to Brandon orders him from the place. Hale, in his anger, strikes Gertrude with his cane, which so angers the young man that he bitterly denounces Gertrude’s guardian and is saved from personally attacking him by the interference of the gardener. The scene ends in the bodily ejection of Brandon from the premises, Jane is ordered off and Gertrude sent to her room. Brandon is so incensed that he cannot sleep until he exacts an apology from Hale. Later he encounters the old gentleman in the latter’s conservatory. The old man again orders him off and enraged by the young fellow’s impudence strikes him again with his cane. Brandon wrests the cane from Hale’s hands and in turn belabors him across the shoulders. Hale is beaten down among his plants and in the confusion a giant fern is joggled from its pedestal, crushing Hale’s skull. Panic-stricken, the young man turns and runs away. There has been no eyewitness and suspicion never turns toward Brandon. For six weeks the mystery of the cause of death has not been solved, but finally an extra announces the verdict — accidental death. Brandon, who has suffered untold misery, instead of being comforted or relieved, lapses into hysteria and says the paper lies. In the persistent solitude his mind weakens beneath the strain of remorse and mortal fear. His soul yearns to confess to someone the awful secret that he himself killed Philip Hale. He calls his sister that he may confess to her, but his voice chokes on the first word and he drives her from him. Falling on his knees he pleads Divine aid to help him unburden his soul. As if in response to his pleadings, his eyes rest upon the phonograph before him and an inner voice bids him ‘record his confession there.’ In feverish haste he adjusts the cylinder and placing his mouth to the machine murmurs tremulously: ‘I killed Philip Hale, but it was in self-defense! Brandon Sherman.’ A knock at the door interrupts him as he is removing the tell-tale cylinder. He opens the door to admit his sister Jane. She notes his nervousness and asks him what he is recording. “Poetry! Poetry!” he answers, but she is not convinced and resolves to hear for herself. On the pretext of obtaining something from an adjoining room, she sends him out, then locking the door adjusts the cylinder and starts the machines. As the little clay cylinder begins unfolding, in her brother’s tremulous voice, the confession he has made, Jane staggers back in dismay. The youth in a paroxysm of mingled rage, despair, delirium, bangs on the door, then seizes a chair and dashing the door to flinders leans through the aperture he has made, wildly demanding the record. The girl unlocks the door, he reels into the room and falls into a chair dazed. Jane, by this time horror stricken, takes the record from the phonograph and Brandon dashes it to the floor. The boy, completely unstrung, heartbroken, his life crushed out of him, sinks back sobbing as Gertrude Hale enters. A moment later, with his two dearest ones at his side, he falls back in his chair lifeless, the broken record of his confession lying in scattered fragments at his feet.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 5 February 1910, page ?] An intensely dramatic murder story, offering opportunities for some strong work and featuring the psychological disturbance which follows a murder when the murderer is a sensitive and somewhat nervous individual. In this instance it ultimately kills the murderer, as it has often done in real life, and the effect upon the mind. The Essanay Company have worked this picture out with much dramatic power and even though the subject has a tendency to induce depression, it is so well done that interest increases from the beginning to the end of the picture.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 15 February 2024.
References: Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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