Love or Justice?
Film
Love or Justice?
1917United States
Triangle Kay-Bee
Production company
Triangle Kay-Bee
Production company
35mm polyester positive print
Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation
2018.0016.0001
TextMore than 100 years ago, the pioneers of cinema recognized that the fodder for film scenarios could be ripped from the daily newspaper headlines. Many of those stories reflected the social ills of the time, which are unfortunately still prevalent. Hard core stories of crime and drugs were topical and commercially popular in 1917 and remain so today. Producer Thomas Ince, operating under the New York Motion Picture Corp. / Kay-Bee / Triangle banner, enlisted journalist Lambert Hillyer to write the scenario for Love or Justice? New to the motion picture business, Hillyer brought a grittiness to what was only his third screen scenario. This contemporary drama features a protagonist whose career as a promising young attorney is derailed through his use of drugs. Love or Justice? features a pool of actors who would share screen time together in a number of Ince productions. Louise Glaum’s career packed 128 screen credits into a 13-year span, culminating in her greatest fame as a screen vamp who rivaled Theda Bara. She would work again very shortly with Jack Richardson whose 43-year career contained 561 screen credits. Charles Gunn’s promising career as a leading man was tragically cut short with his untimely death in 1918 from the influenza pandemic. Love or Justice? provides one of the earliest screen credits of young Jack Gilbert (playing the role of Benny), later known and admired by millions of fans as the dashing John Gilbert in The Big Parade (1925). Other cast members J. Barney Sherry, Dorcas Matthews, Charles K. French, and Louis Durham were also members of this screen repertory company sharing various film credits during a few hectic years with Ince and Kay-Bee productions.
George Eastman Museum website text
October 2020
Generous support for the video introduction provided by Art Bridges
Preserved at Cinema Arts Laboratory
Digitized by Eastman Museum Film Preservation Services
Funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation and the Rohauer Collection Foundation
This film has been made accessible to the public in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this video, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities
The piano accompaniment for this online presentation was composed and performed by Philip C. Carli.
George Eastman Museum website text
October 2020
Generous support for the video introduction provided by Art Bridges
Preserved at Cinema Arts Laboratory
Digitized by Eastman Museum Film Preservation Services
Funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation and the Rohauer Collection Foundation
This film has been made accessible to the public in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this video, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities
The piano accompaniment for this online presentation was composed and performed by Philip C. Carli.
