Marie Corelli & the Cinema:
a filmography
by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Preface
Several biographical works about Marie Corelli repeat from each other's dubious conclusions that toward the end of her writing career & her life, she was no longer very popular. I seriously doubt sales records would support such a canard. Marie died in 1924 & the silent film makers were adapting her books well into the 1920s, just one of many measures of her lifelong popularity.
Only one movie has been made since the silent era founded on any work of Marie's, & that was a musical filmed in India, where Corelli is popular to this day & kept perpetually in print.
FILM BASED ON
GOD'S GOOD MAN (London: Methuen, 1904)
Date? This silent film from Stoll production studio was shown at the London Alhambra. It evidently does not survive, & I've not found other specifics .
FILM PLANNED BASED ON
HOLY ORDERS (London: Methuen, 1908)
Agreement was made with I. B. Davidson to do the silent film version, but I can find no evidence it was filmed.
A FILM BASED ON
INNOCENT (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1911)
1921 silent. Directed by Maurice Elvey. Scenario by William J. Elliot.
Madge Stuart as Innocence
Basil Rathbone as Amadis de Jocelyn
Lawrence Anderson as Robin
Edward O'Neill as Hugo de Jocelyn
Frank Dane as Ned Langdon
W. Cronin Wilson as Armitage
Ruth Mackay as Lady Maude
Mme. d'Esterre as Miss Leigh
Annie Esmond as the Housekeeper
FILMS PLANNED OR BASED ON
THE SORROWS OF SATAN(London: Methuen, 1893)
1911, 1916, Dreadnought Film Company, USA. Pirated for film production & kept from distribution. Then in 1916 there was either a new version by the same studio or more likely re-edited with new dialogue cards. This was shown to Marie to try to get her permission to distribute but, but she would not permit it unless they let her write an entirely new scenario. Apparently there was never a finished product, either because Marie was disagreeable or because a competitor got another version to the screen in 1917.
The Sorrows of Satan.
1917 silent. Directed by Alexander Butler. Scenario by Harry Engholm.
Gladys Cooper as Lady Sybil Elton
Owen Nares as Geoffrey Tempest
Cecil Humphreys as Prince Ramirez
Lionel d'Aragon as Earl Eaton
Winifred Delavente as Diana Chesney
Alice De Winton
Minna Grey
Leaves from Satan's Book.
1919, silent Danish, original title Blade af Satans Bog. This was the second feature directed by the great Carl Theodor Dreyer, from a scenario by himself & Edgar Hoyer inspired by one of Marie's books issued in Denmark as Satan's Sorger. From the film's story, it's impossible to detect any of Marie in it, so I can only guess Satan's Sorger was an omnibus of Marie's mystic-Christian trilogy Barrabas, The Master-Christian, and The Sorrows of Satan these having collectively given the history of Jesus & the Devil across two millenium. But Dreyer's specific episodes in four historical periods are strictly his own.
Hugo Bruun as Count ManuelDreyer presents four episodes in the life of Satan: when he was a Pharisee during the life of Jesus, when he was Grand Inquisitor in medieval Spain, when he was a police officer during the French Revolution; & when he was a defrocked revolutionary monk in the Russo-Finnish war of 1918. The main inspiration for the structure of the film was D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). Despite that Dreyer's film was an international success, the cost of making it meant it was never profitable, & his next few films had to be made in Sweden or Germany since Danish producers didn't trust him to turn in a cheap product. Though not regarded one of Dreyer's best films, all acknowledge the sumptuous cinematography of George Schneevoight, & a horrific power to the Inquisitional segment.
Nalle Halden as The Majordomo
Erling Hansson as John
Hallander Helleman as Don Gomez de Castro
Halvard Hoff as Jesus
Wilhelm Jensen as Carpenter
Tenna Kraft as Marie Antoinette
Helge Nissen as Satan
Elith Pio as Joseph
Clara Pontoppidan as Siri
Ebon Strandin as Isabel, Castro's daughter
Jacob Texiere as Judas
Jeanne Tramcourt as Genevieve
Emma Wiehe as The Countess of Chambord
Viggo Wiehe as Count de Chambord
Carlo Wieth as Paavo
Johannes Meyer
The Sorrows of Satan.
Planned for 1920, from Famous Players Lasky, but this version was cancelled. Alfred Hitchcock was not yet working in motion pictures, but he saw an advanced advertisement for the film, & prepared title cards for it just to get a foot in the door. [Thanks to Christopher K. Philippo for passing along this bit of Hitchcok trivia.]
The Sorrows of Satan.
1926 silent. Directed by D. W. Griffith. Scenario by Forrest Halsey, George Hull & John Russell.
Carol Dempster as Mavis Claire
Adolphe Menjou as Prince Lucia de Rimanez (the devil himself)
Ricardo Cortez as Geoffrey Tempest
Lya de Putti as Princess Olga
Ivan Lebedeff as Amiel
Marcia Harris as the Landlady
Dorothy Hughes as Mavis's friend
Lawrence D'Orsay as Lord Elton
Nellie Savage as the Dancing Girl
Josephine Dunn
Raymond Griffith
Claude Brooke
Jeanne Morgan
Owen Nares
When an impoverished writer (Ricardo Cortez) makes a pact with the devil (Adolphe Menjou) in order to become a literary success, it is up to Mavis Claire (Carol Dempster in her last role) to defeat the devil's hold on Geoffrey Tempest. Dempster was peculiar enough to be quite interesting on the screen, though many have supposed she wouldn't've had any film career at all if D. W. Griffith hadn't been promoting his paramour. The Hungarian actress, Lya de Putti, who plays the suicidal Princess Olga, debuted in the Fritz Lang Lost Race film Das indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb). Griffith reportedly disliked Corelli's novel but nevertheless made a fine film. We can only lament a lost prologue that was filmed but never distributed, reportedly an elaborate special effects sequence set in Satan's realm, & to the best of anyone's knowledge permanently lost. FILMS PLANNED OR BASED ON
TEMPORAL POWER (London: Methuen, 1902)
Never filmed? Marie arranged with the production studio Marquis de Sierra for this silent film but no record exists that it was actually made.
Il Potere Sovrano.
1916, Italian silent. Directed by Percy Nash & Baldassare Negroni. Scenario by Percy Nash.
Riccardo Achilli
Alfonso Cassini
Alberto Collo
Diana D'Amore
Floriana
Emilio Ghione
Gioacchino Grassi
Hesperia
Ignazio Lupi
Claudio Nicola
Orlando Ricci
FILM PLANNED BASED ON
THE TREASURE OF HEAVEN (London: Methuen, 1906)
Never filmed? Negotiated with Globe production studio but apparently no such film was released.
FILMS BASED ON
THELMA (London: Bentley, 1887)
1916 silent. Directed by John G. Adolfi, who also wrote the scenario. Five-reels.
Vivian Martin as Thelma
William H. Tooker as Thelma's father
Harry Hilliard as Sir Philip
Albert Roccardi
Maud Sinclair
Elizabeth Kennedy
Allan Walker
Stuart Russell
Albert Jovell
Richard Neill
Pauline Barry
Flora Nason
Lila Leslie
Gladys Wynne.
Thelma.
1918 silent. Directed by A. E. Coleby & Arthur Rooke. Scenario by Rowland Talbot.
Malvina Longfellow as Thelma
Arthur Rooke as Sir Phillip Errington
Maud Yates as Violet Vere
Marsh Allen as Sir Francis Lennox
Leal Douglas as The Blonde
Humberston Wright as George Lorimer
Judd Green as Olaf Olsen
Thelma.
1922 silent. Directed by Chester Bennett. Scenario by Thomas F. Dixen, Jr.
Starring: Jane Novak as Thelma GuildmarIn this drama a naive Norwegian maiden, Thelma (Jane Novak), weds an English aristocrat (Vernon Steele) who brings her to London, where class conflict inspires her uppercrust husband's family & associates to interfer with the success of the marriage.
Peter Burke as Lorimer
Harvey Clark as Dyceworthy
June Elvidge as Lady Clara Winsleigh
Harry Lonsdale as Neville
Gordon Mullen as Lovissa
Wedgwood Nowell as Lennox
Virginia Novak as Little Thelma
Jack Rollens as Sigurd
Vernon Steele as Philip
Bert Sprotte as Olaf Guildmar
Barbara Tennant as Britta
FILMS PLANNED OR BASED ON
VENDETTA (London: Bentley, 1886)
1915, UK. This five-reel film was shown at the Stratford Picture House in 1915, further data lacking. It is known that Marie had undergone negotiations with B. Davidson & R. C. Pictures Corporation to make a silent film version of Vendetta but whether the film shown at the Stratford was it or not I have not been able to resolve. Davidson also arranged to film Holy Orders but I cannot find that it was actually filmed.
Inteqam.
1969, India. A musical directed by R. K. Nayyar.
Sanjay KhanHaving been unjustly imprisoned, a woman sets out on a mission of revenge. In Corelli's novel the vendetta was a man's & he relentlessly pursued his prey. But as a Hindi film, convention demanded any woman pursuing a vendetta must give up revenge by the end & fall in love with the repentent guy no matter how justififed she had been.
Ashok Kumar
Helen, Rehman
Rajendra Nath
A FILM BASED ON
WORMWOOD (London: Bentley, 1889)
1915 silent. Directed by Marshal Farnum. Scenario by Garfield Thompson. Five reels.
Charles Arthur as Silvion Guidel
Mathilde Brundage as Comtesse De Chamilles
Frank DeVernon as Comte De Chamilles
Lillian Dilworth as Heloise St. Cyr
Stephen Grattan as Cure Vaudron
Philip Hahn as Andre Gassonox
Caroline Harris as Margot
John St. Polis as Gaston Beauvais
A FILM BASED ON
THE YOUNG DIANA (London: Hutchinson, 1918)
1922 silent. Directed by Robert Vignola & Albert Capellani. Scenario by Luther Reed.
Marion Davies as Diana MayDiana, who has prematurely aged, is restored to youth by Doctor Demetrius, but she loses all passion in the process. She is crowned "Ice Princess" at the winter carnival in Montreaux, her heart is sad & weary. When she encounters Lord Cleeve, the man she once loved, she can no longer feel.
Maclyn Arbuckle as James
Pedro de Cordoba as Dr. Demetrius
Gypsy O'Brien as Lady Anne
Forrest Stanley as Lord Cleeve
Clara Kimball Young.
MISCELLANEOUS
In 1943 plans were afoot to film both Barabbas & The Life Everlasting which were still at that time selling very well in popular cheap editions. But no such films were completed.
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