A young Irish boy has fallen in love with a poor girl and wants to marry her, but his mother will stop at nothing, including murder, to see that he marries his rich cousin.A young Irish boy has fallen in love with a poor girl and wants to marry her, but his mother will stop at nothing, including murder, to see that he marries his rich cousin.A young Irish boy has fallen in love with a poor girl and wants to marry her, but his mother will stop at nothing, including murder, to see that he marries his rich cousin.
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBefore this film, multi-reel films were exhibited in different days.
"Motography" (October, 1911 pp.186) from Library of Congress: October 16 is the release date, all three reels being put on the market at the same time. In this respect Kalem is following the lead of several other of the manufacturers. It is a good idea, this thing of releasing all of a several-reel subject on the same date instead of on successive dates. It enables the maker to get out better advertising matter and to place it more judiciously, while the exhibitor may run the different parts on succeeding nights, if he chooses, or he may show them as an entire program and feature it in his ' own advertising. No matter which way is preferable, the exhibitor is given a choice, which is always a good thing.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Century of Cinema: Ourselves Alone? (1995)
Featured review
Inauthentic
I saw this on the Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers set, but it (or perhaps a slightly longer, or more-slowly projected print) may also be streamed at the Irish Film Institute's website.
At three reels, "The Colleen Bawn" is an early longer film, with title cards that even divide it into five parts. Based on a play, which in turn was based on a true-crime novel, it's a primitive and melodramatic piece of transitional filmmaking. The play must've remained popular at the time, as apparently it was also adapted in an Australian film the same year. The main draw of this UK/US version from the Kalem studio is that it was shot on location in Ireland. Lest one forget that, the title cards constantly remind us that the scenes were photographed where the real-life murder melodrama unfolded, or somewhere like it, or supposedly exact recreations of the places. The result is more of a dry tourist brochure or museum tour than a movie.
These multi-reel longer films and features of the early 1910s are a chore to get through. The same tableau style, or "Illustrated Title" as fellow IMDb reviewer Bob Lipton puts it, of title cards (as opposed to intertitle dialogue) announcing proceeding shot-scenes, the stuffy period-piece costume melodrama, lack of interesting editing, camerawork or even mise-en-scene that may be tolerable in a one-reel short becomes exhausting the longer it goes on and on. At least, this adaptation wasn't nailed to the proscenium arc of a stage, nor feature the broadest of theatrical acting, as with some others of the time, e.g. "Queen Elizabeth" (1912). We do see some outdoor scenery and the depth of field and naturalism that provides. A couple shots are relatively well framed by foregrounded foliage or a cave. There's even a bit of continuity cutting for some of the action.
The actual murder melodrama is quite dull as depicted here, including the addition of a typically ridiculous Hollywood ending even before Hollywood was really a thing, and one may read about the case elsewhere, including in this heavily-titled film that is to be largely read instead of seen. Also of note is that it's included on the Pioneers set because star Gene Gauntier later claimed to be a co-director of it and other Kalem productions she starred in. The other director here was Sidney Olcott, who among making other films I'm not fond of, also oversaw the early feature-length passion play "From the Manger to the Cross" (1912), for which the main, non-biblical selling point was also that it was shot on location. If only they'd known how to take advantage of their globetrotting in visually appealing ways.
At three reels, "The Colleen Bawn" is an early longer film, with title cards that even divide it into five parts. Based on a play, which in turn was based on a true-crime novel, it's a primitive and melodramatic piece of transitional filmmaking. The play must've remained popular at the time, as apparently it was also adapted in an Australian film the same year. The main draw of this UK/US version from the Kalem studio is that it was shot on location in Ireland. Lest one forget that, the title cards constantly remind us that the scenes were photographed where the real-life murder melodrama unfolded, or somewhere like it, or supposedly exact recreations of the places. The result is more of a dry tourist brochure or museum tour than a movie.
These multi-reel longer films and features of the early 1910s are a chore to get through. The same tableau style, or "Illustrated Title" as fellow IMDb reviewer Bob Lipton puts it, of title cards (as opposed to intertitle dialogue) announcing proceeding shot-scenes, the stuffy period-piece costume melodrama, lack of interesting editing, camerawork or even mise-en-scene that may be tolerable in a one-reel short becomes exhausting the longer it goes on and on. At least, this adaptation wasn't nailed to the proscenium arc of a stage, nor feature the broadest of theatrical acting, as with some others of the time, e.g. "Queen Elizabeth" (1912). We do see some outdoor scenery and the depth of field and naturalism that provides. A couple shots are relatively well framed by foregrounded foliage or a cave. There's even a bit of continuity cutting for some of the action.
The actual murder melodrama is quite dull as depicted here, including the addition of a typically ridiculous Hollywood ending even before Hollywood was really a thing, and one may read about the case elsewhere, including in this heavily-titled film that is to be largely read instead of seen. Also of note is that it's included on the Pioneers set because star Gene Gauntier later claimed to be a co-director of it and other Kalem productions she starred in. The other director here was Sidney Olcott, who among making other films I'm not fond of, also oversaw the early feature-length passion play "From the Manger to the Cross" (1912), for which the main, non-biblical selling point was also that it was shot on location. If only they'd known how to take advantage of their globetrotting in visually appealing ways.
helpful•20
- Cineanalyst
- Mar 11, 2021
Details
- Runtime36 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content