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The Bells
(1913) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by Oscar Apfel
Cast: Edward P. Sullivan [Mathias], Irving Cummings [Christian], Gertrude Robinson [Annette], George Siegmann [Walter], Wilbur Hudson [Hans], James Ashley [the mesmerist], Irving Lewis [the Polish Jew], Sue Balfour [Katherine], Margery Wheeler [Sozel], Irene Howley
Reliance Motion Picture Corporation production; distributed by Mutual Film Corporation. / Scenario by Forrest Halsey, from the play adaptation Le Juif polonais by Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrain of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Released 19 February 1913. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The play was previously filmed as The Bells (1911). The play was subsequently filmed as The Bells (1918).
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Mathias, an innkeeper, receives notice that his rent is due, and that if it is not paid at once, his tavern will be taken from him. In the midst of a terrible snowstorm, a Jew arrives in his sleigh. While paying his bill, he displays to Mathias’ eyes a bag of gold. This sets him to thinking how much he needs that money. The Jew gets up at night and has his sleigh taken from the barn. He must be off to town, and starts with all the bells of his sleigh ringing. This awakens Mathias. He slowly gets out of bed and follows the Jew through the snow. Creeping up behind the sleigh he murders the Jew. He feels safe for no one has seen him leave the house, but through the fifteen years that follow he never sees a golden coin without hearing the sleigh bells as they rang on the night of December 24th, when he murdered the Jew in his sleigh. Mathias has a daughter, Annette, who becomes engaged to Christian, a young soldier. Mathias leaves his inn to purchase Christmas presents in a neighboring town. While there he attends a show given in the town hall, by a noted hypnotist, La Voir. This man makes announcement that by hypnotism he can make any subject tell the things that weigh upon his conscience. Feigning illness, Mathias at once leaves the hall. After he returns to his inn. La Voir visits his town and puts up at Mathias’ place. He proves to be a friend of Christian, who makes him acquainted with the family. Unable to stand the man’s searching gaze. Mathias goes to his room and falls asleep. He dreams that he is on trial for murdering the Jew. When he denies all knowledge of the crime, the Judge calls in La Voir, who by power of his art makes Mathias tell what he did on the night of December 24th, 1818. Under La Voir’s influence, Mathias tells the entire story and goes over the ground of the murder step by step. He tells of the falling snow, his many visions of the dead Jew and the unending ringing of the bells. He then dreams that he is condemned to be hanged and when he feels the rope about his neck, choking him, he wakens to stagger out into the hall. But the dream has been too much for the already conscience burdened man, and clutching at his throat, he falls dead before his daughter and her fiancé who have come to call him.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 1 March 1913, page ?] A powerful presentation, in two reels, of the drama played by Sir Henry Irving so many years. Edward P. Sullivan gives us a forceful impersonation of Mathias, the murderer of the Polish Jew. Fifteen years after the crime, committed on the night of a great blizzard, we see him haunted by the jingling sleigh bells. He dreams that he is tried and sentenced to hang for the murder and the great fear of the rope about his neck brings on his death. The scenes are dramatic and consistent and the atmosphere of the whole is effective. Irving Cummings plays Christian and Gertrude Robinson, Annette. A powerful offering.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 5 February 2024.
References: Tarbox-Lost p. 106 : Website-IMDb.
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