''The Captive'' is an American silent-era film released on April 22, 1915. It was released on five reels. The film was written, directed, edited, and produced by Cecil B. DeMille. Jesse L. Lasky was another producer and

Jeanie MacPherson Abbie Jean MacPherson (May 18, 1886 – August 26, 1946) was an American silent actress, writer, and director. MacPherson worked as a theater and film actress before becoming a screenwriter for Cecil B. DeMille. She was a pioneer for women in th ...

worked with DeMille to write the screenplay. The film is based on a play written by Cecil B. DeMille and Jeanie MacPherson. ''The Captive'' grossed over $56,000 on a budget of $12,154.

Blanche Sweet Sarah Blanche Sweet (June 18, 1896 – September 6, 1986) was an American silent film actress who began her career in the earliest days of the Hollywood motion picture film industry. Early life Born Sarah Blanche Sweet (though her first nam ...

stars as Sonia Martinovich, alongside

House Peters Robert House Peters Sr. (12 March 1880 – 7 December 1967) was a British-born American silent film actor, known to filmgoers of the era as "The Star of a Thousand Emotions". Biography Born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, Peters b ...

who stars as Mahmud Hassan. The film details the romantic war-era plight of Sonia and her lover Mahmud.

Plot

''The Captive'' chronicles the life of a young woman named Sonia Martinovitch (

) who lived during the midst of the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and def ...

. She lives close to the Turkish border on a small farm in

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = ...

with her older brother Marko Martinovich (Page Peters) and younger brother Milo (Gerald Ward). Nearby, a Turkish nobleman by the name of Mahmud Hassan (

) lives in a lavish palace. Marko is killed in the Battle of Lüleburgaz, leaving Martinovich and Milo helpless. Subsequently, Hassan is taken prisoner, and assigned to the Martinovich's farm to help with the chores Sonia is unable to complete without her brother. At first, Sonia holds Hassan captive with the use of her bullwhip and forces him to get water, bake, and plow the fields. Hassan begins to befriend young Milo to alleviate his humiliation and suffering. Gradually, Sonia warms up to him and they fall deeply in love. The war wages on, and the Ottomans recapture the village where Sonia, Hassan and Milo live. A drunken officer (

William Elmer William Elmer (April 25, 1869 – February 24, 1945) was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1913 and 1942. He was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa and died in Hollywood, California. Elmer acted in ...

) tries to force himself on Martinovich, but she refuses. Fueled by love, Hassan intervenes, despite the fact that the officer is Turkish. When the Ottoman army is driven out of the village, Hassan returns home to find that he has been stripped of his title, his land has been taken, and he has been banished from his homeland, all for thwarting the drunken officer's attack on Sonia. Meanwhile, at the farm, a pack of unruly scavengers have burned the Martinovich family's modest house, forcing them to abandon their home. The siblings meet Hassan on the road, and the lovebirds and Milo walk off to begin a new life together. Motionpicturenew112unse 0421

Cast

as Sonya Martinovich *

as Muhamud Hassan * Page Peters as Marko *

Theodore Roberts Theodore Roberts (October 8, 1861 – December 14, 1928) was an American film and stage actor. Early life Roberts was born in San Francisco, California. He was a cousin of the stage actress Florence Roberts. His choice of a career disapp ...

as The Burgomaster * Gerald Ward as Milos Martinovich *

as Milka * Marjorie Daw *

as Turkish Officer * Tex Driscoll *

Raymond Hatton Raymond William Hatton (July 7, 1887 – October 21, 1971) was an American film actor who appeared in almost 500 motion pictures. Biography Hatton was born in Red Oak, Iowa. His physician father steered him toward a career in medicine. Howev ...

as Turkish Soldier (uncredited)

Notable people

The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

The director, Cecil B. DeMille, and producer, Jesse L. Lasky, are both associated with

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and t ...

, dubbed “the world’s greatest motion picture enterprise, … orit is the organization which has ''made'' the motion picture”, its membership included President

Adolph Zukor Adolph Zukor (; hu, Zukor Adolf; January 7, 1873 – June 10, 1976) was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures.Obituary '' Variety'' (June 16, 1976), p. 76. He produced one of America' ...

, First Vice President Jesse L. Lasky, Director-General Cecil B. DeMille, Vice Presidents Frank A. Garbott and Walter E. Greene, Treasurer Arthur S. Friend, and Secretary Elek J. Ludvigh. Together, they churned out 731 feature films, and 363 single-reel shorts in conjunction with Paramount. They did this between the years of 1916 and 1919.

starred in 19 of the films produced by this organization.

Blanche Sweet

Paramount utilized Sweet's star power to lure audiences into their late-spring release. They claimed their films were just as great as

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

stage productions, yet with a never ending season. The praise from the press could partially be due to Sweet's familiarity with her co-star,

, as they worked together on another film called '' Warrens of Virginia.'' ''Warrens of Virginia'' was directed and produced by the same team. Additionally,

Motion Picture News The ''Motion Picture News'' was an American film industry trade paper published from 1913 to 1930. History The publication was created through the 1913 merger of the ''Moving Picture News'' founded in 1908 and ''The Exhibitors' Times'', founded ...

claimed that “Blanche Sweet has scored the greatest success of her entire career in the photodramatization.” The sets and scenes were described as “elaborate … ndproduced with extreme realism.” DeMille's obsession with realism backfired when an extra, Charles Chandler, was shot and killed by a gun used as a prop on set. Later on,

confessed that DeMille encouraged extras to use real bullets instead of blanks to create more realistic battle scenes. Sweet was not a fan of

DeMille DeMille or De Mille is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Agnes De Mille, American dance and choreographer * Beatrice deMille, English-born American playwright and screenwriter *Cecil B. DeMille, American film director * Constance ...

off screen. She starred in two feature films with DeMille (''The Captive'' and '' Warrens of Virginia)'' and had a negative experience during both. She described her time with DeMille as “‘... a terrible time’ ... hewas terrified of him.” Sweet felt he was strange, but DeMille spun the story to make it sound like he was the one terrified of her. Although Sweet and DeMille didn’t quite click, she had a much better experience with his brother,

William C. DeMille William Churchill deMille (July 25, 1878 – March 5, 1955), also spelled de Mille or De Mille, was an American screenwriter and film director from the silent film era through the early 1930s. He was also a noted playwright prior to moving into ...

, “who, ‘had a more subtle way of doing things.’” She worked with William on three films, '' The Ragamuffin,

The Blacklist ''The Blacklist'' is an American crime thriller television series that premiered on NBC on September 23, 2013. The show follows Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), a former U.S. Navy officer turned high-profile criminal who voluntarily s ...

, and

The Sowers ''The Sowers'' is a surviving 1916 silent film drama produced by Jesse Lasky, released through Paramount Pictures and directed by William C. deMille. The feature stars Blanche Sweet and Thomas Meighan and is based on the 1896 novel ''The Sowers' ...

.'' These films were all released in 1916. DeMille then continued on to direct 70 more films throughout his career.

Cecil B. DeMille

acted in several of Cecil B. DeMille films and "became his favorite screenwriter. “Macpherson came to the Lasky studio after being fired from

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...

for going over schedule on one of her short productions.” MacPherson and DeMille worked well together, mostly due to their love of melodrama. In this example of their work, it's apparent that ''The Captive'' was designed with the intention of reusing costumes from an earlier film called '' The Unafraid.'' Both films share the same

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...

an setting and both leading ladies fall in love with their enemies.

Preservation status

The film was thought to be

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography * Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland *Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

until it was rediscovered in 1970 in the

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Vault and later donated to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

where it is now preserved.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'', (<-book title) p.26 c.1978 by the American Film Institute

References

External links

* * *
The Captive
'' at Olive Films {{DEFAULTSORT:Captive, The 1915 films 1915 war films 1910s rediscovered films 1910s war drama films 1915 romantic drama films American silent feature films American war drama films American romantic drama films American black-and-white films American films based on plays Films directed by Cecil B. DeMille Paramount Pictures films Rediscovered American films 1910s American films Silent romantic drama films Silent war films Silent American drama films 1910s English-language films