''The Jury of Fate'' is a 1917 American silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Tod Browning Tod Browning (born Charles Albert Browning Jr.; July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962) was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of vari ...

. Mabel Taliaferro plays a brother and sister

dual role A dual role (also known as a double role) refers to one actor playing two roles in a single production. Dual roles (or a larger number of roles for an actor) may be deliberately written into a script, or may instead be a choice made during produc ...

in the film, which is set in Canada. With no prints of ''The Jury of Fate'' located in any film archives, it is a

lost film A lost film is a feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing char ...

Plot

As described in a film magazine, Henri Labordie (Tavernier) is the father of twins. Jeanne (Taliaferro) is sweet and winsome while her brother Jaques (Taliaferro), pampered by her father, is ill-tempered. When Jaques dies through his own caddishness, Jeanne, to spare her father from the shock, clips off her hair and dons boys clothing so that her father will think that it was her and not Jaques who drowned in a stream. When Labordie dies, Jeanne's deception ends when she goes to Montreal to fulfill an ancient pact, and there she finds happiness.

Cast

* William Sherwood as Donald Duncan * Mabel Taliaferro as Jaques / Jeanne * Frank Bennett as François Leblanc (credited as Frank Fisher Bennett) *

Charles Fang Charles Fang was an American actor and comedian who was active in Hollywood primarily during the silent era. He was active on Broadway from 1930 to 1935. He was known during his time as "the greatest Chinese actor in America." Biography Fang w ...

as Ching * Albert Tavernier as Henri Labordie * Bradley Barker as Louis Hebert * H. F. Webber as Duval Hebert

Reception

Like many American films of the time, ''The Jury of Fate'' was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors cut the scene showing a woman in travail prior to the birth of a baby, a closeup of a half-breed choking a man over a railing, and shortened a scene with a man on the floor showing blood.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jury of Fate, The 1917 films 1917 drama films Silent American drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Films directed by Tod Browning Lost American films Metro Pictures films 1917 lost films Lost drama films 1910s American films