''False Colors'', also known as ''False Colours'', is a surviving 1914 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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed, written by and starring

Lois Weber Florence Lois Weber (June 13, 1879 – November 13, 1939) was an American silent film director, screenwriter, producer and actress. She is identified in some historical references as among "the most important and prolific film directors in the e ...

and her husband

Phillips Smalley Wendell Phillips Smalley (August 7, 1865 – May 2, 1939) was an American silent film director and actor. Biography Born in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York, he was the grandson of Wendell Phillips; he was the son of George Washburn Smalle ...

. Weber plays dual roles of a mother and her daughter.

Cast

as Mrs. Moore / Her daughter Flo *

as Lloyd Phillips *Dixie Carr as Dixie Phillips *

Adele Farrington Adele Farrington (1867 - 19 December 1936) was an American actress of the stage and the silent film era. Biography Born in Brooklyn, New York, Farrington had the lead in ''This Is the Life'' (1915) for the American Film Company. She also did he ...

as Mrs. Hughes, housekeeper *Charles Marriott as Butler (Mr. Hughes) *

Courtenay Foote Courtenay Foote (22 November 1878 – 4 May 1925) was an English stage and silent film actor. Born in Yorkshire, England, Foote attended Oxford, studied engineering in Germany, and worked as a civil engineer in Scotland. Friends who heard ...

as Bert Hughes, son of Butler and Housekeeper * Herbert Standing as Marc Herbert

Production

Double exposures are used in the film to indicate transitions in scenes where Lloyd dreams of his dead wife, played by Weber, followed by the entrance of the daughter Flo, also played by Weber. Later, after his affection has shifted to his daughter, he sees Flo's image superimposed over a picture of his wife.

Preservation status

A partial print of ''False Colors'' consisting of two

reels A reel is a tool used to store elongated and flexible objects (e.g. yarns/ cords, ribbons, cables, hoses, etc.) by wrapping the material around a cylindrical core known as a '' spool''. Many reels also have flanges (known as the ''rims'') arou ...

is preserved in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

collection.Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: ''False Colours''
/ref>

References

External links

* *David Boardwell (2017)
Observations on Film Art: Anybody But Griffith
15 stills in lower half of article 1914 films Paramount Pictures films American black-and-white films Silent American drama short films 1914 drama films 1910s American films 1910s English-language films 1914 short films English-language drama short films {{1910s-short-drama-film-stub

Cast

Production

Preservation status

See also

References

External links