''Regeneration'' (alternately called '' The Regeneration'') is a 1915 American silent

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

co-written and directed by

Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent cinema actor George Walsh. He wa ...

. The film, which was the first full-length feature film directed by Walsh, stars

Rockliffe Fellowes Rockliffe St Patrick Fellowes (17 March 1884 – 28 January 1950), was a Canadian actor born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He starred in films such as ''Regeneration (1915 film), Regeneration'' and ''Monkey Business (1931 film), Monkey Busin ...

and

Anna Q. Nilsson Anna Quirentia Nilsson (March 30, 1888 – February 11, 1974) was a Swedish-American actress who achieved success in American silent movies. Early life Nilsson was born in Ystad, Sweden in 1888. Her middle name Quirentia is derived from her date ...

and was adapted for the screen by Carl Harbaugh and Walsh from the 1903 memoir ''My Mamie Rose'', by Owen Frawley Kildare and the adapted 1908 play by Kildare and Walter Hackett. It was feared lost until a copy was located by the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Plot

Cited as one of the first full-length

gangster film A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform certain illegal acts. The ...

s, ''Regeneration'' tells the story of a poor orphan who rises to control the mob until he meets a woman for whom he wants to change. The film is a "candid adaptation" of the autobiography of Owen Frawley Kildare, called the Kipling of the Bowery. The story follows the life of Owen (Rockliffe Fellowes), a young

Irish American Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry. Irish immigration to the United States From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...

boy who is forced into a life of poverty after his mother dies. As a result, Owen is forced to live on the street eventually turning to a life of crime. Owen is eventually reformed, however, by the benevolent social worker Marie Deering (Anna Q. Nilsson). Also featured is a fire aboard an excursion ferry, much like the General Slocum disaster of 1904. Deering's choices perplex her beau, a district attorney (Harbaugh) who has declared war on the gangs.

Cast

– Owen Conway * James A. Marcus – Jim Conway *

– Marie "Mamie Rose" Deering * Maggie Weston – Maggie Conway * William Sheer – Skinny * Carl Harbaugh – District Attorney Ames * John McCann – Owen Conway (10 years old) *

Harry McCoy Harry McCoy (December 10, 1893 – September 1, 1937) was an American film actor and screenwriter. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1912 and 1935. Early years McCoy was born on December 10, 1893, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ...

– Owen Conway (17 years old)

Production

Set in New York City, ''Regeneration'' was shot on location in New York City's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

and used real

prostitutes Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-p ...

, gangsters and

homeless people Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

as extras. It is the first produced by

Fox Film Corporation The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American independent company that produced motion pictures and was formed in 1914 by the theater "chain" pioneer William Fox (producer), William Fox. It was the corporate successor to ...

, a forerunner of the

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

. By 1915, 28-year-old director Raoul Walsh was in New York, with a three-picture contract with Fox Film Corporation for $400 a week - he was assigned ''Regeneration'', to be the first feature-length gangster film in the United States. It was based on the book ''My Mamie Rose''. Walsh's statement that he wrote the script was contradicted by other comments he made that he worked on it with Carl Harbaugh. Walsh had previously played

John Wilkes Booth John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, assassinated United States president Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the p ...

in ''

The Birth of a Nation ''The Birth of a Nation'' is a 1915 American Silent film, silent Epic film, epic Drama (film and television), drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and ...

'', and this was his first directing project on a feature, with him going on to film 140 other feature films. When he filmed the scene with actors jumping off a boat into the river, fireboats and police showed up to calm the "crowds", and Walsh was taken to the local station house, amused. The studio "relished" the free publicity. French cinematographer Georges Benoit worked on the film as his first Fox picture.

Release

''Regeneration'' was originally released on September 13, 1915, to critical acclaim and was a box office hit. It was re-released to theaters on January 12, 1919. The release was "rife with the dramatic elements that pleased broad audiences of early cinema - violence and redemption, heavy sentiment, romance and tragedy". It opened to critical and box-office success. William Fox was so pleased, he bought Walsh a Simplex automobile and afforded him a salary of $800 a week, a small fortune in 1915. It cemented his reputation as an action director, although critics noted had "had a gift for revealing emotional vulnerability in even his roughest, toughest heroes."

Home media

In 2001, ''Regeneration'' was released on Region 1 DVD by

Image Entertainment RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 34 ...

, along with the 1915 film ''

Young Romance ''Young Romance'' is a romantic comic book series created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for the Crestwood Publications imprint (trade name), imprint Prize Comics in 1947 in comics, 1947. Generally considered the first Romance comics in the United ...

''. The same two-film set was released on manufactured-on-demand DVD by Image Entertainment in 2012. The film is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

Legacy

''Regeneration'' was previously thought to be lost but was rediscovered in the 1970s. A copy of the film is preserved and held by the Museum of Modern Art Department of Film and the Film Preservation Associates. TimeOut wrote that "intriguingly, its eventful plotline is revealed as flatly contradicting the accepted synoptic account provided by Walsh in his autobiography. There the eventual fates of Nilsson and Fellowes are reversed, and an ending is transposed from another film entirely." ''The Guardian'' says "it's a milestone in the history of the gangster film, and with its religious themes, mobile camerawork, and potent evocation of its grim locations, it's the spiritual ancestor of

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...

's '' Mean Streets''." '' Time Out'' says it is notable for its "remarkable approach to physical casting, a robust treatment of violent action, and a sheer narrative pace to shame contemporary ponderousness." In 2000, ''Regeneration'' was selected for preservation in the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

by 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 ...

as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

References

External links

* *''Regeneration'' essa

by Marilyn Ann Moss at

* *
glass slide for the 1919 rerelease version
*''Regeneration'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 46–4
The entire film on Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Regeneration (1915 Film) 1915 films 1915 crime drama films 1915 romantic drama films 1910s American films 1910s biographical drama films 1910s English-language films 1910s rediscovered films American biographical drama films American black-and-white films American crime drama films American films based on actual events American films based on plays American gangster films American romantic drama films American silent feature films Articles containing video clips Crime drama films based on actual events English-language biographical drama films English-language crime drama films English-language romantic drama films Films about orphans Films based on adaptations Films based on biographies Films directed by Raoul Walsh Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City Fox Film films Irish-American mass media Rediscovered American films Romantic crime films Romantic drama films based on actual events Silent American crime drama films Silent American romantic drama films Surviving American silent films United States National Film Registry films Films based on works by Walter Hackett