LOST 35mm Silent Nitrate Film Fragment. The Spreading Dawn, 21 October 1917, Jane Cowl, Goldwyn

Another fun offering here. A fragment of lost 35mm nitrate film from the Silent Era. This time it’s from the American Drama film titled The Spreading Dawn, released on 21 October 1917. This film features the Broadway actress Jane Cowl in her second, and final, silent film (where she plays the part of Patricia). Also featured in this film is Orme Caldara, Harry Spingler, Florence Billings, Henry Stephenson, Alice Chapin, Helen Blair, Cecil Owen, Mabel Ballin, Edmund Lowe and Edith McAlpin. The film was directed by Laurence Trimble and produced by Samuel Goldwyn of Goldwyn Pictures. The film synopsis is as follows, based on a review by the Exhibitors Herald in 1917: Georgina Vanderpyl (Ballin) loves Captain Lewis Nugent (Lowe), but her aunt Patricia (Cowl) will not allow her to marry, and as proof of her reasons she gives Georgina her journal to read. The story as told in the journal is how happy Patricia is when she meets Anthony Vanderpyl (Caldara). They are married, but shortly thereafter Anthony is called away to war. He comes home on a furlough and after a brief visit leaves. Patricia does not understand this sudden departure, and then Mr. LeRoy (Stephenson) tells her that Anthony is with his wife Cornelia (Billings). When Anthony returns, LeRoy shoots Anthony and Patricia believes the worst of him. Dying, Anthony writes a letter to his wife, but Patricia has never opened it. Georgina coaxes her to read it, and when Patricia does, she discovers her late husband’s innocence. Asking his forgiveness, she goes to meet him in the spreading dawn. This small fragment, running just shy of a minute and a half, is one of only two surviving fragments of this film (with the other being a piece of the third reel and is in the Library of Congress archive), originally 5 reels in length, which was about an hour. So though this tiny fragment is a precious survivor of this film, it is still not much at all, which is a fate shared by many films from the silent era. Still, fragments are better than nothing, and even this tantalising piece is fun and well worth the time to watch. This particular fragment came with a bunch of other silent film rolls, along with a projector, from Chelmsford, England, which had been stored in an attic for decades and only recently got cleared out. Hope you enjoy this small piece of formerly lost film history, now back on the silver screen for the first time in over a century :) Oh, and once again a huge thank you to my mate Robbie at RM Film. Cheers bro.