''Exile'' 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-g ...

directed by Maurice Tourneur and written by Charles E. Whittaker based upon the 1916

Dolf Wyllarde Dorothy Margarette Selby Lowndes, writing as Dolf Wyllarde (3 April 1871 - 10 May 1950) was a British journalist and a writer of verse and fiction. From 1897 to 1939, she was known to publish in excess of 30 books, including novels, stories and ...

novel. The film stars

Olga Petrova Olga Petrova (born Muriel Harding; 10 May 1884 – 30 November 1977) was a British-American actress, screenwriter and playwright. Life and career Born Muriel Harding in England, she moved to the United States and became a star of vaudeville u ...

Wyndham Standing Charles Wyndham Standing''Silent Film Necrology'', 2nd Edition by Eugene Michael Vazzana, c. 2001 page 497 (23 August 1880 – 1 February 1963) was an English film actor. Early years Standing was born in London, England and died in Los An ...

Mahlon Hamilton Mahlon Preston Hamilton, Jr. (June 15, 1880 – June 20, 1960), was an American stage and screen actor. He was the son of a bartender born in Baltimore, Maryland, the eldest of four children, with the rest of the siblings being girls. Census ...

Warren Cook Warren Cook (May 23, 1878 – May 2, 1939) was an American film actor of the silent era. Cook was born in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1901, he appeared in '' The Shaughraun'' at the Castle Square Theatre in Boston. He was part of the stock ...

, Charles Martin, and Violet Reed. The film was released in September 1917, by

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 ...

. It is not known whether the film currently survives, which suggests that it is a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

Plot

As described in a film magazine, American engineer Richmond Harvey is working for the betterment of Exile, a Portuguese colony. Vincento Perez, as chief justice, holds the power of life and death over thousands of Arabs. Perez desires to obtain a letter he has written Harvey, which, if published, would mean the ruin of Perez. He sends his wife Claudia to Harvey's quarters, where she intimates that she is in love with him. They have a sumptuous dinner and sit far into the night talking. Finally she retires, handing Harvey the key to her room. He tells her that he will not take advantage of the situation, and in the morning hands her the letter. She gives it to her husband and leaves him. The Arabs arise against Perez and kill him. Harvey saves Claudia's life by snatching her from a veranda surrounded by angry Arabs and they ride off together.

Cast

as Claudia Perez *

as Vincento Perez *

as Richmond Harvey *

as The Governor of Exile *Charles Martin as Manuel D'Alfrache *Violet Reed

Reception

Like many American films of the time, ''Exile'' was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors issued an Adults Only permit for the film. The Board then cut, in Reel 2, the

intertitle In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...

s "Offer him anything — understand, anything", "Offer him anything", "I am authorized to offer anything", and "We must have it at any price", and two debauchery scenes; in Reel 3, a closeup of Claudia placing key to her room on table before ascending stairs and the intertitles "That was the bargain, wasn't it", "My love for you is too sincere to permit of any act reflecting on your honor", and "Are you absolutely stone? Does the sacrifice mean nothing to you?"; and in Reel 4, the intertitles "What did you pay for it?", "You lost any right you might have had", and "your brutality has cost you my love", and the closeup of Perez strangling Claudia as she is lying on a stone.

References

External links

* * Wyllarde, Dolf (1916),
Exile, An Outpost of Empire
', New York: John Lane Co., on the Internet Archive {{Maurice Tourneur 1917 films 1910s English-language films Silent American drama films 1917 drama films Paramount Pictures films Films directed by Maurice Tourneur American black-and-white films American silent feature films 1910s American films