Marguerite Bertsch (December 14, 1889 – 1967) was an American screenwriter and film director who worked in the early days of film. Her 1917 text ''How to Write for Moving Pictures: A Manual of Instruction and Information'' reflected and influenced the screenwriters of the era.Somerville, Siobhan B. (2002). "The Queer Career of Jim Crow: Racial and Sexual Transformation in A Florida Enchantment." In Bean, Jennifer M.; Negra, Diane. ''A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema.'' Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 256-257. . In the early days of film it was not uncommon for "scenario writers" to be women and she was among those who, beginning in 1916, also directed films.Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood by Karen Ward Mahar, pgs 182-183
/ref> However, she would later be called one of the "forgotten women" of

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

as the non-acting women of early film largely became obscure. Prints of two films that Bertsch had worked on as a screenwriter were rediscovered in the Netherlands, at the Nederlands Filmmuseum. These newly discovered films, ''The Diver'' and ''The Troublesome Step-Daughter'', and the 1914 film '' A Florida Enchantment,'' are currently the only films from Bertsch's career that have been recovered. The rest are presumed to be lost.

Career

Bertsch began her film career with Vitagraph in 1913, starting as a scenario writer. In 1916, she became the head of the screenwriting department, and began working as a director for the company. Her first directorial output was the 1916 film ''The Law Decides'', which she directed with

William P.S. Earle William Pitt Striker Earle (December 28, 1882 – November 30, 1972) was an American director of the silent film era. He attended Columbia University and worked for a time as a photographer before breaking into the movie business by sneaking o ...

. Several months later, she directed her first solo feature, ''The Devil's Prize''. This was considered to be an unusual film for a woman director and writer, as it was a "tangled tale of illegitimate pregnancy, abandonment, and murder. She also may have worked as an editor and screenwriter for the Famous Players Film Company, but the dates for this work are unknown. For reasons that are unknown, Bertsch stopped working for the Vitagraph company in 1918, when she was considered to be at the height of her career. There is no record of any film work by her after this point.

Early life

Bertsch was born in New York City, and was educated at Columbia University. She worked as a playwright and a public school teacher before beginning her career as a screenwriter with Vitagraph Studios in 1913. Very little is known about Bertsch's life outside of her career, but it has been suggested that she was a supporter of the Social Reform movement. In ''How To Write For Moving Pictures'', she argued against writing "anything that might stir up in

he audience He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

vulgar feelings or sexual thoughts." The film historian Siobhan B. Somerville has argued that Vitagraph's adaptation of the novel ''A Florida Enchantment'', for which Bertsch was the lead screenwriter, reflects this ideology. A number of overtly sexual scenes from the book were cut, as well as scenes dealing with racial issues. This may also be due to the Vitagraph's interest in making "respectable" films. The historian R. Bruce Basell further argues that Bertsch's screenplay for the film shows an opposition to the women's emancipation movement, as it suggests that there will be societal chaos if emancipation is achieved. There is very little public information about her life between 1918, when she left Vitagraph, and 1967, when she is believed to have died. Census records from the states of New York and New Jersey suggest that between 1930 and 1941, she was living with various family members and may have been working as a freelance writer.

Selected filmography

''Writing and Directing'' * ''The Law Decides (''1916) * ''The Devil's Prize (''1916) * '' The Glory of Yolanda (''1917'')'' * ''The Soul Master'' (1917'')''

References

External links

Marguerite Bertsch
at Women Film Pioneers Project *
findagrave.com
*https://www.facebook.com/Marguerite-Bertsch-screen-writer-producer-director-1107409075947230/?ref=bookmarks photos from her personal scrap book, and personal press book. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bertsch, Marguerite Film directors from New York City American women film directors American women screenwriters Silent film directors 1889 births 1967 deaths Women film pioneers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American screenwriters