Suspense
1913 · 10m · USA
Directed by Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley
Genres: drama, horror, thriller
Tones: tense
A young mother is left alone with her baby when her servant abruptly quits, attracting the attention of a menacing tramp who breaks into the house. Her husband, reached by telephone, steals a car and races home in a desperate chase sequence.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
1913, three-way split screen, woman directs the entire chase sequence — Lois Weber invented the visual grammar everyone else got famous using. Mandatory viewing.
Lois Weber's three-way split screen in 1913 is foundational cinema syntax; programming it is less choice than obligation when surveying the history of suspense construction. The restoration suggests good preservation context.
117K views on the restored print, and the three-way split screen Weber pioneered in 1913 is still doing the actual dramatic work — simultaneous action in a domestic thriller. The fact that her name became the talking point shouldn't obscure that the technical innovation is the entire reason this still plays.
Reviews
While the plot was a bit tired even in 1913 and the villain overplays his menace, we are still left with a powerful and stylish film; one of the best-looking available productions of 1913.
Weber's ability to inject a mother's logical 'I'm suddenly alone and isolated' point of view as to priorities safeguarding herself and her child is perfect. Suspense would put Weber in the same aesthetic level with Griffith.