The Nightingale, a drama film directed and written by Augustus Thomas in 1914, is a silent drama film, which Alco Film Corporation released. Ethel Barrymore makes her acting debut in this feature film, which Thomas wrote specifically for her. Thomas, famed as a Broadway playwright, was the best friend of Barrymore's father Maurice, and had known the actress since she was a child.[1] As with many of Barrymore's films to come, the advertising for this film says the film is told in 'acts' as with a stage play, an effort to remind the audience of the star's status and preference for the legitimate stage. This film was long thought to be lost.[2][3][4][5]
The story of this film is similar to Clyde Fitch's 1901 play Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, in which Barrymore became a star playing an Italian opera singer. Fitch had died in 1909, and Charles Frohman, Barrymore's theatrical employer, owned the rights to Captain Jinks.Augustus Thomas, a Barrymore family friend and author, fashioned a similar story for Barrymore, enticing her to make a film with material she was familiar with. This was common practice in the silent era to make a write-around story for popular works for which screen rights could not be obtained.
A screen version of Fitch's Captain Jinks was later made with Ann Murdock.
References
↑ Great Times, Good Times: The Odyssey of Maurice Barrymore, Doubleday Press, c.1977 by James Kotsilibas Davis
↑ The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1911-20 by The American Film Institute, c. 1988
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