While New York Sleeps

While New York Sleeps is a 1920 American crime drama film produced by Fox Film Corporation and directed by Charles Brabin, who was the husband of actress Theda Bara. The film tells three distinct episodic stories using the same actors, Estelle Taylor and Marc McDermott. Long thought to be a lost film like many other Fox Film productions from this period, a copy of this movie is now in the collection of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.[1]

For the 1938 film of the same name, see While New York Sleeps (1938 film).

While New York Sleeps
A poster from a newspaper.
Directed byCharles Brabin
Written byCharles Brabin
Thomas Fallon
Produced byWilliam Fox
Fox Film company
CinematographyGeorge W. Lane
Bennie Miggins
Distributed byFox Film Corporation
Release date
  • September 1920 (1920-09)
Running time
8 reels at 7,516 ft.
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Plot

As described in a film magazine,[2][3] in the first story a suburban wife (Taylor) has married a wealthy man (Locke) in the belief that her first husband (McDermott), a cad, had been killed. While the second husband is away, her first husband appears and demands money for his silence. A struggle ensues after a burglar (Southern) enters the home to rob it, and the burglar shoots the first husband. The wife, hearing her second husband arriving in his car, takes the revolver in her hand as the burglar escapes, telling her second husband that she shot a burglar (the body of her first husband). The second episode is a recital of the badger game with the vamp (Taylor), the man (McDermott), and his friend (Southern), and includes a scene depicting the Frolic at Ziegfeld Follies. The third episode involves a tragedy that takes place in New York's Lower East Side.

Cast
  • Estelle Taylor as A Wife / The Vamp / The Girl
  • William Locke as Her husband
  • Marc McDermott as Strange Visitor / The Man / The Paralytic
  • Harry Southern as Burglar / Friend / His Son
  • Earl Metcalfe as The Gangster

Reception

According to author Aubrey Solomon, this film was Fox's biggest moneymaker for the year 1920 with a profit of $192,000.[4] While this would seem to conflict with the enormous success of Fox's Over the Hill to the Poorhouse (1920), the latter film did not achieve its largest rentals until it went into full release in 1921.[5]

References
  1. Progressive Silent Film List: While New York Sleeps at silentera.com
  2. "An Innovation Is Promised in While New York Sleeps: Big Special to Be Issued in September - Night Life in Metropolis Is Depicted in Picture Directed by Brabin". Exhibitors Herald. New York City: Exhibitors Herald Company. 11 (7): 97. August 14, 1920.
  3. "Reviews: While New York Sleeps". Exhibitors Herald. Exhibitors Herald Company. 11 (7): 101. August 14, 1920.
  4. Solomon, Aubrey (2011). The Fox Film Corporation, 1915-1935: A History and Filmography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. pp. 48, 265. ISBN 978-0-7864-6286-5.
  5. Solomon, p. 54.
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