The Sealed Room is an eleven minute film released in 1909

1909 in film

The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*Matsunosuke Onoe, who would become the first superstar of Japanese cinema, appears in his first film, Goban Tadanobu.*James Joyce opens the Volta, the first cinema in Dublin....

. Directed by D.W. Griffith, the film's cast included Arthur V. Johnson

Arthur V. Johnson

Arthur V. Johnson was a pioneer actor and director of American silent films.Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Arthur Vaughen Johnson began as a film actor with the Edison Studios in The Bronx, New York in 1905 in the one-reel drama "The White Caps" directed by Wallace McCutcheon, Sr. and Edwin S. Porter...

, Marion Leonard

Marion Leonard

Marion Leonard was an American stage actress who became one of first motion picture celebrities in the early years of the silent film era. -Early career:...

, Henry B. Walthall

Henry B. Walthall

Henry Brazeale Walthall was an American film actor.-Career:Walthall began his career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway in a supporting role in William Vaughn Moody's The Great Divide in 1906–1908. His career in movies began in 1908, in the film Rescued from an Eagle's Nest, which also...

, Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

, and Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...

. The film was also known as The Sealed Door.

Plot

Suggested by Balzac's "La Grande Bretèche", the king constructs a cozy, windowless love-nest for himself and his concubine. However, she is not faithful to her sovereign, but consorts with the court troubadour. In fact, they use the king's new play chamber for their trysts. When the king discovers this, he sends for his masons. With the faithless duo still inside, the masons use stone and mortar to quietly seal the only door to the vault. The two lovers suffocate and the film ends.

External links

• Free download at http://www.archive.org/details/TheSealedRoom_418