Michael Strogoff (1914)
Released 19th October 1914
In May 1914, Siegmund Lubin, founder of the Lubin Manufacturing Company, returned from a tour of Europe with his wife, daughters and grandchildren. The 63-year-old had every reason to believe his future was bright. During his absence, Ira Lowry, his son-in-law and general manager, had opened the Betzwood studio on land Lubin had purchased from Philadelphia brewer John Betz. It formed the hub of Lubin’s movie empire, which included production facilities in Florida and California, and more than tripled the company’s processing capacity. His future looked assured – and yet two years later Lubin would be bankrupt and his empire just a memory.
In the early summer, a fearsome sight greeted visitors to the Schuylkill River: a section of the river was ablaze. Through the smoke and flames, they could spy desperate passengers on a raft seeking safe passage through the inferno. Lubin’s technicians’ assurances that they had staged the fire for a scene in the studio’s latest feature, an adaptation of Jules Verne's popular novel, Michael Strogoff, swiftly dispelled their concerns.
The studio’s adaptation of Jules Verne’s popular novel, Michael Strogoff, was the first production from the newly formed Popular Plays and Players Company. Harry J. Cohen and George Cook, associates of Lubin’s from the New York theatre, had formed the enterprise to produce feature-length films. The company was one of a number seeking to emulate the success of Adolph Zukor’s Famous Plays and Players. Michael Strogoff was the first of a two-picture deal in which the company would pay Lubin’s production and processing costs. Filming began after the mogul’s return from Europe. Lubin signed Jacob Adler, the 59-year-old “Lion of the Yiddish Theatre” who had played the part on stage, to play the title role. Ormi Hawley, the fourth biggest box office draw of 1913 (and 34 years younger than Adler), played his love interest. Since joining Lubin in 1911, Hawley, known as ‘opulent Ormi’, had become one of his most popular stars.
Filming was complete by June 1914. The only significant problem during the shoot was Adler’s difficulty adapting his stage performance for the screen. In a period when actors mimed their thoughts and words, Adler mouthed his lines to the camera, driving both his director and fellow cast members crazy.
On the 13th of June, shortly after 10am, disaster struck. An enormous explosion ripped through the east side of the Lubinville studios in Philadelphia. A fire spread, igniting millions of feet of film stock. Lubin lost its catalogue of films dating back to the company’s inception in a matter of hours. The emotional and financial cost was devastating to him.
Fortunately, a print of Michael Strogoff survived, and Lubin released the film in October 1914. Popular Plays and Players promoted the film heavily, but it met with indifference from audiences and disdain from critics. Adler, the paunchy star of stage whose first film it was, received the bulk of the criticism for his habit of speaking lines to the camera. As Adler spoke all his lines in Yiddish, his performance frustrated all but Jewish lip readers. The critic for the Moving Picture World singled out one other performer for criticism, however. “The man who played the part of the Grand Duke was at a loss what to do with himself most of the time,” he complained, which must have been especially disappointing for Lloyd B. Carleton, the film’s director, as he was also the actor who played the Grand Duke!
The print that exists today lasts only 46 minutes. Severe decomposition of some sections makes it difficult to draw any meaningful impression of its merits. From what remains, it’s difficult to believe many moviegoers would want to see famous players in such a poor production, no matter how popular they were.
It begins with Adler recreating many of his famous stage roles before embarking on a story revolving around a Tartar rebellion in Russia during the 1870s. Strogoff, a messenger for the Czar, must overcome many hardships on his mission to warn of the impending rebellion to the Grand Duke. He is aided by the beautiful Nadia Fedorova (Hawley), the daughter of an exile in Siberia. It is clear Lubin intended Michael Strogoff to be a prestige production, but Carleton’s direction is perfunctory at best, and feels primitive for 1914. The only close-up is a throwback to the shot of actors the earliest filmmakers inserted at the end of a short. The burning river scene is particularly disappointing, with the raft gliding past a modest conflagration on the opposite side of the river. Similarly, palm trees are visible in the footage of a genuine Florida fire that is supposed to be Moscow in the film.
After filming Michael Strogoff, Adler, the father of famed drama teacher Stella Adler, beat a hasty retreat to the stage. He would never make another picture. Hawley would continue in movies for a further five years but would never again enjoy the popularity she attained in 1913. A gifted musician and auto mechanic, she retired to devote her time to painting portraits and writing children’s stories.
The devastating fire at Lubinville left the studio in dire financial peril. Lubin had been unable to obtain fire insurance because of the notorious volatility of nitrate film stock. The loss was valued at $500,000, and the cost to repair the damage wrought by the fire was $10,000. To add to his problems, Lubin had invested heavily in producing feature-length movies, using his own and borrowed money. Legal fees incurred by the Motion Picture Patents Company had also depleted his reserves.
He might have survived had another catastrophe beyond his control not occurred in Sarajevo on 28th June. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand during a state visit to Serbia triggered the Great War. The conflict prompted the closure of many European distribution offices – a vital source of income for Lubin. War drove up the price of chemicals used in processing films. The increased production costs, the move into producing feature films, and reduced overseas distribution combined to send Lubin spiralling into ever-deeper debt. His studios in Los Angeles and Coronado closed in May 1916, and production at Betzwood virtually ground to a halt. Lubin’s health declined, forcing him to recuperate at his daughter’s home in Atlantic City. In mid-August, the creditors seized control and demoted Lubin to vice president, but he was never again involved in producing movies.