The Witness for the Defense (1919

1919 in film

The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 5 - Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists...

) is a silent

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 drama directed by George Fitzmaurice

George Fitzmaurice

George Fitzmaurice was a film director and producer. Fitzmaurice's career first started as a set designer on stage...

 and starring Elsie Ferguson

Elsie Ferguson

Elsie Louise Ferguson was an American stage and film actress.-Early life:Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Benson Ferguson, a successful attorney...

, Warner Oland

Warner Oland

Warner Oland was a Swedish American actor most remembered for his screen role as the detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:He was born Johan Verner Ölund in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality,...

, and Wyndham Standing

Wyndham Standing

Wyndham Standing was an English film actor. He appeared in 131 films between 1915 and 1948. A popular and much beloved leading man in the silent film era, he starred and costarred along many famous names of the day, both men and women. He and Ronald Colman were the stars of the now lost classic...

.

Production background

The film is based on a novel by A. E. W. Mason. Mason's story was performed as a play on Broadway in 1911 and starred Ethel Barrymore

Ethel Barrymore

Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...

.

The film is the earliest of prolific director George Fitzmaurice's to survive and is likewise the only silent film of Elsie Ferguson that remains extant. The film is also the first feature length art direction credit for William Cameron Menzies

William Cameron Menzies

William Cameron Menzies was an Academy Award-winning American film production designer and art director who also worked as a director, producer, and screenwriter during a career spanning five decades...

.

Cast

• Elsie Ferguson
  Elsie Ferguson
  Elsie Louise Ferguson was an American stage and film actress.-Early life:Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Benson Ferguson, a successful attorney...
  
   - Stella Derrick
• Vernon Steele - Dick Hazelwood
• Warner Oland
  Warner Oland
  Warner Oland was a Swedish American actor most remembered for his screen role as the detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:He was born Johan Verner Ölund in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality,...
  
   - Captain Ballantyne
• Wyndham Standing
  Wyndham Standing
  Wyndham Standing was an English film actor. He appeared in 131 films between 1915 and 1948. A popular and much beloved leading man in the silent film era, he starred and costarred along many famous names of the day, both men and women. He and Ronald Colman were the stars of the now lost classic...
  
   - Henry Thresk
• George Fitzgerald - Wigney Derrick
• J. H. Gilmour - Harold Hazelwood
• Amelia Summerville
  Amelia Summerville
  Amelia Summerville , born Amelia Shaw, was an-Irish-born American stage and silent film actress.Summerville was born in County Kildare, Ireland and migrated to Toronto, Canada as a child....
  
   - Margaret Pettifer
• Cora Williams - Teresa Derrick
• Blanche Standing - Mary Derrick
• Leslie King - Baram Singh
• Charles W. Charles - Gardner
• Mrs. Bryant - Gardner's Wife
• Etienne Girardot
  Etienne Girardot
  Etienne Girardot was a diminutive stage and film actor of Anglo-French parentage born in London, England....
  
  - Richard Pettifer
• Henry Warwick - Lawyer

External links

• The Witness for the Defense at IMDb.com
• The Witness for the Defense as restored and presented by the University of North Dakota(with stills and clips from the movie)
• Elsie Ferguson and Wyndham Standing in a scene from the movie, Univ of Washington, Sayre Collection
• synopsis; AllMovie The Witness for the Defense