This short 10 minute film is notable for its innovative production in a number of ways - its three-way split screens, downward camera angles, use of reflections, a shot filmed from one of two cars during a chase, and a couple of cutouts (a keyhole and a mask to show illumination from just a triangle of light). It's also notable for being written, co-directed, and starred in by woman film pioneer Lois Weber, who doesn't seem as well-known as she should be. In this film she and her first husband Phillips Smalley (who also directs) certainly understood what true suspense was, with the audience knowing there is a key under the door mat which the tramp is bound to find, and a mother home alone with her baby. Sam Kaufman is sinister and menacing as the tramp, and the tight shot on his face that goes out of focus as he steps by the camera up the stairs is a good one. The scene where starts breaking down the bedroom door is also a forerunner of The Phantom Carriage (1921) and The Shining (1980). And, whether or not that's actually an early Lon Chaney standing in the road and getting hit by a car, it's a dramatic moment. It's a shame this wasn't longer, but I'm rounding my review score up a bit anyway because of how well made it was for 1913, and because dammit Lois Weber was rounded down her whole life, and by history.
Review of Suspense
