The Woman Suffers
Clip 1: ‘And so it came to pass’
2 min 45 sec
Taken from the feature The Woman Suffers (1918)
Original title classification not known – this clip chosen to be G
Availability of the complete title
Please note: this clip is silent
Curator’s clip description
Ralph Manton (Roland Conway) has taken shelter at Kooringa Station after the road to Melbourne has been blocked by flood. Ralph takes a shine to Joan Stockdale (Evelyn Black), only daughter of the owners of Kooringa, and she to him. Joan takes a photograph of him and surprises Ralph with a locket, containing both their pictures. Ralph professes love to the young woman and they kiss by the river.
Curator’s notes
Silent films were often tinted with different colours to signify different locations or times, or emotions. The NFSA reconstruction by Marilyn Dooley has attempted to re-create some of these colours throughout.
In this clip, the interiors are a pale golden colour, which becomes blue by the riverbank. Longford makes good use of locations – we see the river twice in the clip, both times with Joan on the banks, a foreshadowing perhaps of her own fate a few scenes later, when she throws herself in the water to commit suicide, after Ralph has abandoned her.
Paul Byrnes, curator
