Cinema
The White Slave
Den hvide slavehandel
August Blom · 1910
Synopsis
Anna, the daughter of a poor but respectable family, dreams of a better life when her father brings her an advertisement: a large London house is looking for a lady's companion. She leaves, and on arrival discovers that she has been sold to a brothel, where she defends herself with all her strength against the first client. A letter reaches her parents; her fiancé, Georg, leaves for London, does not know where to look for her in the big city and hires a private detective.
Context
The film is a plagiarism, and the fact is established. The small firm Fotorama, of Aarhus, had released in the spring of 1910 a melodrama of the same title in three reels, the longest then produced in Denmark. Nordisk shot a nearly identical copy, shot for shot, and released it on 2 August; Fotorama threatened a lawsuit and campaigned in the press before an amicable settlement. Of the original only fragments survive, while Nordisk's copy is preserved.
Who it is for
A silent film with intertitles, of a duration given as between twenty and forty-five minutes depending on the sources and the copies. Know before seeing it that it reproduces almost exactly a film released four months earlier.
Prizes and reception
Sold in one hundred and three copies, a record for Nordisk, and the film after which the firm, the first in the world, bet on the feature film.
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