The Copperhead is a 1920 American silent historical drama film based on a novel by Frederick Landis and the 1918 play by Augustus Thomas adapted from it. The star of this film is Lionel Barrymore who won acclaim in the play version on Broadway, and who appeared in the play and this film with his first wife Doris Rankin.Progressive Silent Film List: The Copperhead at silentera.comThe American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1911-20 by The American Film Institute, c.1988The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: The Copperhead A print of this film has been screened in recent years.
Plot At the beginning of the American Civil War Milt Shanks, who owns a farm in Illinois, is asked by President Abraham Lincoln to join the Copperheads, a clandestine quasi-political organization whose sentiments lie with the South. His family and friends unknowing of his mission call him a traitor.
His son later dies in a Civil War battle and his wife dies of heartbreak over the son's death. Shanks spends decades keeping silent about his involvement with the Copperheads until his granddaughter prepares to marry and he's forced to come clean about being involved in a secret Civil War Mission. With this understanding friends and family forgive him.
Cast
Lionel Barrymore as Milt Shanks William P. Carleton as Lt. Tom Hardy Francis Joyner as Newt Gillespie (billed as Frank Joyner) Richard Carlyle as Lem Tollard Arthur Rankin as Joey Leslie Stowe as Brother Andrew Nicholas Schroell as Abraham Lincoln William David as Tom Hardy Harry Bartlett as Dr. James Jack Ridgeway as Theodore Roosevelt Mayor N.M. Cartmell as Captain Mercer Doris Rankin as Mrs. Shanks Carolyn Lee as Grandma Perley Anne Cornwall as Madeline Francis Haldorn as Elsie
Preservation The film survives. It is available on DVD from at least one online source.
See also List of films and television shows about the American Civil War Lionel Barrymore filmography
References
External links
lantern slide/coming attraction; "The Copperhead" w/Lionel Barrymore from Italian-Wikipedia, Lionel Barrymore in the 1918 play The Copperhead