The Witch is a lost 1916 American silent drama film directed by Frank Powell, produced by Fox Film Corporation, and starring Nance O'Neil, Alfred Hickman, and Frank Russell. Based on the 1903 play La Sorcière (The Sorceress) by French dramatist Victorien Sardou, this adaptation portrayed the challenges facing a young woman living in a territory in Mexico wracked by military and social unrest. It was filmed at Fox's studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where a Mexican village was constructed on the company's backlot and used as the principal set for outdoor scenes.

The Library of Congress includes the film among the National Film Preservation Board's updated 2019 list of "7,200 Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films" produced between 1912 and 1929."7,200 Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films (1912-29) National Film Preservation Board", running updated list (current as of October 23, 2019), "Witch, The (1916), Frank Powell", p. 153, film number 7016. National Film Preservation Board, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Retrieved December 23, 2019."The Witch / Frank Powell [motion picture]", "American Silent Feature Film: Database From the report 'The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912-1929'", Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Retrieved January 13, 2020.

Plot With its storyline set in early twentieth-century Mexico, this lost film portrayed the plight of Zora Fernandez (Nance O'Neil), a beautiful and exotic woman who becomes entangled in a love affair and is persecuted by local officials following an armed uprising. Her father, Dr. Fernandez (Frank Russell), is a physician and also a general who leads an insurrection against General Mendoza (Alfred Hickman), the military governor of the surrounding territory. The doctor and his forces are defeated, and he dies in battle. The victorious Mendoza now resents Zora for her past indifference to his romantic advances and suspects she may try to oppose his authority as well. The governor is concerned too about Zora's reputation as a sorceress, most notably for her abilities to cast spells and concoct miraculous potions. In reality, her father, as a medical doctor, had taught her hypnosis and how to treat various illnesses. Those abilities, however, are viewed by most of the residents in her village as supernatural and forms of witchcraft.

To isolate the "witch", Governor Mendoza forces Zora to leave her village and then issues a proclamation warning citizens that any women who associate with her will be imprisoned for life; men who do so will be immediately hung. Zora, despite being ostracized, continues to help the rural poor and sick by dispensing herbal medicines and using her "magical mental power".Graves, George W. (1916). "The Witch", review, Motography, March 26, 1916, p. 713. Internet Archive. Retrieved January 2, 2020. When Mendoza's daughter Dolores (Jane Miller) begins to suffer from being "addicted to walking in her sleep", her attending nurse secretly sends for the witch to come cure her. Zora slips into the governor's palace with the help of the nurse and then uses her "mastery of hypnosis" to cure the young woman. Returning to her "secluded abode" outside the village, Zora now meets Lieutenant Riques, a prominent official's son. They fall in love, although she is unaware that the handsome soldier is engaged to marry Dolores.

Zora later learns of Riques' impending marriage, becomes angry, and quietly goes back to the governor's palace the night before the wedding on the pretext of checking on her patient. Using hypnosis again, Zora puts Dolores into a trance from which "she will never wake unless at the call of her power."Judson, Hanford C. (1916). "'The Witch'", review, The Moving Picture World, March 18, 1916, pp. 1845-1846. Internet Archive. Retrieved January 5, 2020. Acquaintances of Zora and Riques now betray the clandestine lovers and reveal their affair. The couple are arrested and tried, but Zora saves Riques from hanging by assuming all the blame and lying that she had captured his heart by casting a spell on him, one that he could not resist. Zora is then convicted, sentenced to death for witchcraft, and carried away by a mob to be burned at the stake. Zora is about to be executed when Dolores's nurse rushes in to inform the governor that his daughter is in a deep sleep at his palace, cannot be awakened, and only Zora can save her. When offered her freedom in exchange for releasing Dolores from her coma-like condition, Zora agrees and awakens the governor's daughter. Mendoza then banishes the witch forever from the region.

Cast

Production The film's 1916 copyright registration (LP7713) confirms that director and "scenarist" Frank Powell based his script on Victorien Sardou's play La Sorcière, which had premiered in Paris at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt on December 15, 1903."The Witch (1916)", American Film Institute (AFI), Los Angeles, California. Retrieved December 21, 2019."Sardou Play Triumphs: 'La sorcière' and Sarah Bernhardt Accorded a Great Ovation in Paris", The New York Times, December 16, 1903, p. 8. ProQuest Historical Newspapers (subscribed reference service), Ann Arbor, Michigan. The original plot of Sardou's play, as presented in Paris, was set in sixteenth-century Toledo, Spain, with the sorceress "Zorraya" portrayed as being of Moorish ancestry. For his film adaptation, Powell made numerous changes to the French dramatist's plot, such as relocating the story to Mexico, advancing its time setting to the early 1900s, simplifying the spelling of Zorroya's name to "Zora", and portraying her as a Mexican native.

Casting

Powell's casting of Nance O'Neil in the title role was viewed by the media and by film studios as a wise and somewhat expected choice given O'Neil's acting reputation as "America's Sarah Bernhardt" and her previous experience portraying Zorraya in stage productions of La Sorcière."Nance O'Neil in 'Witch' at Lamara", Arizona Republican (Phoenix), March 20, 1916, p. 10. ProQuest. The respected American playwright and stage director David Belasco declared O'Neil at the time of the film's production to be "the greatest of America's emotional actresses"."'Sin' Scheduled for First Fox One-a-Week", Motion Picture News, August 7, 1915, p. 46. Internet Archive. Retrieved January 4, 2020. The Arizona Republican was one of many newspapers and trade publications in 1916 that expressed interest in seeing her perform the role on screen rather than on stage: Stuart Holmes was one of many cast members in The Witch whose role is not clearly identified in published production updates or in reviews. The March 6, 1916 issue of the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky does at least provide some information about the scope of Holmes' part. In a profile of the film under "At The Theaters", the newspaper reports, "Stuart Holmes, picturesque in Mexican costuming, has a small part to which he gives distinction by riding a horse as if he and the horse were one.""At The Theaters/ 'The Witch'", Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), March 6, 1916, p. 4. ProQuest.

For his film's battle sequences, crowd scenes, and to populate the production's large Mexican-village set, Powell hired and costumed hundreds of extras or "supernumones". The director promised to pay each of them "a sandwich at noon and a dollar at night" ($1 then now worth $) for a day's work at Fox's studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey."Police Hold Fox Extras In 'Witch' Scene As Oil Rioters", Motion Picture News, August 7, 1915, p. 66. Internet Archive. Retrieved December 23, 2019. In early August 1915, Motion Picture News reported that New Jersey police had detained and questioned "three hundred or more extras" for The Witch as they disembarked from a New York ferry at Fort Lee to proceed to the studio. The officers, according to the weekly journal, mistook the "mob" to be part of the thousands of employees who that summer were waging a violent strike against a Standard Oil Company plant in Bayonne."MILITIA TO QUELL BAYONNE RIOTERS; 1 DEAD, MANY HURT: Two Regiments Await Order to Subdue Strikers at Standard Oil's Plant...", The New York Times, July 22, 1915, p. 1. ProQuest. After causing a near "riot" for delaying the extras, the police finally allowed them to continue to Fox to earn their sandwiches and dollars.

Filming and set design

Other than a week to ten days filming in and around Gilboa, NY (June 16-26, 1915), the entire production was filmed in Fort Lee at Fox's facilities located near the intersection of Main Street and Linwood Avenue.Wander, Erik. "From the Archives: Theda Bara Rock, Fox Studio Back Lot, Main Street and Linwood Avenue, Circa 1915", Arts and Entertainment, Patch, Patch Media, Inc., New York City. Retrieved December 23, 2019. Rather than going on location, traveling from New Jersey to Mexico with a large company of actors, crew, and other support personnel, Powell in the early months of 1915 had decided to send his scenic designer, J. Alan Turner, to Mexico to locate, photograph, and sketch the architecture, attire, and daily activities in a "typical village" there. Then, on his return to Fort Lee, Turner supervised the construction on Fox studio's backlot a 10-acre set with full-size replicas of the Mexican buildings he had documented in San José in Sonora."Fox Builds Mexican 'Set' Faithful to All Traditions", Motion Picture News, July 24, 1915, p. 53. Internet Archive. Retrieved April 4, 2020. The trade journal Motion Picture News regularly updated its readers on the production's development, noting that Powell spent more than $10,000 ($ today) on the Mexican set. "The village", it reported, "is the result of the joint efforts of Mr. Powell himself, J. Alan Turner, who is known as a builder of expositions, and William Bach, the technical director of the Fox studios"."'The Witch' Based on Sardou's 'Sorceress', Is Next Fox Medium for Nance O'Neil", Motion Picture News, July 31, 1915, p. 68. Internet Archive. Retrieved January 4, 2020.

The film's battle sequences and other outdoor scenes were shot in Fort Lee between late June and early August 1915, over six months prior to the five-reeler's release.In its "Film Flashes" news section, Variety (New York, N.Y.) announces on August 6, 1915 (page 16), "Frank Powell has completed the new Nance O'Neil release 'The Witch.'" Retrieved January 13, 2020. It is likely that Powell chose New Jersey's summer months to film in order to present on screen a landscape that most theater audiences in 1916 would view as a generally plausible setting for Mexico. Impressed by the sheer scale of the production, The Arizona Republican remarked that Powell "spared no time or expense" in developing his project, noting that "Villages were built, forests were blown up with dynamite, great battle scenes were put on...and months were consumed in rehearsals and filming the various scenes."

Release and promotion