User Reviews

I feel no need to recapitulate the plot of Ibsen's most famous play, so I'll write about how Edwin Thanhouser's staff converted it from one of Ibsen's dramas of revelation about the past, into one in which we see the past in chronological order. In fact, those scenes take up about two-thirds of this one-reel adaptation, showing us Nora's growth from a secret macaroon eater into a woman who is ready to stand on her own two feet.

Thanhouser had come from the stage, and so the positioning of actors, and the sets are of prime importance. This being a purely visual medium, the relations and changes are indicated by appearances. This Nora's father literally gives her to Torvald, joining their hands. When Nora hides in her room to do the work to repay the loan, she shows delight at her secret. And so forth.

Of course, without that long and final confrontation between Nora and Torvald, the heart of the drama is cut out. Still, given the tools at his disposal, Thankhouser produced a pretty good version.

Possibly the screen's first version of the Henrik Ibsen play, this 1911 movie was made by Thanhauser. It's an absorbing enough plot in it's own right, but the film captures nothing of the message within Ibsen's work. The name of the actress who plays the central figure is unknown, but she's very good, as is William Russell in the part of the loan agent from whom she dishonestly obtains a loan during a time of crisis.