The Unwritten Law: A Thrilling Drama Based on the Thaw-White Tragedy
March. 02,1907Dramatization of the real-life shooting of Stanford White by Harry K. Thaw.
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Save your money for something good and enjoyable
I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Stanford White was a leading New York City architect at the start of the 20th century. His firm, McKim, Mead & White designed many beautiful Beaux Arts building, some of which still survive. His occasional mistress, Evelyn Nesbitt, married a Pittsburgh millionaire named Harry Thaw, who shot and killed White in jealousy, kicking off a murder trial that the yellow press of the time dubbed "The Murder of the Century." Thaw's lawyer argued "the unwritten law" and temporary insanity. After one hung jury, the second jury acquitted Thaw.Meanwhile Miss Nesbitt became a celebrity, appearing on the stage and in this movie, which uses several props from what was alleged about her relationship with White. It's not a great movie -- Lubin's studio, while always first-rate in terms of photography, was very conservative in terms of film grammar and this salacious short offers little in the way of interesting smut. Its main interest lies in its air of tabloid sensationalism, and after more than a century, it's as obscure as current TV tabloid shows will be in a century. I hope.