The Unwritten Law (1907 film)

The Unwritten Law: A Thrilling Drama Based on the Thaw-White Tragedy
Produced by Siegmund Lubin
Production
company
Lubin Manufacturing Company
Release dates
1907
Running time
12 min.
Country USA

The Unwritten Law: A Thrilling Drama Based on the Thaw-White Case is a 1907 film produced by the Lubin Manufacturing Company, based on the true crime story of Henry Kendall Thaw's murder of Stanford White over his involvement with model and actress Evelyn Nesbit. Produced and released concurrently with Thaw's trial, its depiction of a recent sexual scandal led to widespread controversy, becoming "the first film in the United States to be widely construed as 'scandalous.'"[1]

Plot

The plot closely follows Nesbit's own testimony regarding White's seduction and assault, followed by a scene of the murder and Thaw's imprisonment in New York prison The Tombs. Finally, the film shows Thaw's acquittal, though in reality, he had not yet been acquitted at the time of the film's release.

Reception

The film was denounced in the motion picture press and banned in several cities.

References

  1. Grieveson, Lee (2004). Policing Cinema: Movies and Censorship in Early Twentieth-Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-520-23965-2.

External links

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