The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum is a three-reel film adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 short story of the same name, directed, and produced by pioneering French filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché through her American company Solax Studios in 1913. Plot Using Alice Guy-Blachè's adapted screenplay from the Edgar Allan Poe short story, Alice built upon the lucid and dream-like piece of fiction by adding a significant amount of narrative structure to her adapted screenplay. Rather than having unexplained pain and trauma inflicted upon the film's protagonist, Guy built a narrative surrounding the Spanish Inquisition and the film's protagonist fear. The first reel begins with a young and pretty girl named Isabelle (played by Blanche Cornwall) sitting upon a hill. It is then that she is attacked by Pedro (played by Fraunie Fraunholz). And following the common thematic trajectory of the time, Isabelle is then rescued by the kind and brave medical student who spends his time as a minister for the poor, Alonzo (played by Darwin Karr). Pedro is insistent on revenge and applies to the local monastery where Alonzo works in order to frame him. He hopes to frame him for the mysterious and sudden disappearance of the church's jewels. The frame ends immediately after Pedro plants the jewels in Alonzo's home and the monks are quick to punish Alonzo and Isabelle. Cast Darwin Karr as Alonzo Fraunie Fraunholz as Pedro - the Inquisator [[Blanche Cornwall [[Joseph Levering