Thwarted by his despotic uncle from continuing his love affair, a young man's thoughts turn dark as he dwells on ways to deal with his uncle. Becoming convinced that murder is merely a natural part of life, he kills his uncle and hides the body. However, the man's conscience awakens; paranoia sets in and nightmarish visions begin to haunt him.
Direction
Griffith's pioneering double exposure nightmares still terrify.
Cinematography
Shadowy interiors that invented visual dread.
Acting
Walthall's trembling guilt without a single spoken word.
Director
D.W. Griffith
Henry B. Walthall
The Nephew
Spottiswoode Aitken
The Uncle
Blanche Sweet
The Sweetheart
George Siegmann
The Italian
Ralph Lewis
The Detective
Mae Marsh
The Maid
Robert Harron
The Grocery Boy
George Beranger
Donald Crisp
Josephine Crowell
The Sweetheart's Mother (uncredited)
Walter Long
The Detective (uncredited)
Wallace Reid
The Doctor (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Griffith shot this immediately after Birth of a Nation, pivoting from epic racism to intimate guilt—same techniques, wildly different target.
The film adapts Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' AND 'Annabel Lee' while stealing from Dante's Inferno for its hell sequence—literary respect in an era of original screenplays.
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