Madame Butterfly (1915 film)

Madame Butterfly is a 1915 silent film directed by Sidney Olcott. The film is based on the 1898 short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long and the opera Madama Butterfly.

Madame Butterfly
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Sidney Olcott
Written by	John Luther Long (story)
Produced by	Daniel Frohman Adolph Zukor
Starring	Mary Pickford
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	November 7, 1915
Running time	61 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	Silent film English intertitles

Production

Reportedly, leading actress Mary Pickford fought constantly with Sidney Olcott about the character. Olcott wanted Pickford to be more reserved and thought she was "too Americanized to play a Japanese".[1]

Plot

The film takes place in Japan in 1904. Lieutenant Pinkerton (Marshall Neilan) marries Cho-Cho-San 'Butterfly' (Mary Pickford), a 15-year-old Japanese geisha. Cho-Cho-San is lucky with her new husband and takes the marriage very seriously. Pinkterton, however, regards it as entertainment. He is not in love with her and plans to break off the wedding in a month. The American Consul (William T. Carleton) begs him to break off the wedding as soon as possible, to avoid hurting her feelings. The lieutenant laughs him off.

After Pinkerton forces Cho-Cho-San to end their wedding reception early, her disapproving family disowns her. When Pinkerton is ordered to return to America, he promises Cho-Cho-San he will return before he leaves. Three years go by. Cho-Cho-San, now a mother, still believes Pinkerton will return someday, while he is engaged to an American woman. He sends her a letter to announce he will marry another woman, but Cho-Cho-San can't read.

Meanwhile, The Prince of Japan (David Burton) takes interest in Cho-Cho-San, but she refuses his company and claims she is still waiting for her husband. Sometime later, Pinkerton returns to Japan but he hands the American Consul some money as compensation for Cho-Cho-San and leaves again. When Cho-Cho-San comes to ask about her husband, she runs into Pinkerton's new American wife. The American woman asks Cho-Cho-San to give them her child, as he will be given better opportunities and prosperity under their parenting. Cho-Cho-San is crushed but complies and hands over her child. She kills herself in the final scene by walking into a river and drowning.

Cast

Mary Pickford - Cho-Cho-San
Marshall Neilan - Lieutenant Pinkerton
Olive West - Suzuki
Jane Hall - Adelaide
Lawrence Wood - Cho-Cho-San's father
Caroline Harris - Cho-Cho-San's mother
M.W. Rale - The Nakodo
William T. Carleton - The American Consul
David Burton - The Prince
Cesare Gravina - The Soothsayer
Frank Dekum - Naval officer

DVD release

Madame Butterfly was released on Region 0 DVD-R by Alpha Video on July 7, 2015.[2]

References

Review on The New York Times
"Alpha Video - Madame Butterfly (1915) (Silent)". Retrieved 2015-06-26.

External links

Madame Butterfly at IMDb
Madame Butterfly stats at silentera.com
(in French) Madame Butterfly website dedicated to Sidney Olcott

Films directed by Sidney Olcott
1907	A Runaway Sleighbelle (1907) The Dog Snatcher (1907) Bowser's House Cleaning (1907) The Gentleman Farmer (1907) A Hobo Hero (1907) The Pony Express (1907) The New Hired Girl (1907) The Tenderfoot (1907) Off for the Day (1907) The Sea Wolf (1907) The Parson's Picnic (1907) The Book Agent (1907) A One Night Stand (1907) Who'll Do The Washing (1907) Peggy's Camping Party (1907) The Wooing of Miles Standish (1907) Nature Fakirs (1907) The Amateur Detective (1907) The Red Man's Way (1907) Chinese Slave Smuggling (1907) The Spring Gun (1907) Nathan Hale (1907) The Goldbrick (1907) It Was Mother-in-Law (1907) The Rival Motorists (1907) Bill Butt-in and the Burglar (1907) Troubles of a Tramp (1907) The Lost Mine (1907) Woman Cruel Woman (1907) A Dramatic Rhearsal (1907) School Days (1907) Ben Hur (1907)
1908	Days of '61 (1908) Back to Farm (1908) Mountainers (1908) Dogs of Fashion (1908) Quack Doctors (1908) Under the Star Splanged Banner (1908) Evangeline (1908) The Stowanay (1908) College Days (1908) The Banan'Man (1908) Henry Hudson (1908) Way Down East (1908) Washington at Valley Forge (1908) The Scarlet Letter (1908) Captain Kid (1908) The Moonshiner's Daughter (1908) Night Riders (1908) The Under Dog (1908) Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1908) Kidnapped for Hate (1908) Dolly the Circus Queen (1908) The White Squaw Man (1908) The Man Hunt (1908) Enoch Arden (1908) Lady Audley's Secret (1908) Held by Bandits (1908) The Little Madcap (1908) Mrs Gunness, the Female Bluebeard (1908) Dynamite Man (1908) [The Renegade (1908) The New Hired Girl (1908) A Gipsy Girl's Love (1908) The Walls of Sing Sing (1908) The Girl Nihilist (1908) Robin Hood (1908) The Frontiersman's Bride (1908) As You Like It (1908) The Great Yellowstone Park Hold Up (1908) The Old Sleuth Detective (1908) The Padrone (1908) The Mystery of the Bride in White (1908) The Girl I Left Behind Me (1908) Caught in the Web (1908) The Half Breed (1908) Jerusalem in the Time of Christ (1908) David and Goliath (1908) Fire at Sea (1908) Humpty Dumpty Circus (1908) The Railroad Detective (1908) Hannah Dustin (1908) A Ragged Hero (1908) Maggie, the Dock Rat (1908) For Love of Country (1908) The Molly Maguires (1908) Red Cloud (1908) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1908)
1909	The Trail of the White Man (1909) A Florida Feud (1909) The Girl at the Old Mill (1909) The Octoroon (1909) The Detectives of the Italian Bureau (1909) The High Diver (1909) Sporting Days in the South (1909) The Making of a Champion Pugilist (1909) The New Minister (1909) The Old Soldier's Story (1909) The Seminomle's Vengeance (1909) The Crackers Bride (1909) Hungry Hank's Hallucination (1909) The Mysterious Double (1909) The Fish Pirates (1909) The Orange Grower's Daughter (1909) The Northern Schoolmaster (1909) The Artist and the Girl (1909) Love's Triumph (1909) Good for Evil (1909) The Girl Spy: An Incident of the Civil War (1909) A Poor Wife's Devotion (1909) A Pig in a Poke (1909) A Child of the Sea (1909) The Omnibus Taxiclub (1909) $5000 Reward (1909) The Little Angel of Roaring Springs (1909) The Mystic Swing (1909) A Priest of the Wilderness (1909) Mardi Gras in Havana (1909) The Japanese Invasion (1909) Famine in the Forest (1909) A Soldier of US Army (1909) The Escape from Andersonville (1909) The Tom-Boy (1909) Tickle Mary (1909) Factory Girl]] (1909) Traced by Kodak (1909) Out of Work (1909) The Queen of the Quarry (1909) The Conspirators - An Incident of a South American Revolution (1909) The Pay Car (1909) Hiram's Bride (1909) The Story of a Rose (1909) Winning a Diner (1909) The Winning Boat (1909) The Mystery of Sleeper Trunk (1909) The Hand Organ Man (1909) The Man and the Girl (1909) A Brother's Wrong (1909) The Girl Scout (1909) The Cattle Thieves (1909) Dora (1909) Pale Face's Wooing (1909) The Governor's Daughter (1909) Judgement (1909) The Geisha Who Saved Japan (1909) Rally 'Round the Flag (1909) The Law of the Mountains (1909) The Card Board Baby (1909) A Slave to Drink (1909)
1910	The Deacon's Daughter (1910) The Romance of a Trained Nurse (1910) The Man Who Lost (1910) The Step-Mother (1910) The Confederate Spy (1910) The Feud (1910) The Fisherman's Granddaughter (1910) The Miser's Child (1910) The Girl Thief (1910) Her Soldier Sweetheart (1910) The Seminole's Trust (1910) The Girl and the Bandit (1910) The Further Adventures of the Girl Spy (1910) The Old Fiddler (1910) The Forager (1910) The Bravest Girl of the South (1910) The Sacred Turquoise of the Zuni (1910) The Love Romance of the Girl Spy (1910) The Egret Hunter (1910) Between Love and Duty (1910) The Aztec Sacrifice (1910) The Seminole Halfbreeds (1910) The Cliff Dwellers (1910) Friends (1910) The Castaways (1910) The Wanderers (1910) The Navajo's Bride (1910) The Miner's Sacrifice (1910) Grandmother (1910) A Daughter of Dixie (1910) A Colonial Belle (1910) The Perversity of Fate (1910) The Cow Puncher's Sweetheart (1910) Leap for Life (1910) The Conspiracy of Pontiac (1910) The Heart of Edna Leslie (1910) The Way of Life (1910) The Lad from Old Ireland (1910) Seth's Temptation (1910) The Little Spreewald Maiden (1910) When Lovers Part (1910) The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg (1910) The Stranger (1910)
1911	For the Love of an Enemy (1911) The Secret of the Still (1911) Her Chum's Brother (1911) The Little Sister (1911) Grandmother's War Story (1911) The Open Road (1911) Sailor Jack's Reformation (1911) The Irish Honeymoon (1911) The Diver (1911) A War Time Escape (1911) A Sawmill Hero (1911) The Lass Who Couldn't Forget (1911) By a Woman's Wit (1911) In Old Florida (1911) The Fiddle's Requiem (1911) When the Dead Return (1911) The Carnival (1911) In Blossom Time (1911) Tangled Lives (1911) The Railroad Raiders of '62 (1911) The Little Soldier of '64 (1911) To the Aid of Stonewall Jackson (1911) Hubby's Day at Home (1911) The Colonel's Son (1911) The Romance of a Dixie Belle (1911) Special Messenger (1911) Rory O'More (1911) Losing to Win (1911) The Colleen Bawn (1911) The Fishermaid of Ballydavid (1911) Among the Irish Fisher Folk (1911) The Franciscan Friars of Killarney (1911) Arrah-na-Pogue (1911)
1912	Driving Home the Cows (1912) A Southern Boy of '61 (1912) The O'Neill (1912) His Mother (1912) The O'Kalems Visit Killarney (1912) The Vagabonds (1912) Far From Erin's Isle (1912) You Remember Ellen (1912) A Visit to Madeira (1912) The Kalemites Visit Gibraltar (1912) Along the Mediterranean (1912) The Potters of the Nile (1912) American Tourists Abroad (1912) Egypt the Mysterious (1912) Egypt as it Was in the Time of Moses (1912) The Fighting Dervishes of the Desert (1912) Luxor Egypt (1912) Missionaries in Darkest Africa (1912) Making Photoplays in Egypt (1912) A Pet of the Cairo Zoo (1912) An Arabian Tragedy (1912) Captured by Bedouins (1912) Tragedy of the Desert (1912) Winning a Widow (1912) Egyptian Sports (1912) A Prisoner of the Harem (1912) Easter Celebration at Jerusalem (1912) Palestine (1912) From Jerusalem to the Dead Sea (1912) Down Through the Ages (1912) The Ancient Port of Jaffa (1912) Along the River Nile (1912) Ancient Temples of Egypt (1912) The Poacher's Pardon (1912) From the Manger To the Cross (1912) The Kerry Gow (1912) The Mayor From Ireland (1912) Conway, the Kerry Dancer (1912) Ireland, the Oppressed (1912) The Shaughraun (1912)
1913–1916	The Wives of Jamestown (1913) The Lady Peggy's Escape (1913) A Daughter of the Confederacy (1913) The Mystery of Pine Creek Camp (1913) When Men Hate (1913) In the Power of the Hypnotist (1913) In the Clutches of the Ku Klux Klan (1913) For Ireland's Sake (1914) Come Back to Erin (1914) When Men Would Kill (1914) In the Hands of a Brute (1914) The Eye of the Government (1914) A Mother of Men (1914) The Idle Rich (1914) Tricking the Government (1914) The Little Rebel (1914) The Moth and the Flame (1915) All for Old Ireland (1915) Bold Emmett Ireland's Martyr (1915) The Seven Sisters (1915) The Irish in America (1915) Nan O' the Backwoods (1915) Madame Butterfly (1915) The Ghost of Twisted Oaks (1915) The Taint (1915) Poor Little Peppina (1916) My Lady Incog (1916) Diplomacy (1916) The Innocent Lie (1916) The Smugglers (1916) The Daughter of MacGregor (1916)
1918–1927	The Belgian (1918) Marriage for Convenience (1919) Scratch My Back (1920) The Right Way (1921) God's Country and the Law (1921) Pardon My French (1921) Timothy's Quest (1922) The Green Goddess (1923) Little Old New York (1923) The Humming Bird (1924) Monsieur Beaucaire (1924) The Only Woman (1924) Salome of the Tenements (1925) The Charmer (1925) Not So Long Ago (1925) The Best People (1925) The White Black Sheep (1926) Ranson's Folly (1926) The Amateur Gentleman (1926) The Claw (1927)

Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly
Commons Audio
Films	Madame Butterfly (1915) Harakiri (1919 film) Le ménage moderne de Madame Butterfly (1920) The Toll of the Sea (1922) Madame Butterfly (1932) Madame Butterfly (1954) M. Butterfly (1993)
Source	"Madame Butterfly" (1898 short story) Madame Butterfly (1900 play) Madame Chrysanthème (1887 novel)
Stage	M. Butterfly (1988 play) Miss Saigon (1989 musical)
Music	"Un bel dì, vedremo" (aria) Madama Butterfly discography
Related	Madame Chrysanthème (1901 opera) El pecado de Oyuki (1975 comic) El pecado de Oyuki (1988 telenovela) Pinkerton (1996 album)

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