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1914 American film

The Avenging Conscience
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	D. W. Griffith
Written by	D. W. Griffith
Based on	"The Tell-Tale Heart" and "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe
Produced by	D. W. Griffith
Starring	Henry B. Walthall Blanche Sweet Spottiswoode Aitken
Cinematography	G.W. Bitzer
Edited by	James Smith Rose Smith
Music by	S. L. Rothapfel
Production company	Majestic Motion Picture Company
Distributed by	Mutual Film Corporation
Release date	August 2, 1914 (1914-08-02)
Running time	78 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	Silent English intertitles

Full film

The Avenging Conscience: or "Thou Shalt Not Kill" is a 1914 silent horror film directed by D. W. Griffith. The film is based on Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" and his 1849 poem "Annabel Lee".

Plot

A young man (Henry B. Walthall) interested in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, falls in love with a beautiful woman (Blanche Sweet), but he is prevented by the uncle (Spottiswoode Aitken) that raised him since childhood from pursuing her. Tormented by visions of death and suffering and deciding that murder is the way of things, the young man kills his uncle and builds a wall to hide the body.

The young man's torment continues, this time caused by guilt over murdering his uncle that was overheard by an Italian witness, and he becomes sensitive to slight noises, like the tapping of a shoe or the crying of a bird. The ghost of his uncle begins appearing to him and, as he gradually loses his grip on reality, the police figure out what he has done and chase him down. In the ending sequence, we learn that the experience was all a dream and that his uncle is really alive. They make up, and the nephew gets to marry the sweetheart.

Cast

Henry B. Walthall as the nephew
Blanche Sweet as his sweetheart
Spottiswoode Aitken as the uncle
George Siegmann as the Italian
Ralph Lewis as the detective
Mae Marsh as the maid
Robert Harron as the grocery boy
George Beranger
Wallace Reid⁣ — the doctor

Reception

Dennis Schwartz, labeling the film with a grade of B−, labeled it as a film with important historical value as "the first great American horror film."

References

"Progressive Silent Film List: The Avenging Conscience". Silent Era. Retrieved 2008-10-30.
The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:The Avenging Conscience
"AVENGING CONSCIENCE, THE – Dennis Schwartz Reviews".

External links

The Avenging Conscience at IMDb
The Avenging Conscience is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive

v t e Films directed by D. W. Griffith
1908	The Adventures of Dollie The Fight for Freedom The Tavern Keeper's Daughter The Black Viper The Red Man and the Child Deceived Slumming Party The Bandit's Waterloo A Calamitous Elopement The Greaser's Gauntlet The Man and the Woman The Fatal Hour For Love of Gold Balked at the Altar For a Wife's Honor Betrayed by a Handprint Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court The Girl and the Outlaw Behind the Scenes The Red Girl The Heart of O'Yama Where the Breakers Roar A Smoked Husband The Stolen Jewels The Devil The Zulu's Heart Father Gets in the Game Ingomar, the Barbarian The Vaquero's Vow The Planter's Wife Romance of a Jewess The Call of the Wild Concealing a Burglar After Many Years The Pirate's Gold The Taming of the Shrew The Guerrilla The Song of the Shirt The Ingrate A Woman's Way The Clubman and the Tramp Money Mad The Valet's Wife The Feud and the Turkey The Reckoning The Test of Friendship An Awful Moment The Christmas Burglars Mr. Jones at the Ball The Helping Hand
1909	One Touch of Nature The Maniac Cook Mrs. Jones Entertains The Honor of Thieves Love Finds a Way The Sacrifice A Rural Elopement Those Boys! The Criminal Hypnotist The Fascinating Mrs. Francis Mr. Jones Has a Card Party Those Awful Hats The Welcome Burglar The Cord of Life The Girls and Daddy The Brahma Diamond Edgar Allen Poe A Wreath in Time Tragic Love The Curtain Pole His Ward's Love The Joneses Have Amateur Theatricals The Hindoo Dagger The Politician's Love Story The Golden Louis At the Altar The Prussian Spy His Wife's Mother A Fool's Revenge The Wooden Leg The Roue's Heart The Salvation Army Lass The Lure of the Gown I Did It The Voice of the Violin The Deception And a Little Child Shall Lead Them A Burglar's Mistake (lost) The Medicine Bottle Jones and His New Neighbors A Drunkard's Reformation Trying to Get Arrested The Road to the Heart A Rude Hostess Schneider's Anti-Noise Crusade A Sound Sleeper Lady Helen's Escapade Lucky Jim Jones and the Lady Book Agent Resurrection Two Memories Eloping with Auntie The Cricket on the Hearth The Violin Maker of Cremona A New Trick The Lonely Villa The Son's Return Her First Biscuits The Country Doctor The Cardinal's Conspiracy Tender Hearts The Friend of the Family The Renunciation The Mended Lute The Sealed Room The Little Darling The Hessian Renegades Comata, the Sioux Getting Even In Old Kentucky Leather Stocking Pippa Passes or The Song of Conscience Fools of Fate His Lost Love The Gibson Goddess Nursing a Viper The Death Disc: A Story of the Cromwellian Period Through the Breakers The Red Man's View A Corner in Wheat A Trap for Santa Claus In Little Italy To Save Her Soul The Day After Choosing a Husband Bill Sharkey's Last Game
1910	The Rocky Road The Woman from Mellon's The Englishman and the Girl In Old California Faithful The Two Brothers As It Is In Life A Romance of the Western Hills The Unchanging Sea Ramona In the Season of Buds A Child of the Ghetto In the Border States What the Daisy Said A Flash of Light An Arcadian Maid The House with Closed Shutters Wilful Peggy The Modern Prodigal A Mohawk's Way The Oath and the Man Rose O'Salem-Town The Fugitive Winning Back His Love
1911	The Two Paths The Italian Barber His Trust His Trust Fulfilled Fate's Turning Heart Beats of Long Ago What Shall We Do with Our Old? Fisher Folks His Daughter The Lily of the Tenements A Decree of Destiny Was He a Coward? The Lonedale Operator The Spanish Gypsy The Broken Cross How She Triumphed The New Dress The Crooked Road The White Rose of the Wilds The Smile of a Child Enoch Arden: Part I Enoch Arden: Part II The Primal Call Fighting Blood The Indian Brothers A Country Cupid The Last Drop of Water Out from the Shadow The Blind Princess and the Poet Swords and Hearts The Stuff Heroes Are Made Of Her Awakening The Making of a Man The Adventures of Billy The Long Road Love in the Hills The Battle Through Darkened Vales The Miser's Heart A Woman Scorned The Voice of the Child
1912	The Eternal Mother The Old Bookkeeper For His Son The Transformation of Mike A Sister's Love Under Burning Skies The Sunbeam A String of Pearls The Girl and Her Trust The Root of Evil The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch The Punishment The Female of the Species Just Like a Woman One Is Business, the Other Crime The Lesser Evil A Beast at Bay An Outcast Among Outcasts Home Folks A Temporary Truce The Spirit Awakened Man's Lust for Gold Man's Genesis The Sands of Dee The Narrow Road The Inner Circle A Change of Spirit An Unseen Enemy Blind Love The Massacre Two Daughters of Eve Friends So Near, yet So Far A Feud in the Kentucky Hills The Chief's Blanket In the Aisles of the Wild The One She Loved The Painted Lady The Musketeers of Pig Alley Heredity Gold and Glitter My Baby The Informer Brutality The New York Hat My Hero The Burglar's Dilemma A Cry for Help The God Within
1913	Three Friends The Telephone Girl and the Lady An Adventure in the Autumn Woods The Tender Hearted Boy A Misappropriated Turkey Brothers Oil and Water A Chance Deception Love in an Apartment Hotel Broken Ways A Girl's Stratagem The Unwelcome Guest Near to Earth Fate A Welcome Intruder The Sheriff's Baby The Hero of Little Italy The Perfidy of Mary The Little Tease A Misunderstood Boy The Left-Handed Man The Lady and the Mouse If We Only Knew The Wanderer The Stolen Loaf The House of Darkness The Yaqui Cur Just Gold The Ranchero's Revenge A Timely Interception Death's Marathon The Mothering Heart The Sorrowful Shore The Enemy's Baby The Mistake Two Men of the Desert (lost) Madonna of the Storm The Battle at Elderbush Gulch The Conscience of Hassan Bey
1914–1931	Judith of Bethulia (1914) Battle of the Sexes (1914, lost) Brute Force (1914) Home, Sweet Home (1914) The Escape (1914, lost) The Avenging Conscience: or "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (1914) The Birth of a Nation (1915) Intolerance (1916) Hearts of the World (1918) The Great Love (1918, lost) Lillian Gish in a Liberty Loan Appeal (1918, lost) The Greatest Thing in Life (1918, lost) A Romance of Happy Valley (1919) The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919) Broken Blossoms (1919) True Heart Susie (1919) Scarlet Days (1919) The Greatest Question (1919) The Idol Dancer (1920) Remodeling Her Husband (1920, lost) The Love Flower (1920) Way Down East (1920) Dream Street (1921) Orphans of the Storm (1921) One Exciting Night (1922) The White Rose (1923) America (1924) Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) Sally of the Sawdust (1925) That Royle Girl (1925, lost) The Sorrows of Satan (1926) Drums of Love (1928) The Battle of the Sexes (1928) Lady of the Pavements (1929) Abraham Lincoln (1930) The Struggle (1931)

v t e Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843)
Adaptations	The Avenging Conscience (1914 silent) The Tell-Tale Heart (1934) The Tell-Tale Heart (1941) The Tell-Tale Heart (1953, American) The Tell-Tale Heart (1953, British) The Tell-Tale Heart (1960) Tell-Tale (2009) Tell (2012) The Tell-Tale Heart (2014)
Related	Manfish The Dark Eye

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