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Her Defiance is a short silent film directed by Cleo Madison and Joe King. The film was released January 14, 1916. Starring Madison as a woman deserted by her wealthy young lover, the film is noted for its use of the “matte process” which Madison uses to explain time and distance in the narrative. This powerful feminist melodrama was released around the same time that many suffragette films were produced. Her Defiance is usually associated with other feminist melodramas that Madison produced in this year including Alias Jane Jones, A Soul Enslaved, and A Heart’s Crucible. Motion picture news claimed Her Defiance was “a sympathetic subject along conventional lines but benefited by several original situations that add much to its value,” on January 15, 1916.
Contents
Plot
Adeline Gabler (Cleo Madison), is an abandoned pregnant woman who was left by her lover Frank Warren (Edward Hearn). Her brother Theron Gabler (Taylor N. Duncan) tries to arrange a marriage for her, but Adeline refuses to be confined in any form of imprisonment with a man. She runs away to the city where she gives birth to her child, and finds a job as a cleaning woman to support herself and her son. The job happens to be in her former lover’s office, where the man finally realizes he has a son. Adeline confronts Frank, who explains his behavior on one side of the screen, while Adeline is in a flashback from the couple’s past. This represented the point of view of the female who is weighing the statements of the lover against her memories of the events.
Film techniques
Her Defiance was extremely notable for Madison’s use of “matting,” a process she desired to signify time and distance passing in the short silent film. The matte process is a very old technique, dating back to the late 1890s. It is used in photography and special effects filmmaking combining various images into a single image. Madison uses this in her final scene when Adeline and Frank are speaking. On one side Frank is confessing truths about his life and his behaviors, while on the other side Adeline is flash-backing to memories of the couple together in different events.
Character traits
Madison’s character in Her Defiance is a strong willed woman, but she was usually cast as needy heroines, much different from the attitude the actress portrayed in her real life. Photoplay journalist William Henry reported,
“Cleo Madison is a womanly woman – if she were otherwise she couldn’t play sympathetic parts as she does – and yet she is so smart and businesslike that she makes most of the male population of Universal city look like debutants when it comes right down to brass tacks and affairs.” Cleo Madison had answered Henry with, “One of these days men are going to get over the fool idea that women have no brains and quit getting insulted at the thought that a skirt-wearer can do their work quite as well as they can. And I don’t believe that day is very far distant, either.”
Madison’s time as a director and actress was short, and by the 1920s she was back to playing minor roles in small films. She quit acting in 1924 and died of a heart attack in 1964.