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The Woman on the Index

Name: The Woman on the Index
Director: Hobart Henley
Released: 1919
Cast: Francis Joyner, Wyndham Standing, Jere Austin, Louis Stern, Pauline Frederick

1919Hobart HenleyIMDb: /10

Synopsis

Sylvia Martin runs away from her abusive father and almost succumbs to the cold on the doorstep of Louis Gordon, a crook. They marry, but later when faced with capture, Gordon kills himself.

Director

Hobart Henley

Writers

George Broadhurst, Lillian Trimble Bradley

Country

United States

Editor's Choice Analysis

The Woman on the Index (1919) Review | Pauline Frederick's Espionage Masterpiece

In the pantheon of silent era melodramas, few films capture the claustrophobic anxiety of social surveillance with the same vitriolic intensity as Hobart Henley’s 1919 production, The Woman on the Index. At a time when the world was reeling from the tectonic shifts of the Great War and the burgeoning Red Scare, this fi...

Archivist John

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Filmography

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Battle of the Cult

Intelligence Comparison

Comparing the cinematic DNA and archive impact of two defining moments in cult history.

1919

The Woman on the Index

Hobart Henley

ScoreCult MeterScore

50%Popularity50%

#80Archive Rank#791

1917

Parentage

Hobart Henley

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Knowledge Base

The Woman on the Index FAQ

The movie The Woman on the Index was directed by Hobart Henley.

The Woman on the Index was released in the year 1919.

The Woman on the Index is a movie from United States.

The Woman on the Index features .

The screenplay for The Woman on the Index was written by George Broadhurst, Lillian Trimble Bradley.

If you enjoy The Woman on the Index, you might also like Parentage (1917), Laughing Bill Hyde (1918), Money Mad (1918), The Face in the Dark (1918).

Yes, The Woman on the Index (1919) is featured in the Dbcult archive as a curated cult cinema title.

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Summary

Sylvia Martin’s trajectory is a visceral descent from the biting frost of domestic neglect into the corrosive machinery of the early 20th-century surveillance state. After escaping a paternal purgatory, her salvation via the criminal underworld proves to be a Faustian bargain. The suicide of her husband, the nefarious Louis Gordon, leaves her not only a widow but a pariah, her identity ossified within the 'Police Index'—a bureaucratic ledger of the damned. Even as she ascends to the rarified air of Washington diplomacy as the wife of David Maber, the specter of her past reemerges. The narrative pivots from a melodrama of social disgrace into a taut espionage thriller when the Secret Service weaponizes her history, forcing her into a perilous dance with Bolshevik insurgents. It is a narrative where the personal is relentlessly political, and the ink of the state is harder to wash away than blood.

Synopsis

Sylvia Martin runs away from her abusive father and almost succumbs to the cold on the doorstep of Louis Gordon, a crook. They marry, but later when faced with capture, Gordon kills himself. Gordon's gang accuses Sylvia of murder, and although she is acquitted for lack of evidence, her name is included in the Police Index. Years later, upon finding the Index on the shelf of her second husband, Washington diplomat David Maber, Sylvia fears exposure. Her fears heighten when her arresting officer, John Alden, now chief of the Secret Service, tries to induce her to entrap a Bolshevik agent, Hugo Declasse, who is attracted to her. When Alden appeals to patriotism, she acquiesces. Declasse finds the Index and threatens to expose her unless she cooperates in getting plans for an uprising to London agents, but Declasse is foiled when his trusted Japanese butler turns out to be a Secret Service agent. Maber, learning of Sylvia's past, forgives her.

Review Excerpt

"In the pantheon of silent era melodramas, few films capture the claustrophobic anxiety of social surveillance with the same vitriolic intensity as Hobart Henley’s 1919 production, The Woman on the Index. At a time when the world was reeling from the tectonic shifts of the Great War and the burgeoning Red Scare, this film serves as a chilling palimpsest of American paranoia and the fragile nature of female reputation. It is not merely a story of a woman with a past; it is a harrowing examination ..."

Archivist John

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