Thrown to the Lions

Summary

A fever-dream diptych that stitches the Colosseum’s blood-slick sand to the electric midnight of 1910s Broadway, Thrown to the Lions follows an unnamed country orphan—part Persephone, part Little-Tramp—who slips through the trapdoor of a chorus line and lands in a net woven of predatory producers, perfumed courtesans, and spotlight ghosts. Between sips of green absinthe and the hiss of carbon-arc lamps she trades her innocence for footlights, only to discover that every clap from the orchestra pit is another jaw of the emperor’s cat closing. The film pirouettes from a Roman prologue—where Christian maidens with eyes like bruised lilies are devoured in chiaroscuro silence—to a Manhattan cabaret where the same lions wear tuxedos and roar in ragtime. The heroine’s final act is no martyrdom but a transfiguration: she commandeers the orchestra, turns the stage into a pulpit, and sings a hymn so fierce the chandeliers tremble, leaving the audience to wonder whether they have witnessed a conversion or a coup.

Synopsis

This big and thrilling emotional drama shows the cabaret life along the "gay White Way" and the dangers that confront an ambitious girl in a great city. Metropolitan characters abound and the scenes - the cabaret - the stage - behind the scenes - are not only the essence of realism, but as such they will prove a revelation to those unfamiliar with Broadway, the most famous street in the world. This picture is truly tremendous. Its prologue alone will make it famous. Scenes in ancient Rome, with Christian maidens literally thrown to the lions to make sport for the degenerate Emperor Nero, are depicted with a fidelity that will bring gasps of admiration and thrills of suspense from your patrons. - Motion Picture News, April 15, 1916.