The Sealed Room (1909)
A jealous king seals off a private chamber for himself and his mistress, then, suspecting her of an affair with a visiting troubadour, orders the room's only door bricked shut with both lovers still inside.
The Sealed Room draws its premise from Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and Balzac’s “La Grande Bretèche,” and belongs to the run of one-reelers D.W. Griffith directed for Biograph in 1909 — the same busy year that gave silent film two of its future stars, Mary Pickford and Mack Sennett, both present here in small roles.
Background
The Sealed Room was directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph company in 1909. Its premise draws on Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ and Honore de Balzac’s ‘La Grande Breteche,’ in which a jealous king bricks up a room with his mistress and a rival inside. The cast includes Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard, and Henry B. Walthall, who went on to become a notable Griffith actor. Mack Sennett and Mary Pickford, both later major figures in silent film, are reported to appear in small roles, which makes the film a useful document of the early Biograph studio. It is in the public domain.
What to watch for
Watch the film’s economy, which packs a dark story of jealousy and revenge into a single reel. The king’s suspicion of the mistress, and his decision to seal the room, plays out through staging and gesture rather than explanation. Griffith used Biograph’s compact shooting style, with a fixed camera and a clear view of the action, which keeps the mounting horror easy to follow. Because the film depends so heavily on its ending, it rewards close viewing. Its Poe-derived premise also shows how early filmmakers borrowed dramatic material from literature.
