October 31: The Scarlet Crystal (1917)

 

The Scarlet Crystal was a crime drama with supernatural elements. The titular crystal hails from ancient Egypt and allows a gazer to see visions of the future, or rather future horrible harm and violence. Several of the characters experience the visions, the most intense of which happens to Vincent Morgan (Herbert Rawlinson). The visions of horror that he sees involve the harm to Peggy Worth (Betty Schade) and her invalid mother. The fore-warning allows Vincent to wholly avoid the dreaded outcome and insure the safety of both  Peggy and her mother. The film apparently sported a special "crystal vision" effect. Though it wasn't the first film that "framed" visions and thoughts in a visual fashion, it had to be one of the earliest to create a an effect that conveyed visually (instead providing an explanation on title cards) a special movable cue to indicate an supernatural event was taking place.  Though not the star of the film, the most well known member of the cast was Dorothy Davenport. From the famous Davenport theatrical family; she was just as likely to be credited as "Mrs. Wallace Reid" during this time. She would go on to be one of the only female film producers in Hollywood in the 1930's.