page_title: It Is the Law
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: It Is the Law / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Lantern slide advertising the Fox Film production It Is the Law (1924).
context_page_description: It Is the Law is a 1924 American silent mystery film directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starring Arthur Hohl, Herbert Heyes, and Mona Palma. It is a film adaptation of the 1922 Broadway play of the same name by Elmer Rice, itself based on a novel by Hayden Talbot. The film depicts the story of Ruth Allen, who marries Justin Victor over competing suitor Albert Woodruff. Seeking revenge for this slight, Woodruff fakes his own death by killing a drifter who resembles him, and frames Victor for the murder. Woodruff attempts to renew his courtship of Allen by using an assumed identity, but she sees through his disguise. Once Victor is freed from prison, he kills Woodruff and goes free because a conviction would constitute double jeopardy.
  This was the final film for director Edwards, who died the following year, and was one of the last produced at Fox Film's New York studio. Contemporary reviews were generally positive. Like many of Fox's early works, it was likely lost in the 1937 Fox vault fire.
context_section_description: In 1922, theatrical agent Walter Jordan encouraged successful playwright Elmer Rice to dramatize It Is the Law, an unpublished novel written by Hayden Talbot. At the time, Rice was best known for his 1914 Broadway play On Trial, which featured the first use of flashback, a narrative technique he adapted from film, in a Broadway production. Rice's stage adaptation of Talbot's work, also titled It Is the Law, again featured a story told in flashback. The play ran for 125 performances at the Ritz Theatre, and was a modest success.
  Fox Film announced the production of a film adaptation of It Is the Law early in 1924, with J. Gordon Edwards set to direct. This was the only film he directed that year, as he was primarily serving as Fox Film's director-general at the time. Curtis Benton wrote the screenplay for Fox; unlike the theatrical version, Benton's work presents the story entirely in chronological order. Principal casting was completed in February, and filming took place at Fox's New York studio. Most of Fox's film production had by then moved to Hollywood: It Is the Law was one of only four films Fox made at its East Coast facility in 1924. Except for four Allan Dwan films in 1926, they were the last Fox produced in New York. The set constructed for the courtroom climax was a duplicate of a room in The Tombs.
  The copyright registration for It Is the Law stated its length as eight reels, but the released version was a shorter, seven-reel film. When Twentieth Century-Fox Film renewed the copyright in 1951, they again referred to the longer run time; the title was also restyled with an exclamation point, as It Is the Law! Fox's advertising for the film included a trailer, as well as novelty items to be given away by exhibitors, such as a small key described as the "key to the mystery" of the film.
  This was Edwards' final work. He retired from Fox after the film's completion, and although he expressed an interest to returning to the role, he died of pneumonia the following year.
caption: Lantern slide advertising the film
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