page_title: Manslaughter (1922 film)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Manslaughter (1922 film) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Lobby card for the American drama film Manslaughter (1922).
context_page_description: Manslaughter is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Thomas Meighan, Leatrice Joy, and Lois Wilson. It was scripted by Jeanie MacPherson adapted from the novel of the same name by Alice Duer Miller. The film portrays the main character, Lydia Thorne, as a thrill-seeking, self-entitled, and wild woman who do not have a reputation of thinking before acting. She acts selfishly by dancing with other men in the presence of her husband and not providing help to her maid who is in dire need for her son's health. As a result of her numerous poor decisions, she is taken to court because of a vehicle accident entailing a high-speed chase she has with a motorcyclist policeman. Following this accident, she is imprisoned for manslaughter after being prosecuted by her husband, Daniel O'Bannon, who is a lawyer. After this endeavor, Lydia comes out of jail to find her husband has become an alcoholic. This film was one of the first to depict very graphic scene of men plundering a room of women meant to represent the descent of Lydia's privileged life., and this film contained various imagery depicting life among the upper-class society.
context_section_description: The production of this film was completed during a time when films were taking on tremendous set processes and crews. Film shooting processing was becoming more complex, involving actors and actresses, producers, set developers, screenwriters, camera-crew and lighting, and numerously more parts. It was a film created using continuity filming which involves continuing a screen from different points of view.
  According to Leatrice Joy, the filming of the car chase scene was extremely nerve-wracking because she herself had to drive the car, which had been fitted with a platform to support two cameramen and the director, plus equipment. Their safety depended entirely upon her skills as a motorist. Joy did most of her own driving, though in some shots the car was driven by stunt double Leo Nomis. During the shooting of a prison sequence, Joy burned her hand accidentally with soup in a prop cauldron; assistant director Cullen Tate had neglected to inform her that the soup was scalding hot.
caption: Manslaughter lobby card in 1922 with scene of the party
exif: {}