The Unattainable
The Unattainable is a 1916 American Blank and White silent drama directed by Lloyd B. Carleton. The film is based on the story by Elwood D. Henning. The photoplay stars Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson. The film opens by introducing us to Bessie Gale, a regular on the New York nightclub scene. In her circle, she's known as "the unattainable." A wealthy gentleman starts to pursue her. She finds relief from his romantic pursuits by joining a traveling theatrical company. The troop heads out West. After Bessie misses a train connection, she meets a sheep rancher, and  they get married. Then, her husband makes a major discovery which leads to a new series of adventures. The film was released on September 4, 1916, by Universal Production. Pre production. Development. According to the book - The Universal Story, Carl Laemmle (1867-1939) produced around 91 movies in 1916. Lloyd B. Carleton (–1933) started working for Carl Laemmle in the Fall of 1915. Carleton arrived with impeccable credentials, having directed some 60 films for the likes of Thanhouser, Lubin, Fox, and Selig. Between March and December 1916, 44-year-old Lloyd Carleton directed 16 movies for Universal, starting with The  Yaqui and ending with The Morals of Hilda. Emory Johnson acted in all 16 of these films. Of Carleton's total 1916 output, 11 were feature films, and the rest were two-reel shorts. In 1916, Carleton directed all 13 films pairing Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson. This film would be the ninth in the 13-film series. These totals show Carl Laemmle was clearly giving the Davenport-Johnson pairing one of his elite directors from the working cadre of universal directors to produce the screen chemistry Laemmle was seeking. Screenplay. This film is based on a story by Elwood  D. Henning. Eugene B. Lewis (1878–1924) created the screen adaptation for this film. Filming. To capture the rustic atmosphere called for in the film, director Lloyd Carleton's company paid a visit to a big sheep ranch located near Los Angeles, California. The ranch was located in the northwestern San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. The surrounding area provided one of several ideal backgrounds for the film. Hence, broad segments of the film's exteriors were shot in Chatsworth Park, California. Another area ideally suited for background footage was the Sierra Nevada Mountains located in the state of Nevada . Alternate title. During the film's development, the working title was - The Miracle of Love. Post production. The theatrical release of this film totaled five reels or 4,921 feet of film. As is often the case, the listed time for this feature-length movie varies. The average time per 1,000-foot 35mm reel varied between ten and fifteen minutes per reel at the time. Thus, the total time for this movie is computed between fifty and seventy-five minutes. Studios. The interiors were filmed in the studio complex at Universal Studios located at 100 Universal City Plaza in Universal  City, California. Release and reception. Official release. The copyright was filed with U.S. Copyright Office and entered into the record as shown: The official film release date to US theaters was September 4, 1916. Advertising. Based on an American Film Institute standard, films with a running time of forty-five minutes or longer are considered feature films. In 1915, feature films were becoming more the trend in Hollywood. In 1916, Universal formed a three-tier branding system for their releases. Universal films decided to label their films according to the size of their budget and status. Bear in mind, Universal , unlike the top-tier studios, did not own any theaters to market its feature films. Universal gave theater owners and audiences a quick reference guide by branding their product. Branding would assist theater owners in making a judgment for films they were about to lease and help fans decide which movies they wanted to see. Universal released three different types of feature motion pictures: This film carried Universal’s "Bluebird Photoplay" brand, designating a more mainstream feature and a bigger budget than a red feather production. Bluebirds were also known for distinctive artwork, as displayed in the movie poster for  this page. Reviews. The critics generally panned this film. Critical Response. In the September 2, 1916 issue of "The Moving Picture World," movie critic Margaret McDonald observed: In the September 2, 1916 issue of the "Motion Picture News," movie critic Harvey Thew discerns: Preservation status. A report created by film historian and archivist David Pierce for the Library of Congress claims: In 1978, an extraordinary discovery was made in Dawson City located in Yukon's Canadian territory. The city unknowingly had used a large cache of silent films to bolster a sagging hockey rink in 1929. The permafrost preserved them . The 1978 discovery would yield 533 reels of nitrate film containing numerous lost movies. The discovery was chronicled in the movie - . Among the Dawson Film Find were the 5-reel bluebird production of "The Unattainable", released in September 1916, and "Barriers of Society" released on October 16, 1916. In both cases, only one reel was recoverable from each of the 5 reel feature films. The finders turned over these recovered reels to the Library of Congress. The website of the Library of Congress displays the following: