Whispering Shadows and The Devil's Assistant

This double feature presents two obscure silent films that were considered lost for many years. Whispering Shadows (1921) features a convoluted plot involving embezzlement, false accusations, a conveniently timed death, and a brave heroine fighting to clear her lover's good name with a little help from the recently deceased via occult communication. Emile Chautard's direction is stagy and laborious, moving the story along at an uncommonly lethargic pace. Far more entertaining is the short The Devil's Assistant (1917), in which an evil physician (we know he's evil because he briefly grows demonic horns when thinking wicked thoughts) gets his patients hooked on morphine. When a woman who spurned his romantic advances seeks treatment, his lascivious plans for her include drugs and an attempted sexual assault. The film features astonishing imagery, including a vision of drug addiction as a red-tinted Hell complete with a winged Satan smacking the damned with his pitchfork. It also moves at a ridiculously fast pace, which is not surprising as this is an abbreviated version of a now-lost longer production. Andrew E. Simpson created the original organ scores for the films. Diehard aficionados of silent film may be drawn to this minor double-feature. Optional. (P. Hall)