Each of three room-mates proposes to the same woman.Each of three room-mates proposes to the same woman.Each of three room-mates proposes to the same woman.
Photos
Chester Barnett
- Proposer
- (uncredited)
Grace Darling
- Grace Darling
- (uncredited)
Phillips Smalley
- Proposer
- (uncredited)
Lois Weber
- The Maid
- (unconfirmed)
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Lois Weber(uncredited)
- Writer
- Lois Weber(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaReleased as a split reel along with the comedy The Hall-Room Girls (1913).
- Alternate versionsThe version shown on the American Movie Classics channel had a music score composed and performed by Philip C. Carli (©2000). It was restored by the Library of Congress through a grant from NYWIFT'S Woman's Film Preservation fund and runs 6 minutes. Recording and post-production was done by David Dusman at West End Mastering in Rochester, N.Y.
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How Women Make Movies
"How Men Propose" is usually attributed to Lois Weber, as director, writer and producer, but this remains unconfirmed according to scholars and the U.S. Library of Congress. Neither Anthony Slide or Shelley Stamp mentions the film in their books or their filmographies on Weber, although the film is listed as unconfirmed on Stamp's webpage for the filmmaker at the Women Film Pioneers Project website where it's said that there's "no clear indication that she worked with Smalley during his brief tenure at Crystal." Phillips Smalley being Weber's husband at the time, and Crystal the studio producing this film. Indeed, Smalley at least appears in front of the camera in this one, or, as Slide argues at least, he never really directed much of anything despite continually being listed as Weber's co-director.
Regardless, If one assumes the film were hers, it'd seem Weber was past the point where she made pictures more in the style of an Alice Guy-Blaché or Edwin S. Porter, the two pioneer filmmakers she formerly worked under at Gaumont and Rex, of long shot and take compositions with little in the way of scene dissection or closer camera views. "How Men Propose," made after Weber's "Suspense" (1913), is more in the school of the emerging classical style of filmmaking practiced by D.W. Griffith and others. Hence the considerable crosscutting and the camera being set closer to the action in the film's brief runtime. I don't know whether this was originally a split-reel or whether the film was subsequently edited over the years, and it's said to be missing its original title cards. As it is, the average shot length amounts to a little over 12 seconds (my count) whereas the last-minute-rescue (a genre exemplifying crosscutting) film "Suspense" isn't much quicker at a little over 10 seconds per shot (cinemetrics website counts); in other words, the pacing here for its era is somewhat quick.
Nevertheless, the scenario remains clear, of three men proposing marriage to and being accepted by the same woman--the aforementioned crosscutting taking place between their two apartments as this ruse and its discovery goes about. Turns out, the woman was just doing research for an article she's writing on how men propose, but they may keep her pictures. If there's anything to suggest that Weber was behind this production, it's that the woman-writer character (as played by Margarita Fischer) on screen was doing much the same in driving the narrative--being its surrogate author within the film and addressing the spectator by directly looking towards the camera--that Weber did behind it in screenwriting and directing motion pictures.
Regardless, If one assumes the film were hers, it'd seem Weber was past the point where she made pictures more in the style of an Alice Guy-Blaché or Edwin S. Porter, the two pioneer filmmakers she formerly worked under at Gaumont and Rex, of long shot and take compositions with little in the way of scene dissection or closer camera views. "How Men Propose," made after Weber's "Suspense" (1913), is more in the school of the emerging classical style of filmmaking practiced by D.W. Griffith and others. Hence the considerable crosscutting and the camera being set closer to the action in the film's brief runtime. I don't know whether this was originally a split-reel or whether the film was subsequently edited over the years, and it's said to be missing its original title cards. As it is, the average shot length amounts to a little over 12 seconds (my count) whereas the last-minute-rescue (a genre exemplifying crosscutting) film "Suspense" isn't much quicker at a little over 10 seconds per shot (cinemetrics website counts); in other words, the pacing here for its era is somewhat quick.
Nevertheless, the scenario remains clear, of three men proposing marriage to and being accepted by the same woman--the aforementioned crosscutting taking place between their two apartments as this ruse and its discovery goes about. Turns out, the woman was just doing research for an article she's writing on how men propose, but they may keep her pictures. If there's anything to suggest that Weber was behind this production, it's that the woman-writer character (as played by Margarita Fischer) on screen was doing much the same in driving the narrative--being its surrogate author within the film and addressing the spectator by directly looking towards the camera--that Weber did behind it in screenwriting and directing motion pictures.
helpful•10
- Cineanalyst
- Mar 17, 2021
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Как мужчины делают предложение
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime6 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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