The Headless Horseman | |
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Directed by | Edward D. Venturini |
Written by | Carl Stearns Clancy |
Based on | The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving |
Produced by | Carl Stearns Clancy |
Starring | Will Rogers Lois Meredith Ben Hendricks Jr. |
Cinematography | Ned Van Buren |
Production company | Sleepy Hollow Corporation |
Distributed by | W. W. Hodkinson Corporation |
Release date |
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Running time | 68 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
The Headless Horseman is a 1922 American silent film adaptation of Washington Irving's 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" directed by Edward D. Venturini. It stars Will Rogers, Lois Meredith (in her last major on-screen appearance) and Ben Hendricks Jr.[1] It was the first panchromatic black-and-white feature film.[2]
There were three silent film adaptations of the story, but this 1922 version is the longest of the three, as well as the only one that survives today.[3] Film critic Christopher Workman states: "The obvious day-for-night shooting foreshadows the work of Edward D. Wood Jr. [The film] is a motion picture that wavers between irritating and flat-out dull." He says the Headless Horseman only appears in two all-too-brief sequences in the film, once at the beginning and again in the finale.[4]