{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Married in Name Only | image = Gretchen Hartman 001.jpg | caption = Gretchen Hartman | director = {{ill|Edmund Lawrence (director)|lt=Edmund Lawrence|it|Edmund Lawrence (regista)}} | writer = Ivan Abramson | starring = Gretchen Hartman, Milton Sills, Marie Shotwell | producer = | distributor = Ivan Film Productions | released = {{Film date|1917}} | runtime = 6 reels | country = United States | language = Silent (English intertitles) | budget = }} '''''Married in Name Only''''' is a 1917 American silent film written by Ivan Abramson and directed by {{ill|Edmund Lawrence (director)|lt=Edmund Lawrence|it|Edmund Lawrence (regista)}}, starring Gretchen Hartman, Milton Sills, and Marie Shotwell.
==Plot== The plot is based on eugenics. Madeline Francis (played by Gretchen Hartman) is just about to marry Robert Worthing (played by Milton Sills) when she learns that there is insanity in his family history (per the report of Worthing's mother, played by Marie Shotwell). Hence they cannot have children lest they surely pass on the madness to their spawn. Madeline begs for the marriage to take place to avoid shame, but she is treated like a sister rather than a bride. Madeline is left to contemplate suicide, but joy returns when Worthing finally learns he was adopted and that they can procreate without fear.<ref name="review1">(11 November 1917). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QexVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3EANAAAAIBAJ&pg=4292,5299950&dq=married-in-name-only&hl=en Lyric offers strong play], ''The Sunday Chronicle'' (Paterson, New Jersey)</ref><ref name="book1">Langman, Larry. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ltcNWzVEaEUC&dq=%22Married+in+Name+Only%22+1917&pg=PA213 American Film Cycles: The Silent Era]'', pp. 213-14 (1998)</ref><ref name="book">Pernick, Martin S. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=IJJVYrnImOsC&pg=PA135 The Black Stork]'', p. 135 (1996)</ref>
==Cast== *Gretchen Hartman as Madeline Francis *Milton Sills as Robert Worthing *Marie Shotwell as Mrs. Worthing *Dora Mills Adams as Mrs. Francis
==Reception== Like many American films of the time, ''Married in Name Only'' was subject to restrictions and cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors issued an Adults Only permit and cut, in Reel 5, a closeup of a couple embracing passionately in a bedroom.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=6 |issue=24 |page=31 |publisher=Exhibitors Herald Company |location=New York City |date=June 8, 1918 |url=https://archive.org/stream/exhibitorsherald06exhi#page/n1001/mode/1up}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0008273}}
Category:1917 films Category:American black-and-white films Category:American silent feature films Category:Films about eugenics Category:1917 American films Category:Censored films Category:Eugenics in the United States