The Great Victory, Wilson or the Kaiser? the Fall of the Hohenzollerns
Cast & Crew
Charles Miller
Creighton Hale
Florence Billings
E. J. Connelly
Helen Ferguson
Frank Currier
Film Details
Synopsis
In a prologue, Wilhelm II is born into opulence to continue the Hohenzollern dynasty of his father Frederick III, while Woodrow Wilson is born into the modest manse of his father, a Presbyterian reverend who tells his wife that the boy must be brought up "in the fear of the Lord." Conrad Le Brett from Alsace-Lorraine is forced to fight for Germany because his land has been conquered. Conrad, seeing other soldiers take girls into a church to rape them, kills one who murders a baby, and is then shot and taken to a Brussels hospital run by famous nurse Edith Cavell. He and his American nurse, Amy Gordon, fall in love. After Cavell helps Amy escape the pursuance of General von Bissing, the German governor, von Bissing has Lieutenant Ober execute Cavell. Learning of the Kaiser's order that all unmarried women be given to soldiers so they can bear sons for the army, Ober returns to Alsace-Lorraine, where he earlier insulted Conrad's sister Vilma. Ober kills Conrad's grandfather and rapes Vilma. Conrad honors her dying request that he go to America and defend Alsace-Lorraine's reputation. He marries Amy and convinces President Woodrow Wilson that Alsatians should be allowed to enlist. Fighting with the "doughboys," Conrad kills Ober, and after the armistice, returns to Amy.
Director
Charles Miller
Cast
Creighton Hale
Florence Billings
E. J. Connelly
Helen Ferguson
Frank Currier
Fred C. Truesdell
Henry Kolker
Joseph Kilgour
Margaret Mcwade
Earl Schenck
H. Carvill
Florence Short
Baby Ivy Ward
Andrew Clarke
Mrs. Hunt
J. A. Furey
Fred R. Stanton
Leo Delaney
Fanny Cogan
Emil Hoch
Charles Edwards
May Allen
Karl Dane
Carl De Mel
John Mccabe
Frank Harkness
Robert Harvey
Jane Mceachern
W. W. Cohill
William Busby
Count De Planter
Grace Marceau
Frances Cornell
Pauline Dempsey
Capt. Van Bausen
Herbert E. Jelley
Herman Gerold
William Gaffney
J. H. Forsell
J. C. Dunn
Frank Mood
William Willis
Aubrey Lowell
Raymond Hayes
Fred T. Des Bresney
Antonio Vitolli
John Laffey
William Smith
Raymond Hayes
Louis Stern
Richard Dorsey
Harry Pettibone
Richard Walton
T. Tamamoto
Crew
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film was also listed in ads, release charts and reviews under the titles Wilson or the Kaiser and The Fall of the Hohenzollerns. The film was copyrighted first under the title The Great Victory, Wilson or the Kaiser? The Fall of the Hohenzollerns on December 20, 1918, and later, on December 31, 1918, under the title Why Germany Must Pay, a title under which the film was reviewed a few weeks later. It is unclear whether the film was actually exhibited under both titles, and if the two versions had any differences between them. Sources conflict concerning the film's length, which is listed variously as five, six and seven reels. The actor listed as Capt. Van Bausen May in fact have been the actor Henry Van Bousen. An earlier Screen Classics, Inc. production, released by Metro Pictures Corp. on June 30, 1918, entitled To Hell with the Kaiser, included some of the same actors as in The Great Victory playing the same historical characters. It is possible that some scenes from the earlier release were incorporated into The Great Victory. British nurse Edith Cavell was executed on October 12, 1915 by a German firing squad for aiding Allied soldiers trying to cross enemy lines into Dutch territory.
