The Black Stork
Cast & Crew
Leopold Wharton
Jane Fearnley
Allan Murnane
Dr. Harry J. Haiselden
Hamilton Revelle
Elsie Esmond
Film Details
Synopsis
An hereditary taint in the blood of Claude Leffingwell made his child defective. Rather than allow the horribly twisted infant to grow up to face a helplessly handicapped battle against the world, Dr. Haiselden proposes to allow him to die. He leaves the decision in the hands of Mrs. Leffingwell, who visualizes what might be the life of her baby as he grows into a misshapen social outcast and finally kills the doctor who allowed him to live. Despite the protests of the medical societies, Dr. Haiselden allows the infant to die. Meanwhile, another couple, Tom Watson and Miriam Fontaine, who feared that they also might carry a hereditary taint, discover that they are both healthy and so decide to get married.
Cast
Jane Fearnley
Allan Murnane
Dr. Harry J. Haiselden
Hamilton Revelle
Elsie Esmond
Henry Bergman
John T. Miltern
Edgar L. Davenport
George Moss
Crew
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film was based on the baby Bollinger case of 1915, in which Dr. H. J. Haiselden, a Chicago surgeon, was put on trial after he refused to operate on a deformed baby. Haiselden was exonerated in court, but was afterwards expelled from the Chicago Medical Society. His grounds for not performing the operation were that the child would only be temporarily benefitted by a successful operation, and that the child's subsequent life as a cripple would be miserable. Haiselden hoped to clear himself before the American public in this film, which was also used to promote the passage of eugenic marriage laws. The film was exhibited in various cities from February 1917 through 1919 and Dr. Haiselden lectured at some of the showings. In the Baltimore showings in 1919, the film was known as Are You Fit to Marry?, and the Moral Uplift League presented the film. No children were allowed and women were admitted only to the morning and afternoon screenings, while men were admitted only to the evening performances.
