Broken Fetters
1916 film by Rex Ingram
Broken Fetters is a 1916 American silent drama film written and directed by Rex Ingram. Violet Mersereau played the lead role. The film was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey where Universal Studios and other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based at the beginning of the 20th century.
Production
Broken Fetters was produced by Bluebird Photoplays, one of the three brands of motion pictures then being released by Universal Film Manufacturing Company.
Cast
Kittens Reichert as Mignon, as a child
Violet Mersereau as Mignon, grown up
Charles Francis as Kong Hee
Earl Simmons as Bruce King
Frank Smith as Foo Shai
William Dyer as The Captain
Paul Panzer as Carleton Demarest
Isabel Patterson as Mrs.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Broken Fetters” as 1916 film by Rex Ingram. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1916 film by Rex Ingram. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4973368. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1916.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Broken Fetters”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Broken Fetters primary sources, Broken Fetters archive and Broken research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Broken Fetters”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Broken Fetters” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.