Vintage original 8 x 10 in. US lobby card from the teens WWI-themed silent film drama, THE LEGION OF DEATH, released in 1917 by Metro Pictures Corporation and directed by Tod Browning. 

The image depicts an exterior scene of a trench on a battlefield as German soldiers capture "The Legion of Death," a fighting unit of peasant women who are willing to sacrifice their lives against the Germans. The tagline reads The capture of the fighting women. It is unrestored in very good+ condition as shown.

This is a great example of how women were often portrayed as heroic, independent, and more than capable of handling a difficult situation during the silent era.

 

The Nov. 17, 1917 Motion Picture News reported that scenes were filmed that week at a "big plot of ground in the San Fernando Valley," north of Los Angeles, which the Metro Company had leased. The crew dug trenches, duplicated from photographs, for the staging of battles between a Russian women's regiment and the German army. The actresses received several days of training before action began. Over 2,000 people were reportedly used in the scenes leading up to the Russian Revolution. The Dec. 1, 1917 and Dec. 8 1917 issues of Motion Picture World stated that director Tod Browning was shooting the final scenes for The Legion of Death. Filming locales included San Pedro and Monrovia, CA.

 

Like many American films of the time, The Legion of Death was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors initially issued a set of required cuts in early March 1918, but the distributor requested a rehearing by the Board. On further review, the Board reduced the cuts to the following: in Reel 1, the slugging of a man; Reel 2, two struggle scenes between German officer and young woman, striking her mother on head, five scenes of officer leering at young woman, tearing gown from young woman's shoulders, all visions scenes of young woman after the intertitle "And when the raiders left"; and, Reel 7, the struggle scene between Marya and Orlof where he opens her waist.

 

Princess Marya and her brother, the Grand Duke Paul of Russia, are studying in the U.S. when word reaches them that Rasputin is to be killed. Paul is seized by Russian secret service men, but through Marya's appeal to Captain Rodney Willard, he is released. In Russia, Marya participates actively in the Revolution, while Willard, with whom she has fallen in love, joins the Allied Commission. Deeply troubled by the influence of German agents in Russia, Marya organizes the Legion of Death, a fighting unit of peasant women, and leads them into battle against the Germans. The legion suffers defeat and Marya is captured, but in the end, she wins her freedom. The cast includes Edith Storey, Philo McCullough, Fred Malatesta, Charles K. Gerrard, Pomeroy Cannon, Norma Nichols, R.O. Pennell, Grace Aide, H.L. Swisher, and Frances Marion.