Marguerite Bertsch

Marguerite Bertsch (December 14, 1889 – 1967) was an American screenwriter and film director who worked in the early days of film. Her 1917 text How to Write for Moving Pictures: A Manual of Instruction and Information reflected and influenced the screenwriters of the era. In the early days of film it was not uncommon for "scenario writers" to be women and she was among those who, beginning in 1916, also directed films. However, she would later be called one of the "forgotten women" of silent film as the non-acting women of early film largely became obscure. Prints of two films that Bertsch had worked on as a screenwriter were rediscovered in the Netherlands, at the Nederlands Filmmuseum. These newly discovered films, The Diver and The Troublesome Step-Daughter, and the 1914 film A Florida Enchantment, are currently the only films from Bertsch's career that have been recovered. The rest are presumed to be lost.

Career Bertsch began her film career with Vitagraph in 1913, starting as a scenario writer. In 1916, she became the head of the screenwriting department, and began working as a director for the company. The historian R. Bruce Basell further argues that Bertsch's screenplay for the film shows an opposition to the women's emancipation movement, as it suggests that there will be societal chaos if emancipation is achieved.

There is very little public information about her life between 1918, when she left Vitagraph, and 1967, when she is believed to have died. Census records from the states of New York and New Jersey suggest that between 1930 and 1941, she was living with various family members and may have been working as a freelance writer.

Selected filmography

Screenplay Mortmain (1915)

Writing and Directing The Law Decides (1916) The Devil's Prize (1916) The Glory of Yolanda (1917), written by Maibelle Heikes Justice The Soul Master (1917)