Lizzie Borden's interconnected rooms

The floor plan: no central hallway

I’ve now read a few articles in Filmmaker Magazine that reference “interconnected rooms” on the set of the Borden house. That is so truly integral to the plot, both upstairs and downstairs.

In this piece, “Making a Film is Always a Chaotic Experience,” director Craig McNeill talks about the struggle to find an appropriate house, and concludes, “We found a house that, while different looking than the Borden home, did have several interconnected rooms which was a notable and unusual characteristic of the Borden residence.”

This article features cinematographer Noah Greenberg talking about wanting the film to be “visually elegant and ominous” with characters filmed at the edges of the shot, never centered. I found it to be a really fascinating article.  And Greenberg, too, mentioned the interconnecting rooms:

There were many scenes in Lizzie where we would move through, or see into, several interconnected rooms following a character. With a small lighting package and team and very limited time between setups it was challenge to balance/motivate the light consistently (at a useable stop) across these rooms while keying off practical sources such as a double wick candle held by an actor or an oil lamp on a side table.

All right. So why do those rooms need to flow into each other?

Downstairs: The sitting room where Mr. Borden was killed has doors leading into the front entry, the parlor, the dining room, and the kitchen. Four different ways to enter… and presumably its “fishbowl” type of layout means it would be difficult for a killer to murder him without someone in the house being aware. One of Lizzie’s alibis is that she was in the dining room ironing… well, that was mere feet away and it would simply impossible for such a noisy murder to take place so nearby without her being aware of it. I mean noisy in terms of what the hatchet did to his skull. Mr. Borden himself made no alarms because he was asleep when attacked.

Upstairs bedrooms and that famously winding staircase

Upstairs: the home upstairs is like a “shotgun shack”—you must walk into Lizzie’s bedroom to reach Emma’s and the parents. Although, famously, the door between Lizzie and the parents was nailed shut, and Andrew and Abby Borden used the servant’s stairs to access their chambers. The guest room where Abby was killed leads into Lizzie’s, although there was a desk blocking it.

The home was strange; there’s no doubt about it. It was originally intended as an apartment building, with full living quarters on the bottom and second floors. Andrew converted it to one unit when he took ownership. If you think about feng shui and the energy created by multiple doors flowing into a room and then being blocked, it creates a disturbing sense. Almost like Shirley’s Jackson’s Hill House, where the angles don’t exactly add up to 90 degrees.

It’s a disquieting house. Claustrophobic is the word that springs to my mind most often when I think about it. Small, cramped, enraging.

Chloe coyly sitting where Andrew was murdered (well, on a replica sofa)

I’m disappointed the movie wasn’t shot at the real house. When I visited there last year, there was a photo on display of Chloe Sevigny sitting on Andrew’s sofa and there was great excitement about the upcoming movie (which premiered LAST NIGHT at Sundance!). We were told Chloe had a Lizzie Borden fascination and wanted to film the movie in situ, but because there is a federal building nearby, it created too much of a security hazard for Fall River to agree.

I’m dying to see the movie. I’d love to see how they used the rooms in the house they did locate, and am glad there was awareness of the importance of the rooms flowing into each other.

The Borden House in the Lizzie movie

The real Borden home, today a B&B

I fervently hope this movie gets a distribution deal so I can see it someday soon.

If you want to know more about this story, my novel was written from the maid's point of view--Bridget Sullivan was the only other person in the house the day of the murders, besides Lizzie and the victims.

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. . . .

Bridget the maid was the first to finger Lizzie Borden

The sofa upon which Mr. Borden took his endless nap

In all the hullabaloo of a proper, elderly man being found slaughtered on his own sitting room sofa, and then not too long later, intrepid women climbing the stairs to find his wife on the floor in a similar state, no one thought to ask Lizzie Borden about her possible role in all this.

Not until Irish maid Bridget Sullivan innocently—or not so innocently—asked, “Miss Lizzie, where were you?” *

Can you imagine how quickly eyes must’ve flown to Lizzie’s face? In the house by this point were several neighbors, friends, and a doctor. I loved the simplicity of this phrase so much that I used it verbatim in my novel.

Attorney Moody and Jay Huguley, who plays him in the upcoming movie Lizzie

At trial, in his opening statement William Moody spoke about this moment. He said Lizzie’s response to Bridget’s question was, “I was out in the back yard, I heard a groan, came in and found the door open and found my father.”

The neighbor Mrs. Churchill saw Bridget out of her window running to fetch the doctor, and she came over to learn more. When she asked Lizzie the same question, Lizzie told her, “I was out in the barn. I was going for a piece of iron when I heard a distress noise, came in and found the door open, and found my father dead.”

After her best friend Alice Russell was fetched by Bridget, Lizzie told her that she was in the barn for a piece of iron or tin to fix a screen (window or door screen).

Moody summed it up nicely:

There is therefore, Bridget Sullivan, to whom she said that she heard a groan, rushed in and found her father; Mrs. Churchill, towhom she said she heard a distress noise, came in and found her father; Officer Mulally, to whom she said she heard a peculiar noise like a scraping, came in and found her father dead; and all those, gentleman, you see in substance are stories which include the fact that while she was outside, she heard some alarming noise which caused her to rush in and discover the homicide.

Well, that sounds decent. She wasn’t clear on the sound, but all the stories contain the same general idea. Innocent!

But wait. Moody went on.

You will find that when she gave a later and detailed account, she said that she went into the loft of the barn, opened the window, ate some pears up there, looked over the leader for some sinkers [for a fishing line], came down, looked into the stove to see if the fire was hot enough that she might go on with her ironing, found it was not, put her hat down, started to go upstairs to await the fire which Bridget was to build for the noonday, and discovered her father. It is not, gentlemen, and I pray your attention to it, a difference of words here. In the one case the statement is that she was alarmed by the noise of the homicide. In the other case the statement is that she came coolly, deliberately about her business…and accidentally discovered the homicide as she went upstairs.

Window screens, fishing lures, pears, haylofts, ironing handkerchiefs…it all sounds like a fever dream.

Kitchen cabinets adorned with pears at the Lizzie Borden B&B

And does it help to know this was a ridiculously hot day in August (people had been dying of the heat), and that lingering in a hot loft to eat pears doesn’t sound plausible?

I love reading the old trial testimony, the antiquated syntax. All very pleasurable to me.

And on a final note, given the news that the Chloe Sevigny and Kristen Stewart movie soon to be shown at Sundance may cast these two as lovers, the title of my post may have a special double meaning… I leave it to you to decide.
UPDATE: Based on the movie trailer that launched August 3, 2018 (the day before the murder anniversary), they are definitely cast as lovers!

*Footnote: Bridget asked this question of Lizzie immediately, but it was more fun for the blog post to start this way.

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Mulling over 125 years of mystery: the Lizzie Borden murders

I hesitate to invoke the rhyme because it's been so overused (and is so tasteless) but it really is the best and most succinct summary of the events of August 4, 1892:

Lizzie Borden took an ax,

Gave her mother forty whacks,

And when she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one.

Lizzie Borden, acquitted of murdering her (step)mother and father with a hatchet, was found guilty in the court of public opinion. Schoolchildren taunted her with the rhyme as she continued living in the small town of Fall River, Massachusetts (albeit in a much nice home, purchased with the funds she and her sister inherited upon their wealthy father’s death). They rang her doorbell at all hours and ran, screaming, before she could open it. They threw rocks at her windows.

Perhaps worse—since children’s thoughtless cruelty is a given—carriage drivers would meet the train coming in to Fall River and charge a fee to drive past Lizzie’s home, park outside, and loudly narrate the details of the crimes, which she surely heard through her walls.

Those details were horrific, such that her 1893 trial was considered the first “trial of the century.” Every major newspaper sent a reporter to sit in the crowded New Bedford courthouse and jot down each nuance of emotion that crossed her face.

The back of Abby Borden’s skull bore 19 blows, evidence of uncontrollable rage. It came out through forensics that she must have faced her attacker and known her fate: one poignant blow was on her forehead. Mrs. Borden had been killed first in an upstairs room and lay cooling for several hours until her husband Andrew came home from his morning tasks and lay down for a nap on the sitting room couch. The murderer attacked him while he slept.

His skull showed 10 or 11 cuts, roughly half of his wife’s, but proof that the killer was still furious hours later. Both skulls were displayed in court to show jurors the reality of that anger. They had been rendered down to bone by a doctor who boiled them, according to the later report of his young son who was upset at the morbid activity in his own kitchen. The Borden corpses had been secretly beheaded, without the daughters’ permission, during a second autopsy at a cemetery holding structure. The first had been performed in the Borden home’s dining room. Lizzie fainted in court when tissue covering the skulls drifted to the floor, prematurely revealing their placement in the doctor’s satchel. A juror was overcome by the crime scene photographs that testimony paused while peers tried to revive him. The facts of the case—and the murders of the elderly couple—proved uneasy to talk about.

What was Lizzie so upset about, if she was indeed the killer? Reputedly, her father’s miserliness, his spending money on his wife’s family, and probably general indignation that she would spend life as a spinster trapped in that house. Her oldest sister hadn’t married, and suitors were few and far between for Lizzie. It didn’t help that that August was insanely hot in an era before air-conditioning, that she had her period in an era before ibuprofen, and that a hated uncle showed up for a visit while her sister was away visiting friends.

Whatever the motive, the intervening 125 years have spawned dozens of books, several movies (including one to be released this year, with indie-movie goddess Chloe Sevigny playing Lizzie, and Kristen Stewart of Twilight fame playing the Irish maid Bridget Sullivan), and an incredible volume of speculation. Similar to O.J. Simpson, who is to be released on probation, Lizzie Borden faced a nation that suspected the jurors had been hoodwinked.

Visit the Lizzie Borden house in Fall River today and you’ll see crime scene reenactments, tours of the home and hear authors talk about the case. Its mystery endures.

Erika Mailman is the author of The Murderer’s Maid: a Lizzie Borden Novel, which looks at the case from the point of view of Bridget Sullivan, the only other person in the house that day besides Lizzie and her parents.

Lizzie: The Musical

Yesterday I had the opportunity to see Lizzie: The Musical, a rock opera based on Lizzie Borden. I almost didn't go, and I'm so glad I persisted beyond my usual triad of configuring childcare/ticket price/laziness because it was fabulous.

Starting with Lizzie, blond, to left is Emma, above is Alice, to right is Bridget

Upon first googling, I thought the show took place in a Ramada and I haven't had much luck thus far with "hotel theater" ... I have no idea where that came from, because it was held in a perfectly respectable black box theater in the Sacramento Community Center. It was the first production of the Actor's Playpen, and if this is what they're capable of, I better get season tickets.

Here are a few great reviews of the show itself, which has many different productions happening around the country and internationally:

“A gothic rock ritual with a ‘riotgirl’ attitude … an eerie hybrid of rock club and a turn-of-the-century New England parlor.”
“Presented with wall-rattling glee…deliciously watchable”
— The New York Times
“Lush tunes which retch sex, rage, dyke heat, misanthropy, and incest … Surreal glee and gallows humor … Finally, a rock musical you’d wanna mosh to.”
— The Village Voice 

The show features four actors portraying Lizzie, her sister Emma, the maid Bridget, and former next-door friend Alice Russell. They were played respectively by Jennifer Morrison, Joelle Robertson, Sara Logan and Chelsea Fitzsimmons. They were backed by a six-member band and two "swings" (which I guess is an understudy but when I first saw it in the program I thought it might have to do with aerial depictions of the hatchet "swinging" LOL...but they sat in the loft with the band and sang backup). The band was amazing. The singing of the four actors was amazing. I know it can't be easy to unleash total rock and roll mayhem in a small theater (around 60 attending the matinee with me) when at times you can literally reach out and touch an audience member--but they made it happen. The woman playing Lizzie really was amazing, both in voice and bodily command and the facial expressions that (when not being kitschy) really conveyed the agonies experienced by this 1892 woman pushed to (as I believe) commit the ultimate act (twice) of desperation.

Much of the show had this kind of action and vitality: that's Alice on her knees,
Emma in red, Lizzie with back turned and Bridget in blue

Every actor committed to their performance and each had something wonderful to contribute. I was especially fond of Bridget, as my upcoming novel The Murderer's Maid (Yellow Pear Press, releasing in October) is told from her point of view. In fact, I'm regretting not staying afterward to grab a photo with her, but I was able to find a lot of great ones on the Actor's Playpen Facebook page, many of which are courtesy Yuri T. Photography (thanks for permission, Yuri!)

Cool shot of Bridget. The stage had no set so this must've been a promo shoot

This is live, shows the bare set. Courtesy of Yuri T Photography

 After this point, there are going to be some plot spoilers, so I hope you are prepared. Let me include a few ornaments to give you a few moments to depart if necessary.

The play utilizes the incest theory, that Andrew Borden sexually abused Lizzie, motivating her murder of him. During the song  "This Is Not Love," the actress's face was so incredibly expressive of that pain that I almost couldn't look. I missed some of the lyrics, but I think the insinuation was that Emma had also been abused. In my novel, I had to decide whether to use this theory. I decided not to.

Almost certain she's singing "This Is Not Love"

The musical also avails itself of the theory that Lizzie was involved in a lesbian relationship--but in a twist, not with Bridget but instead Alice Russell! The kisses onstage were pretty hot. I really liked how Alice's song of seduction, "Will you lie with me" transforms to Lizzie later singing to her, "Will you lie for me"...clever. Alice and Lizzie were both young in this production: in actuality, Alice was 40 and Lizzie 32 at the time of the murders, but hey that's rock and roll. In the film version coming out this year, it's reputedly Bridget (played by Kristen Stewart) who is Lizzie's lover and aider/abetter of murder. Lizzie will be played by Chloe Sevigny and Emma by Kim Dickens. Not sure who's playing Alice. See this blog post for diptychs of historical persons paired with their current day actor. But I digress...back to the musical...

Lizzie and Alice. Courtesy, Yuri T. Photography

The list of musical numbers in the program made me laugh out loud. The song "Why Are All These Heads Off?" could only be about the pigeons, and "What the Fuck Now, Lizzie" was one of my favorites, with Joelle Robertson ripping a fierce and elegant stripe through her sister's stupidity.

During the pigeons aftermath, Bridget is on the ground floor singing while Lizzie is up in the loft. Attention was focused on Bridget, but I happened to glance up at Lizzie crouched by the empty pigeon cage and the look on her face was such deplorable misery that somehow morphed into resolution: that she could do something about her pain and anger. Major props to this actress.

The production raised a historical thought I hadn't had before. I'd always thought of Lizzie choosing not to accompany Emma to Fairhaven, but in the musical it seems as if Emma abandons Lizzie, leaving her to face Andrew and Abby by herself. Emma, through Bridget, passes off a book about poisons, as if a primer for Lizzie, and the trip to Bence's pharmacy is covered. Click here for my blog post about whether that trip really happened. I always like hearing new approaches to historical questions, and the idea that Emma abandoned the post is a fascinating one. She'd been mothering Lizzie since their mother died, and dropped the ball during this one hot August. Interesting.




The production is well-researched and much of the dialogue comes straight from trial transcripts. The kitsch factor is, well, high, and there were a few moments of discomfort for me because at the heart of this was two elderly people who may or may not have deserved the ends they received. Murder is murder, and sometimes it's hard to want to rock out to that discordant tune.

A stairs promo picture...the musical didn't address Lizzie's being able
to see Abby's body on the stairs, but did mention her laughing.

Overall, though, I was carried by the show and the passionate performances. This show got a standing ovation from its audience. I hope that if you get a chance to see a production in your town, you will. Check the website for show dates: it's in London right now, and in July/August will be in San Jose for my fellow northern Californians (including August 4, which will be the 125th anniversary of the murders). Follow me on Twitter (@ErikaMailman) or follow this blog if you'd like to hear more about Lizzie Borden (check this blog's main page for a link to all my Lizzie posts) and/or my upcoming novel The Murderer's Maid. The dual-chronology novel follows the Borden family maid Bridget Sullivan through the events leading up to the murders, and introduces a modern-day woman whose mother was murdered-- and she fears she's the next victim. Sounds good, right? ;)

. . . . .
 
P.S. after uploading, I found this brief video clip from Good Morning Sacramento. It doesn't truly express what it feels like to have audience energy, to truly hear the band filling the space... but it is a chance to hear the incredible vocals. 






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Five Interesting Facts about Lizzie Borden

Lizzie on the left, Chloe Sevigny on the right

1. She was very active in the church.

An avid volunteer at the First Congregational Church, Lizzie served on the Ladies' Fruit & Flower Mission (organized to take fruit and flowers to sick people in hospitals or at home) and the Women's Christian Temperance Union (anti-alcohol). She also taught Sunday School, including to young Chinese boys who were the sons of immigrants. 

Is it any wonder the jury had a hard time seeing this diligently benevolent woman as a murderer? It must've been a long con.

2. She had a taste of the good life.

Two years before the brutal murders of her father and stepmother, Lizzie took a "Grand Tour" of Europe with some distant cousins. She was gone for a full 19 weeks, from June 21 to November 1 of 1890. Probably a wonderful time in which the household in Fall River took a few, calming deep breaths, while she witnessed the wonders of the Continent and the British/Irish isles. 

Lizzie's scrapbook of this visit, replete with photographs pasted in and her careful writing beneath, still exists in the archives of the Fall River Historical Society. Of course, it must've been difficult to settle back into her narrow life when she returned: no more of the grandeur of museums and statuary.

April 1912 (22 years after Lizzie was there).

3. She was bossy.

Multiple accounts exist of her being proud, haughty, and willing to speak her mind. Once she returned from the Grand Tour, she had so many souvenirs and gew-gaws to display, that she and her older sister Emma swapped bedrooms. It's important to note that one larger bedroom funneled into a smaller one—almost as if the second bedroom were a closet to the first. Lizzie had traditionally slept in the smaller room, but somehow a change was effected after her return. Did Emma offer, or did Lizzie demand? 

Gimme your room! And this chair!

4. She loved animals.

The largest bequest in Lizzie's will was to the Fall River Animal Rescue League ($30,000 in 1927 dollars!). She was known to love and cherish the pets she had after the murders; there is no mention of pets beforehand. Was part of the "problem" that she wasn't allowed to keep a dog in the house? Lizzie ordered expensive, carved tombstones for her dogs. 

And of course: the pigeons. Lizzie kept pet pigeons in the family barn. Two months before the murders, her father killed them all because neighbor boys had been breaking into the barn to mess with them. Apparently, her father hadn't understood the sentimental value and care she lavished on them (or did he?) Was the pigeon slaughter just one more straw that was put upon the proverbial camel's back?

No...don't...it hurts... [from thriveumc.org]

5. It is possible she tried to poison the family.

Eli Bence, a druggist in Fall River, tried to testify that he had seen Lizzie try to purchase prussic acid (click link for more on this), but his information was suppressed during the trial. When was she trying to buy this poison, more commonly known as cyanide? Oh...just THE DAY BEFORE THE MURDERS. 

In writing The Murderer's Maid (my novel about Lizzie Borden from the maid's point of view), I had to decide how to tackle this sticky issue. Did she really try to purchase poison? Why did the judges (three of them!) decide the jury shouldn't hear Bence's testimony? And isn't it interesting that in the days before the murders, the entire household was vomiting, and Mrs. Borden even told the doctor she thought someone was trying to poison them? 

Typical drugstore of the era

I get tense just typing all this, want to go back in time and throttle the judges! Ha ha. This is when history is at its best, when our emotions get caught up in it. 

If you enjoyed this post, you may wish to read Five Interesting Facts About the Real Bridget Sullivan. You may also wish to read my novel based on the case:

Buy links for the Murderer's Maid are here:

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. . . . .

My other historical novels:

A medieval German woman is accused of witchcraft by her own daughter-in-law.

"A well-constructed novel and a gripping, well-told story of faith and truth."

           —Khaled Hosseini, international bestselling author of The Kite Runner

“Beautifully written, nary a word out of place, and with a few moments that throw you beyond—the way good books do.”
           —San Francisco Chronicle
A San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2007

Buy links for The Witch's Trinity:

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A Boston prostitute shows up in San Francisco at the very beginnings of the Gold Rush, and quickly learns she's in dangerous territory with a killer targeting her kind.

"LOVED Woman of Ill Fame! Nora Simms is hilarious, heartbreaking, tough, perceptive...
and one of the most engaging characters I've ever met between the pages of a book." 

                   —Diana Gabaldon, author of Outlander, now a Starz miniseries

"Mailman serves up vivid description, sparkling prose and a Gold Rush prostitute as scrappy as Scarlett O’Hara."

                    —Oakland Tribune

Buy link for Woman of Ill Fame ebook:

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 . . . .

A diptych is worth 2,000 words

Here are the actors in the upcoming Lizzie Borden movie, paired with their historical counterparts.

Lizzie and Chloë Sevigny

Bridget Sullivan (the Borden maid) and Kristen Stewart

Abby Borden and Fiona Shaw

Andrew Borden and Jamey Sheridan

Kim Dickens and Emma Borden. Emma was Lizzie's sister. Absent the day of the murders, she was sent a telegram that her father was very ill because it was thought the real news was too shocking to be delivered in that manner. Subsequently, she delayed returning to town until the evening, only to learn he had actually been hatcheted to death, and her stepmother too.

Welcome home.

Kim Dickens in L.A. Times

Jay Huguley and William Moody (junior prosecuting attorney trying to get Lizzie convicted, with Attorney Knowlton)

And Jody Matzer plays Officer Fleet of the Fall River Police Department:

Another character I'm very keen on learning the actor for: Alice Russell. She was the friend Lizzie called for after the murders (rather than, oh say, the police).


. . . .

Don't forget to follow this blog (scroll down or see column on right-hand side) and/or follow me on Twitter (@ErikaMailman) to keep up with news on this movie as I hear about it and read posts about the historical Lizzie Borden. My book The Murderer's Maid is now out in the world. As of this update (Jan. 2018) the book is on the front "new fiction" tables at selected Barnes & Nobles nationally. Or see the links below the book jacket to order.

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Other historical novels I've written. To learn more, visit my official website.

. . . .

More about the Lizzie Borden movie

I understand filming wrapped before the holidays in Savannah, Georgia, and that the film is to be released "sometime in 2017." I for one cannot wait. Just the idea of sitting in a movie theater watching the trailer gets me all excited!

A few fun things to add: looking at a map of Fall River, Massachusetts (where the Borden murders took place), I saw that one of the streets leading to the cemetery where Lizzie and her family are buried is called Sevigny Street. Coincidence?? I've heard Chloe Sevigny--who plays Lizzie--has an interest/fascination in the story. Is it because relatives of hers lived in Fall River?

This photograph of Chloe sitting on the sofa (not the original, but very close to it visually) where Andrew Borden died can be found on the wall of the gift shop at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast. Whaaa....t? You didn't know the murder house is actually a themed B&B? It is. I stayed there last summer in the attic bedroom of Bridget Sullivan--the character whose point of view I chose for my novel The Murderer's Maid, coming out in October 2017--and will blog about that in detail later.

This picture of the movie set came from Twitter (#Lizziethemovie), and you can see how very closely the set conforms to the actual room. Or actually, maybe you can't because the photos are taken from two different angles. EPIPHANY: Okay, actually as I'm blogging, I'm realizing this MUST be a picture from the actual home, because in the distance you see faucets on the sink. That wouldn't be the case with a period set, but is indeed the case with the true house, because after the murders a series of real people lived in it and ate in it and required modern appliances.

Okay, this one I know for SURE is the movie set, because it bears no resemblance to the actual house in Fall River.

Photo by David on Flickr/Creative Commons

Here's the actual house in Fall River. What's interesting to me is that the movie house is far more grand, because the family's money (wealthy) and Lizzie's access to it (restricted) forms quite a bit of a murder motive. Lizzie desperately wanted to be successful in society, hold grand parties, entertain...but her father wouldn't let her, and the house was in a part of town looked down upon (literally) by fancier hills residents.

Next door even lived Irish people (shudder!), who were considered low-class at the time. After Andrew Borden's body was discovered, the Irish maid Bridget was sent to fetch Dr. Bowen across the street....because every clearly-mutilated corpse deserves to have its absent pulse noted....when he wasn't there, instead of getting Dr. Kelly who was right next door, Lizzie instead sent Bridget to get her friend. Why not Dr. Kelly? He was Irish. And why no police? Because she was guilty. ;)

Speaking of Bridget, she's played in the movie by Kristen Stewart. She's a fantastic choice, and I can't wait to hear if her Irish accent is an authentic brogue. Stewart is 26 years old, as was Bridget at the time of the murders. Kismet? Interestingly, I just reread a section of the trial transcripts where Bridget reveals she doesn't know when her birthday is. How strange that is...so much of our identity is wrapped up in our births and celebrating that day. Maybe I'll invent a birthday for Bridget and start celebrating it in some weird way.

Kristen Stewart on set as Bridget Sullivan, Lizzie's maid

Lizzie was 32 at the time of the murders, and Chloe is 42, but of course Lizzie didn't have access to wonderful aesthetician creams, so looks far older than lovely Chloe.

Let's see...I also saw a photograph of a seaside home on the Twitter page, which excited me because it looks like this movie is trying to cover the historically-accurate bases.

This could be a photo of the seaside cottage at Marion, a trip Lizzie was supposed to take with her girlfriends--and instead was at home on a hot August day when her father and stepmother were murdered. More likely, however, it's a picture of the Swansea home, where she and her family vacationed. It was a meaningful house sentimentally, but there is evidence that her father was about to sell it, putting it in her stepmother's name, just days before the murders. A previous example of Mr. Borden putting a home in his wife's name led to incredible angst within the household--so angsty that Lizzie stopped calling her stepmother "Mother," as she had done for nearly three decades, and instead called her Mrs. Borden until the time of her death. So: motive motive motive.  Kudos to the filmmakers for getting this right. I can't wait to read the script sometime.

And of course...watch the movie.

I'll continue to blog about Lizzie Borden and anything I hear about the movie in progress. Please follow my blog if you want more updates; see the sign-up in the right hand column when you scroll down. 

. . . .

Lizzie: the movie

It's so exciting to know that the Lizzie movie is filming right now in Savannah, Georgia! Twitter is slowly seeping wonderful photographs from the set and I'll share some below. Apparently, Daniel Radcliffe is also in town filming something else; kind of fun to think of him, Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny hanging out lifting a glass at the end of the day shooting.

Expelliarmus?

Another exciting announcement comes from Publisher's Marketplace.

November 18, 2016 - THE MURDERER'S MAID by Erika Mailman

Fiction: General/Other

Bram Stoker finalist for THE WITCH'S TRINITY Erika Mailman's THE MURDERER'S MAID, in which a young woman tries to stay one step ahead of a mysterious stalker and learns she has a connection to the infamous Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her father and stepmother with a hatchet in 1892, to Lisa McGuinness at Yellow Pear Press, in a nice deal.

I'm delighted that I'll get to see my main character*, Bridget Sullivan, the Borden family maid, depicted on the big screen by Kristen Stewart. Here's imdb's article about the as-yet-unnamed film.

*It's important to note that the movie filming now is NOT based on my novel or screenplay, but is coincidentally on the same beloved topic.

or maybe the film is titled: "Lizzie?"

My book will launch on Halloween 2017, and I'm hopeful it will coincide with the film's release. The Lizzie Borden narrative is worthy of scrutiny, as it has a lot to say about the lives of women in that era (for instance, the jury didn't believe it possible that a woman could be capable of such violence, and in fact no woman was allowed to sit on her jury). The frustrations of someone outside of society, unmarried, angry, un-air-conditioned (don't laugh, but Lizzie's town was undergoing a massive heat wave at the time of the murders)...it's all a fascinating look at a bygone era.

A penetrating glance from Chloe Sevigny...compare to the real Lizzie, below

Meanwhile, enjoy these sneak peeks into the upcoming movie!

The Borden house for the movie

Texting her employer, "I still think you're innocent."

. . . .