Movies Way Back When: Religious Movie Made in Montecito

By Betsy J. Green

Several of the silent movies filmed at Montecito’s million-dollar mansions had a religious theme. “As We Forgive” was a 1920 movie made by the Historical Film Corporation on the Gillespie estate called El Fureidîs.

A young man is engaged to his boss’s daughter, but he royally screws up his life by embezzling from the company. He’s caught, serves time, and is released. After prison, he starts attending church and meets a minister who takes an interest in him.

Then, the movie jumps to a scene from the Bible called “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Philemon,” and actors traipse around the estate in robes and sandals.