Silent Sundays: The Greatest Question (1919)

“However light or frivolous we may be all of us rebel at the thought that our high dreams, hopes and loves shall only end in the bitter dust of death.”

            The Greatest Question begins with the main character Nellie as a little girl. Her family are peddlers and have stopped in a small town. As Nellie is out walking she sees a man and a woman murder a young woman and then bury her. She runs to her mother and father but they just calm her down and then leave.

            Ten years later Nellie (Lillian Gish) is returning to the small town with her mother who is very sick. She has to pull the wagon over because the jolts from the wagon bother her mother. Down the road lives the Hilton family. They are poor farmers but they all love each other. The youngest son Jimmie was on his way to give bread to those who are less fortunate then they are when Nellie sees him walking down the road. She calls to him to get a doctor for her mother. Nellie sits in the wagon holding her lifeless mother. The doctor tells the bereft girl that her mother will never wake up.

            Nellie stays with the Hiltons for a while. When she goes to leave Mrs. Hilton has her stay and live with them. Jimmie is very that Nellie is staying. They go everywhere together. One day he even tries to kiss her but she does not like that. Jimmie’s older brother Johnny goes off to the Great War and now there is no one to help with an extra income. Nellie offers to get a job to lessen their burden. Mrs. Hilton protests but despite the pleas she goes looking.

            The Hilton’s neighbors, the Cains, have been looking for help so Nellie goes to them. When Nellie comes into their house and speaks to the couple she feels uneasiness and apprehension. She does not want to take the job but news has come that Johnny has died fighting and now feels she must take the position at the House of Shadows as the Cain’s house is referred to. On the day Nellie leaves Jimmie walks her to the border of the property. They do not want to let each other go.

            The Cains are no good. Mrs. Cain is cruel and punishing while Mr. Cain is never far away from her with lust in his thoughts. Mrs. Hilton gets a feeling that Nellie is in some sort of trouble and sends Jimmie to go check on the girl. Mrs. Cain is furious with Nellie for breaking a plate and yells and beats her. Mr. Hilton sees Jimmie running and stops his son. Jimmie tells him he has to go see Nellie because of his mother and his father makes him stay to help him on the farm. Nellie manages to get out of the house. She runs down the path where she once did when she was younger and saw the murder. She has “vague memories” of something she witnessed when she was young but it does not fully come to her. She gets back to the house and stands outside the window. Looking in Nellie sees the family has gotten the ten dollars she sent them and how happy they are. Nellie decides to go back to the Cain’s house.

            Mr. Hilton has had enough of not being able to keep up with his farm he wants to give it all up and go work in the poor house. That night Mrs. Hilton goes to their memorial for Johnny in the garden and prays to him for help. His apparition comes to them and lets them know that everything will soon be fine and that he loves them. At the same moment Mrs. Cain was about to kill Nellie with a gun out of jealousy but she stopped herself.

            The next day the Hilton’s find oil on their property. All their problems are solved. Jimmie wants to go tell Nellie and runs to the Cain’s house. At the same time Mr. Cain is chasing after Nellie he can no longer resist. He chases her all the way up to the attic. Nellie calls for help out of the attic window and Jimmie hears her. Mrs. Cain joins in on chasing Nellie she can no longer hold her jealousy at bay. The couple takes her downstairs. Jimmie comes just in time to beat Mr. Cain and take Nellie away. Sometime later the Cain’s are taken away to jail.

            The Greatest Question was alright. It was sweet and happy and I am going to uplifting. I liked how the mother kept her faith because she knew something good would come to them. Lillian Gish was wonderful. She was beautiful. For once she was not a damsel in distress, well to a certain extent she was but she did not over act. D.W. Griffith directed this film. I am not too crazy about his directing. Like most of his films there was a small side story that definitely did not need to be added. The Greatest Question I will suggest seeing if you like silent films and like Lillian Gish otherwise it is not necessary viewing.

 

Silent Sundays: The Musketeers of Pig Alley 1912

Made in 1912 The Musketeers of Pig Alley is the first film to portray gangs and gangsters. This is a genuinely short film by D.W. Griffith running seventeen minutes long. At last I found a film by the director that just gets to the main point of the story! (If you do not normally follow this blog I tend to find that Griffith’s films are way too drawn out and about an hour too long).

            A gangster named Snapper Kid is the head of the Musketeer Gang. The gang is located in a poor neighborhood where they prey on the people. Living in the neighbor is the Musician and his wife The Little Lady (Lillian Gish). The Musician has been given the opportunity to make money and will be away for a few days leaving The Little Lady by herself.

            When The Musician comes back, Snapper and his associates beat him and steal his money right in front of his apartment. The Musician vows to get his money back.

            One night The Little Lady reluctantly goes to the Gangster’s Ball with her friend. The Little Lady meets a gangster who is a rival to the Musketeers. Snapper knows the gangster is up to no good when he sees him take The Little Lady to a private room. Snapper runs into the room and saves The Little Lady from the gangster’s evil intentions.

            This intervention sparks revenge. The gangster and his crew go looking for the Musketeers. They have a shoot out in the alley near The Musician’s apartment. The Musician comes out in the middle of the fight and beats Snapper until he finds his money.

            When the fighting dies down, the police arrive to arrest the men who are still alive. Snapper runs into the apartment looking for a place to hide. He runs into The Musician and The Little Lady’s apartment. He tells The Musician he was the one who saved his wife from the other gangster and begs for them to tell the police officer who has followed him that he was with them to whole time not out in the alley. Since he saved The Little Lady they agree to tell the police officer he was with them.

            I liked the story of The Musketeers of Pig Alley. It looked like Snapper Kid was the true bad guy until the other gangster tried to drug The Little Lady. This story of a mean gangster who finds redemption would become popular several years later but for 1912 this story was something new.

            There is no denying that Griffith was a genius director. Each frame of the film is innovative and beautifully created. You can feel the tension mounting between the rival gangs as Griffith cut back and forth between each member as they were walking towards the alley for their final shoot out. The whole time you are waiting and waiting for something to happen then it does and it is over before you can blink. That was genius it just leaves you stunned and amazed and leaves no time for your nerves and attention to break. Griffith wrote the screenplay with Anita Loos. Whenever I hear Anita Loos’s name I immediately think of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I have to admit I was a little surprised to see Loos attached to a gangster film but after researching her a bit I found out she spent a little time in the underworld with her alcoholic father.

            What makes the film even more stunning is the acting. There was no over the top silent film acting it was genuine and real. Lillian Gish, who was nineteen at the time, was perfect. She was not in it too much but what scenes she was in she just nailed them.

            The Musketeers of Pig Alley is an all around greatly made silent film. Martin Scorsese lists this as a film that has influenced his filmmaking. Anyone studying film and wants to become a filmmaker The Musketeers of Pig Alley is a must see film. 

Silent Sundays: Battle of the Sexes (1928)

“The battle of the sexes- Always being fought but never won”

            Battle of the Sexes was a silent film I have heard of but was never able to see until TCM aired it some time ago. As with all movies I have loaded on my DVR it takes me forever to get through them (I still have some of Ginger Rogers’s and Kay Francis from TCM’s Summer Under the Stars!!) because they are on the only DVR in the main living room of my house where everyone is and there is no way they would let me watch an old movie in piece. Anyway, I finally got around to watching Battle of the Sexes. I saw it was a DW Griffith film and I almost died but then I saw the length and thought well that is pretty good since all the films I have seen of his so God forsaken long. Unfortunately for me even with a shorter length the film just dragged as with all of the Griffith films I have seen so far.

            I am not even going to write out a summary. All you have to know is that a family man comes into money through a very good business deal. He loves his family with all his heart and his wife and children love him even more in return. Down the hall lives a younger woman who is a gold digger and in on a scheme with another guy that I do not know if he is her boyfriend or just a guy she does business with. She reads about the newly rich man and tries to win him over. She does win the man over and they begin an affair that almost breaks up his marriage and almost leads to his wife committing suicide and his daughter killing the woman. In a not so surprising ending the man realizes how much he loves his family and what he has done to them and the wife and children take him back.

The End

With a title like Battle of the Sexes I was expecting this to be a slinky sexy silent pre-code and instead it turned out to be boring. When I hear a title like this one I imagine sex and cheating and all kinds of pre-code goodness.  Maybe that was my major problem with the film I was expecting a Divorcee/A Free Soul type film and it just fell flat. DW Griffith was a great director he got some excellent shots… when he stuck to the main story that is. I cannot stand the way Griffith goes off the main story to add some humor. That bothered me to no end in Way Down East I felt he got so far off the main story.

   I do want to mention that I loved the clothes the actress playing the daughter was wearing. The outfits were so late 1920s they very pretty. They were pieces of clothing I would love to wear today... actually I think I have seen outfits like that around lately. 

            Battle of the Sexes is currently on Youtube. I am not going to say not to see it, give it a try if you want. 

Silent Sundays: Orphans of the Storm (1921)

I do not know why I did not check the running time for Orphans of the Storm before I sat to watch it. I should have known the film would have been long for my attention span at the moment and that the story would be good but drag horribly since it is a D.W. Griffith film. The same thing happened to me with this film as it did with Way Down East- the main plot was very good but all the subplots dragged the story down. The time period of the story takes place during the French Revolution which after doing my whole senior thesis on Jacques- Louis David and the revolution I am so sick of the subject so that was drag down number one right there for me.

            The film begins with an aristocratic young girl having to give up her baby daughter Louise because she had the baby with a commoner. One of the servants leaves the baby on the doorstep of Notre Dame for someone to take her. Not too long after a poor man unable to provide for his own baby daughter Henriette goes to leave her on the steps of the church as well but he comes across Louise. He sees that the baby is cold and helpless and he does not want that for his daughter. He brings the babies home to his wife. Wrapped up in Louise is a pouch of money.

            The girls are happily brought up as sisters (played by real life sisters Lillian and Dorothy Gish). Their world is brought crashing down when their parents die from a plague and Louise is stricken blind by the same sickness. Henriette hears that a possible cure for her sister’s blindness can be found in Paris. On their way to the city the carriage breaks down blocking the way of the carriage of a marquis. The marquis is taken with Henritette’s virginal looks. He plans to have two of his men kidnap for the poor girl. Not long after they enter the city and stop at the place they were to be staying Henriette is indeed kidnapped and Louise is left to wander after her sister alone. Louise is found by a young man named Pierre Fouchard who takes her home. Unfortunately his mother is an old hag who just begs for money. She sees that Louise will be good for them since she is pretty and blind more people will pity her and give her money.

            Henriette is brought to an aristocratic orgy. When she wakes up all she wants to know is where her sister is. The party goers think she is putting on an act. A young man saves her and falls in love with her. He is the Chevalier de Vaudrey nephew to the young woman, now a countess, who gave up Louise. For a long time Henriette searches for her lost sister. The Count is cruel and will not let de Vaudrey use the police to help find a commoner’s sister. The Count wants de Vaudrey to marry a rich girl to boost the family. The Countess finds Henriette to have a talk with her. Henriette knows that she could never be with de Vaudrey but she loves him. The Countess sees a book with Louise’s name stitched into it. Henriette pulls out her sister’s locket that she has had since she was a baby and the Countess immediately recognizes it. Right outside the window Henriette hears her sister’s singing and calls out to her. Before Henriette can open the door guards come in to arrest her on orders from the Count who does not want de Vaudrey to marry this girl at any cost.

            Henriette is sent to a place for fallen women. There she meets a kind man named Danton who says he has met her sister before. Henriette is not in the prison long for the Revolution has commenced and she is set free. De Vaudrey, for being an aristocrat has been sent to a prison far outside of the city.

            Louise for months has been tortured by the old hag and her other son. The other son starts to go after Louise one night and Pierre finally has enough, stabs his brother, and runs away with the poor girl.

            De Vaudrey gets out of prison. He is warned not to go back to Paris because any aristocrat who wants to enter the city will be killed. De Vaudrey is only worried about Henriette he does not care about himself. The plan goes well for a while until a man named Jacques who has a deep hatred for the aristocracy spots him. The former aristocrat finds his love in her apartment. Jacques’s men find them together and arrest both of them because Henriette was harboring an aristocrat which is punishable by death.

            The lovers are sentenced to die but Danton hears that the poor girl he saw in the prison is being sentenced to die when she did nothing wrong in harboring the one she loves. As time runs out he gives a great speech that sways the crowd of people who are the tribunal and the couple is granted a pardon. Danton and his men arrive in the nick time before Henriette can be killed and saves the pair.

            In the end Louise’s blindness is cured and reunited with her mother where Henriette and de Vaudrey live as well.

            The Gish sisters were very good. Lillian was excellent. She had the most beautiful eyes especially in the scenes where she had them wide in excitement or horror. It is crazy to think that Lillian was twenty-eight when she made this film she looks not a day over sixteen. Dorothy I would like to see more of but it is clear which sister had the most talent and was the most photogenic.

            So here is two hours of Orphans of the Storm summed up on two pages. Seriously this is the plot and I saved you two hours and twenty-three minutes of your life. Well I should not say that I still thing you should see Orphans of the Storm because it is an excellent film but as I said it draaaaagggggsssss!!!

             

Silent Sundays: Way Down East (1920)

Way Down East is a very long silent melodrama. Now when the word melodrama is associated with a film today that usually means it is way too overdramatic and silly. There are some scenes that are overdramatic but are acted phenomenally by Lillian Gish.

            Anna Moore (Gish) is a poor country girl who goes to live with some rich relatives in the city. Her cousins do not like her very much because she is very pretty and they try to hide her especially from a rich young man named Lennox Sanderson. Lennox “Has three specialities—ladies—Ladies – and LADIES.” Unfortunately all the cousins’ hiding of Anna goes in vain when Lennox lays on her. He sees her as innocent and naïve- perfect for his next conquest.

            Anna believes that Lennox really loves her when he proposes to marry her. He sets up a fake wedding and she is not to tell anyone about it. A while later she tells him that she is having a baby and he tells her about the wedding. Lennox also says that he will give her money to go away. Anna does eventually go away when her mother dies to a small town. In the town she has her baby but the baby gets sick and dies. The landlady kicks Anna out because she does not have a husband.

            Anna wanders to a small town where gets a job with a man named Squire Bartlett. He thinks Anna is a loose woman because she just wandered into the town. Bartlett’s son David falls in love with Anna but she will not let him fall for her because of what happened to her and she does not want his reputation ruined by being with her. Also it just so happens that Lennox has a house nearby. When they see each other for the first time he tells her to leave but she will not.

            The former landlady comes into town. She sees Anna and unfortunately repeats her story to the town gossip. The gossip goes back to Squire Bartlett and tells him the whole story. He wants to kick Anna out that night but his wife tells him to get the truth first. He does go the next day to the landlady and kicks Anna out that night. Before she goes she says yes what happened to her is true but before she goes she gives Lennox away as the perpetrator. David comes back just as this event happens. At first he is upset but when Anna gives up Lennox he runs over to fight the man. Anna leaves during a bad snow storm and loses her way. David goes to look for her.

            When David finds Anna she has collapsed on a piece of ice floating down river towards a fall. In a thrilling and suspenseful conclusion David saves Anna and she is forgiven by his father and the community.

            Lillian Gish was phenomenal. That is the only way to describe her in this film. In the beginning you want her to have a fun life and meet people to get out of her country ways; when she meets Lennox you know his intentions are wrong so you want her to realize that before it is too late; when she gets in trouble you feel terrible and know things are not going to be easy for her; when her baby dies you want to cry with her; when the town finds out her secret you want to save her. Gish’s acting for the silent era is perfect she does not do histrionic gestures she reacts just as a normal person would have reacted (ok maybe not after all this is a movie). I could not get over how adorable her face was. She was not pretty or gorgeous she was adorable but with this great expressive eyes. Like her good friend Mary Pickford she expressed so much with just her eyes. I had seen Gish before in Night of the Hunter when she was older and obviously it was not a silent film. It was great to finally see her in a silent film.

            Richard Barthelmess was great as David. David was such a nice character. Barthelmess was a good actor too he did not overact.

            This was the first time I have ever seen a DW Griffith film. I fully understand why the man was ahead of his time and a complete genius. His shots were beautiful especially the end on the ice floats.

            My favorite scenes were the most heartbreaking ones: as after the doctor tells Anna her baby is very sick someone mentions that he is not baptized but a priest cannot get to him until morning. Anna knows the baby is not going to make it through the night so she looks in the Bible and baptizes him herself. I cannot even explain the look of sadness on her face as she does this just thinking about it makes me want to cry a little. The other scene is when she is living in the village and she sees a little baby. She bends down taking the baby’s hand and kissing it as the baby plays with her scarf. Again it is the look of sadness on her face as she thinks of her own baby.

            Looking at this film with modern eyes can be very frustrating. Today if a woman gets pregnant and she is not married there is no social stigma. Some people who are traditional may think so but she does not have to wear a scarlet letter. Way Down East was made in 1920 when this topic was outrageously taboo in real life and a woman did carry a social stigma especially with the religious. I felt terrible for Anna and so angry at the people who looked down upon and kicked her out ESPECIALLY because the whole situation was not her fault. Damn Lennox tricked her!! There is a scene towards the end when Lennox says something about people finding out about her and she says the same thing to him but he responds that it is different for him because he is a man. Dear God I could have punched my computer screen! But that kind of think does still hold a bit true men can go out with so many girls and not be called anything but a woman who sleeps with however many guys and she is labeled a whore.

            Way Down East is a great film. The one and only complaint that I have about it is that it is way too long. At two hours and twenty-five minutes it could have been cut down an hour. There are so many subplots that at times they take away from the main story. I really did not care if this one guy was chasing down the town gossip or if some people were standing around the post office in the middle of the winter or about a dance. Besides the length the story is great and the characters are very good. The performance by the entire cast was fantastic. Way Down East is considered one of the greatest silent films and should be seen at least once by film buffs.