Stubs – The Birth of a Nation (1915)

The Birth of a Nation aka The Clansman (1915) Starring: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry Waithall, Miriam Cooper, Mary Alden. Directed by D.W. Griffith. Screenplay by Frank E. Woods (Scenario), Story arranged by D.W. Griffith. Based on the novel The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan by Thomas Dixon (New York, 1905) and his play of the same name (New York, 8 Jan 1906). Produced by D.W. Griffith. Run Time: 190 minutes original release. (187 minutes as viewed) U.S.  Black and White. Silent, Drama, Melodrama

In 2013, Trophy Unlocked celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the production of the first feature film made in Hollywood, The Squaw Man (1914). In 2014, the centennial of the start of Charlie Chaplin's career with Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) and the release of the first feature length Hollywood comedy: Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914).

For 2015, we look back at one of the most controversial films ever made on the 100th anniversary of its release, The Birth of a Nation (1915). The film went into wide release on February 8, 1915.

If you only know the name D.W. Griffith from this film, you’re missing out on a lot. He was a major film director and is arguably one of the most influential filmmakers ever. He first became interested in writing for films and in 1907 brought a script to Edwin Porter, then a producer at Edison Studios. Though he turned down the script, Porter offered Griffith a role in the film Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest (1908). Griffith later took a job as an actor at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, commonly known simply as Biograph. When the studio’s main director, Wallace McCutcheon grew ill and his son wasn’t able to fill his shoes, Biograph offered the job to the then 33 year old Griffith.

Griffith directed his first film The Adventures of Dollie (1908), a 12-minute short, and he would direct a total of 49 more before the end of the year. In 1909. he would direct nearly 150 and in 1910 about 100 more, including the first film shot in Hollywood, In Old California (1910). You could say he was the first filmmaker to see the advantages of shooting there. During his career at Biograph, Griffith would direct some very influential films, including The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), a 17-minute short that is credited not only as the first gangster film, but also for its use of follow focus.

But Griffith wanted to make longer films. He made one of the first feature films shot in the U.S., Judith of Bethulia (1914), but Biograph wasn’t really interested in long movies and their higher production costs, so Griffith left. Though the film was completed in 1913, Biograph delayed its release so they wouldn’t have to pay Griffith profit-sharing.

With his stock company of actors, which included Lillian Gish, Griffith formed Reliance-Majestic Studios with Harry Aiken, who had been the manager at Majestic. Reliance-Majestic was an autonomous unit under the Triangle Film Corporation, which included Thomas Ince and Keystone’s Mack Sennett. Triangle’s films were distributed through the Mutual Film Corporation. Griffith also took over Kinemacolor, a company with an early color-film process. Part of what he got with the Kinemacolor takeover were the rights to make a film based on Thomas Dixon, Jr.’s novels The Clansman and The Leopard’s Spots and the play written by Dixon based on them, The Clansman.

The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Klu Klux Klan, published in 1905, was the second book in a trilogy Dixon wrote about the KKK, which included The Leopard’s Spot (1902) and The Traitor (1907). The trilogy was written by Dixon as a message to Northerners to maintain racial segregation and was also credited with a revival of support for the KKK.The Klan was known for their violence against African-Americans during Reconstruction, following the Civil War.

Griffith, who was a Southern by birth and whose father fought for the Confederacy, has been labelled a racist for making the film. However, Griffith never espoused a belief in segregation or support for the Klan as anything more than an historical relic. According to Bret Wood, who produced the Griffith set for Kino, the director chose stories not for their political content but for their potential to thrill audiences.¹ Wood also pointed out that a few years before making Birth of Nation, Griffith made the short, The Rose of Kentucky (1911), in which the Klan is shown as evil, attacking a white plantation owner who refuses to join their ranks. [I have no insights into Griffith's political beliefs and am not trying to support what may be perceived as his personal racist views.]

The cost of buying the film rights to the book, $10,000, was more than Griffith had. He could only afford $2,500. In exchange for money, Griffith gave Dixon a 25% interest in the picture. Even though Dixon was reluctant, his share in the runaway hit made him a very rich man as he earned several million dollars as a result.

Despite the scale of the film, Griffith’s budget was surprisingly small. It started at $40,000, less than a million in today’s dollars, but ended up at $112,000, which is equivalent to $2.1 million today. As a result, Griffith had to find additional capital for his film.

To hide the size of the budget, Griffith used smoke and explosions to hide the gaps in the battlefield scenes, for the Battle of Petersburg, which were shot in the San Fernando Valley, near where the current Universal Studios now stands. He also used a relatively small number of camera set ups, which also saved on costs. I’ve also read that some costumes were actual surplus uniforms from the War itself.

As a director, Griffith, who had been an actor himself, was known for treating each actor differently, giving them as much instruction as they needed. Griffith believed in rehearsals and camera tests prior to actually filming a scene. With an actress like Lillian Gish, with whom Griffith had worked with for several years, he gave her free rein to develop her character. With someone like Mae Marsh, he supposedly fed her each gesture throughout a scene.

The Birth of a Nation is told in two parts that were originally separated by an intermission, as this film was considered long in its day.

Prior to the start of the film, there is an introductory title card calling for "A Plea for the Art of the Motion Picture." This was added to the film during its second run by Griffith, added due to controversy and protests over the film's subject matter and political point of view. This title card does not appear on prints from the first run of the film.

                                                                                                                                

Part 1: Civil War of United States

We are introduced to two families, the Northern abolitionist, Stonemans, led by Congressman Austin Stoneman (Ralph Lewis), based on Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. Stoneman has a daughter, Elsie (Lillian Gish), and two sons, Tod (Robert Harron) and Phil (Elmer Clifton).

Juxtaposed to them are the Camerons, who live on their Piedmont, South Carolina cotton plantation with slaves. Dr. Cameron (Spottiswoode Aitken) and Mrs. Cameron (Josephine Crowell) have two daughters, Flora (Mae Marsh) and Margaret (Miriam Cooper), and three sons, Ben (Henry B. Walthall), Wade (George Beranger) and Duke (Maxfield Stanley).

Despite their being opposites on the political spectrum, the families are old friends. The Stoneman brothers got to visit the Camerons on the verge of the War. Phil falls in love with Margaret, while Ben falls in love with a photo he finds of Elsie Stoneman. Tod and Duke are shown to be “chums”.

Northern abolitionists meet Southern slave owners when
Austin Stoneman's sons (l) visit the Cameron family (r)

While the film strives for historical recreations, or what the title cards call historical facsimiles, the war is played out largely off-screen. We see President Abraham Lincoln signing a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers, but we don’t see much combat right away.

Following Bull Run, there is a ball held in Piedmont on the night prior to its young men joining the Confederate Army. Bonfires are lit outside as well. The Stoneman boys also join the army on the Union side.

The film then skips ahead two and a half years. By then, the tide has turned against the South. A black militia, under the leadership of a white Union officer, ransacks the Cameron house, taking or destroying anything of value they find and even setting the house on fire. The Cameron women, who are hiding in a basement, are rescued when Confederate soldiers arrive and rout the militia.

As the war continues, the younger Stoneman son and two of the Cameron brothers are killed in the war. Tod and Duke, who are reunited on the battlefield, die next to one another.

Pre-war "chums", Tod Stoneman (Robert Harron) and Duke Cameron
(Maxfield Stanley), die side by side on the battlefield.

Ben, who earns the nickname “The Little Colonel” after leading a heroic charge at the Battle of Petersburg is wounded.

Ben (Henry B. Whathall), nicknamed "the Little Colonel", leads his men in the Battle of Petersburg.

This is the one battle that is shown in the film, as a representation of all battles. The action goes off to the horizon and is quite impressive with its scale.

The epic sweep of the Battle of Petersburg. Smoke is used to mask the number of combatants.

Meanwhile, Elsie Stoneman has started working as a nurse and Ben ends up under her care. While he’s recovering, Ben is told that he will be hanged for being a Confederate guerilla. Ben’s mother, who travels to Washington D.C. to tend to her son, is taken by Elsie to see President Lincoln, whom she persuades to pardon Ben. When Ben does return home later in the film, Piedmont is a ghost town.

Ben's mother (Josephine Crowell) pleads her son's amnesty
with President Abraham Lincoln (Joseph Hensbery).

There are a couple of other historical facsimiles in Part 1, including Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox Court House, with General Grant played by Howard Gaye and Lee by Donald Crisp.

Following this is the assassination of Lincoln at Ford’s Theater. This is the longest of the facsimiles and the most detailed. John Wilkes Booth (Raoul Walsh) waits for the opportunity and bursts into the President’s box and shoots him before leaping to the stage below. All of this is witnessed by Elsie and her brother who are attending the play, Our American Cousin.

John Wilkes Booth (Raoul Walsh) about to assassinate President Lincoln in The Birth of a Nation.

With the President, who had been willing to welcome the South back into the fold, now dead, radical congressmen, like Austin Stoneman, become determined to punish the South. Setting us up for Part 2.

One thing I noticed during Part 1 is Griffith’s use of title cards. While in many silent films they are used to fill in for the dialogue we would expect to hear, Griffith uses them almost exclusively to set up a scene or a historical fact, but the dialogue between characters is rarely spelled out, only inferred. Since no one ever addresses anyone by name, it makes it somewhat difficult to know character names.

The battle scene, which the film is known for, is spectacular, especially given the depth of field, which some combatants hundreds of yards away from the camera set up and out of earshot of Griffith. To get around this, Griffith employed assistant directors who were down in the trenches, directing their small groups of actors, the way a commanding officer might the troops in his charge.

There is another similar shot of Sherman’s Army marching through the South. You can see the long columns of soldiers with the house they’ve set on fire to one side and the family they’ve displaced watching from high up the hill helpless on the other.

Tinted film is used, and it really depends on the state of restoration of the version you watch as to how much is seen. While I know that the tinting is used for effect, blue for night and red for fire, I think the use obfuscates the film images and doesn’t really seem necessary to the film, though I’m sure there was an effect Griffith was going for.

The film uses tinting, such as blue for night. Depending on the quality of the print, this tinting can obfuscate the visuals.

The pacing is slow, especially by modern standards. Takes are longer and without words, the actors have to be more exaggerated physically. It’s hard to judge acting from this era, as they are most likely performing what was expected at the time, but what we view now as melodramatic and overacting. But you can see a real difference in a relatively restrained performance by Lillian Gish and a more exaggerated one from Mae Marsh.

Blacks in the South are depicted as being relatively happy with their lives as slaves. When the Stoneman’s come to visit the Camerons, the slaves are shown dancing and when the Piedmont boys join the Confederate Army, the slaves are there cheering them on. While I can’t say for sure, many if not all the blacks depicted in the film are really white actors in blackface makeup.

Part 2: Reconstruction

With Lincoln dead, there is a power vacuum in Washington D.C. and Stoneman steps in. He sends his mulatto protégé Silas Lynch (George Siegmann in blackface) ahead and Lynch sets up operations in Piedmont. We’re shown how much things have changed as black occupation soldiers parading through the streets and pushing white residents, like the Camerons, aside on the sidewalks. Lynch makes a point of confronting Ben, who is momentarily prevented from leaving his own house by passing soldiers, telling him pointedly that the black soldiers have as much rights as he does. Ben will not forgive nor forget this.

Silas Lynch (George Siegmann) being introduced to Ben by Austin Stoneman (Ralph Lewis).
 Elsie Stoneman (Lillian Gish) looks on as Ben refuses to shake Lynch's hand.

Health concerns send Stoneman south as well and he heads to South Carolina in 1871 to observe the implementation of Reconstruction firsthand. He makes the Camerons' home his headquarters. With the Camerons and Stonemans reunited, the cross family love affairs can be rekindled. However, the scars of the War still cause problems. Margaret especially has trouble as she recalls how Northern soldiers killed her brother, causing her to physically and emotionally pull away from Phil Stoneman.

Margaret Cameron (Miriam Cooper) is traumatized by
the death of her brother at the hands of Northern soldiers.

In Piedmont, at the next election, white voters are disenfranchised, while blacks are shown stuffing the ballot boxes. Lynch wins election as the state’s Lieutenant Governor. Those blacks who did not vote the party line are whipped by other blacks and sympathizers shot when they interfere. The new state legislature has a majority of blacks and members are shown putting their bare feet on the desks, drinking on the floor, and eating peanuts and fried chicken during sessions.

Newly elected black legislators are shown in a negative light:
 eating chicken and putting their bare feet on the desks while in session

The newly elected legislature passes laws requiring white civilians to salute black soldiers and allowing mixed-race marriages, stoking the worst fears of white Southerners of the time. We see Ben discussing things with other whites in the Cameron home and telling stories that make it sound like blacks are going to run things into the ground.

When Ben sees some white children scaring off black children with a white sheet and pretending to be ghosts, he gets the idea of forming the Ku Klux Klan. When Elsie finds out about Ben's plans, she breaks off her relationship with Ben out of loyalty to her father.

Even though there are warnings for whites to stay inside, Flora goes off alone to fetch water. Following her is Gus (Walter Long, in blackface), a freed slave and now in the Army. He’s attracted to her and confronts her about his desire to get married. Flora flees further into the forest and Gus pursues her to a precipice. Flora warns Gus she’ll jump if he comes any closer. When he does, rather than give into him, Flora leaps.

Flora (Mae Marsh) leaps to her death to escape the sexual advances of freed slave Gus.

She doesn’t die right away and is found by her brother Ben, who has been looking for her and has seen her jump. She dies in his arms and presumably tells him why she leapt. He carries her body back to the Cameron house and then gathers the Klan to hunt down Gus. The Klan puts him on trial, finds him guilty, and lynches him. They then dump his dead body on the steps of Lt. Governor Lynch’s house where it is discovered the next morning.

Gus (Walter Long) is hunted down, tried and lynched by the KKK for acts leading to Flora's death.

Lynch then orders a crackdown on the Klan and even having the costume is punishable by death. When Ben’s is discovered in Dr. Cameron’s house, the father is arrested. But Ben and their faithful black servants rescue him, and flee. However, their wagon breaks down and they’re forced to continue on foot through the woods, taking refuge in a small hut which is home to two sympathetic former Union soldiers. The former enemies agree to hide them and as the title card states, "The former enemies of North and South are united again in defense of their Aryan birthright."

Congressman Stoneman leaves town to avoid being connected with Lynch's crackdown. Elsie, learning of Dr. Cameron's arrest, waits anxiously for her father to return. When he’s late, she goes to Lynch for help. Lynch, who had been lusting after Elsie since first seeing her, tells her that he wants to marry her. He is forceful and Elsie faints. Stoneman returns, causing Lynch to place Elsie in another room. At first, Stoneman is happy when Lynch tells him he wants to marry a white woman but is then angered when Lynch tells him that it is Stoneman's own daughter.

Elsie screams for help when Lynch tries to force her to marry him.

Undercover Klansmen spies, wearing blackface naturally, discover Elsie's plight when she breaks a window and cries out for help. Elsie falls unconscious again and revives gagged and bound. The clans gather together and, at full strength under Ben’s leadership, ride into Piedmont to regain control of the town. When news about Elsie reaches Ben, he and others rescue her and capture Lynch. The victorious Klansmen celebrate in the streets of Piedmont.

Clansmen ride into Piedmont and take control of the town.

Meanwhile, Lynch's militia surrounds and attacks the hut where the Camerons are hiding. The Klansmen, once again led by Ben, race to the scene and save the Camerons just in the nick of time.

Elsie finds out that her savior is Ben in the robes of the KKK.

On the next election day, with the Klansmen in charge, blacks are intimidated into not voting.

The film concludes with the double honeymoon of Phil Stoneman and Margaret Cameron and of Ben Cameron and Elsie Stoneman. In parallel, the masses are shown oppressed by a giant warlike figure who gradually fades away. The scene then shifts to another group finding peace under the image of Jesus Christ. The title card rhetorically asks: "Dare we dream of a golden day when the bestial War shall rule no more? But instead-the gentle Prince in the Hall of Brotherly Love in the City of Peace."

While the depiction of blacks as happy and content slaves was bad enough in Part 1, their stereotypical depiction in Part 2 is far worse. To boot, they’re shown as devious, sexually perverted and equated with evil. Easily led by Northern Carpetbaggers, like Lynch, the now freed slaves don’t seem to know what to do with their freedom.

The KKK is shown as being the great equalizer for Whites, as they literally ride to the rescue time and time again, dispensing their brand of justice. We’re led to believe that the KKK has God on their side, as they are the only ones who can bring peace to the troubled lands in the South.

While the South was being punished to a certain extent by the victorious North, the racist vigilante justice of the KKK is a black mark on U.S. History, the same as slavery was as well. In a nation that preaches equality, there is no place for racism nor bigotry and it is sad that such a monumental film would be seen to promote negative stereotypes and condone the travesties carried out by the Clan. It's hard not to watch the film and not be left with that impression. Again, Trophy Unlocked does not support the viewpoints expressed in the film.

Like Part 1, the pace of Part 2 is slow for modern aesthetics, as shots linger. Title cards are used more frequently for dialogue but are still mostly there to set up scenes. Gish’s acting style is still relatively restrained, except when she realizes she’s in love with Ben and leaps around her room with glee.

The film was produced by David W. Griffith Corp., but distributed by Epoch Producing Co. In large cities Epoch would negotiate with individual theater owners for a percent of the ticket sales; in some cases, Epoch would sell off whole states or territories to a single distributor, known as states rights distribution. One such distributor, Louis B. Mayer, who controlled New England, would make enough that it would allow him to start making his own films and would lead eventually to the formation of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

Tickets went for about $2, which is equivalent to about $47 to $50 now. Calculating box office is difficult given the distribution. Estimates are that the producer’s share was between $4.8 to $5 million. Since Epoch took about 10% of the ticket receipts and relied on theater owners, who often underreported, estimates of The Birth of a Nation’s box office for its initial run range from $50 to $60 million. The film was considered to be Hollywood’s biggest box-office champ film until Gone With the Wind (1939).

The film’s release, given the subject matter, was not without controversy. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) protested premieres in several cities. The NAACP asked for the film to be banned, but since most review boards were made up of whites, few initially blocked the film.

There were riots in cities like Boston and Philadelphia and the film was seen as causing white on black crimes, including a white man murdering a black teenager after viewing the movie in Lafayette, Indiana. The film was eventually banned in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and St. Louis.

Dixon, the author of the source material, was a former classmate of President Woodrow Wilson and arranged for a screening at the White House, the first movie to be shown there. Dixon supposedly promoted a quote attributed to Wilson, “It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." When the controversy surrounding the film got too big to ignore, Wilson issued a statement that he disapproved of the “unfortunate production.”

The NAACP also used the film as a springboard for public education, pointing out many of the films inaccuracies and falsehoods about the War and Reconstruction.

[The film is still controversial to this day. A few years back, the then Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles tried to show The Birth of a Nation, but the screening was canceled due to protests.]

Griffith, who was hurt by the negative criticism, wrote letters to newspapers and published a pamphlet accusing critics of censoring unpopular opinions. He would make Intolerance (1916) as a reaction to the criticism he received. Several of the actors from The Birth of a Nation would also appear in Intolerance, including Walter Long and George Siegmann, white actors who had been made up to play black and mulatto characters. Thomas Dixon, who’s books and plays revived interest in the Klan, was not enthusiastic about the group's second era. He felt that, unlike the KKK of the Reconstruction era, the new KKK was bigoted. He also called anti-Semitism “Idiocy”. But on the other hand, he felt it was the duties of whites to "lift up and help the weaker races", so I wouldn't characterize him as a progressive thinker.

Dixon would write a sequel novel, The Fall of a Nation, in 1916 and direct the film version himself. The Fall of a Nation (1916), which is seen as an attack on the pacifism of Williams Jennings Bryan and Henry Ford, has America unprepared for an attack by the “European Confederate Army” led by Germany. The film is considered by many to be the first-ever film sequel and was a commercial failure.

Lillian Gish, who played Elsie Stoneman, had a screen career that spanned 75 years from 1912 to 1987. As a child, she worked in her mother’s Majestic Candy Kitchen in East St. Louis, Illinois, where she sold candy and popcorn to patrons of the Majestic Theater next door. Even though she was living with her Aunt and Uncle in Massillion, Ohio at the time, when the theater burned down, the family moved to New York City. One of her good friends there was next-door neighbor Gladys Smith. Smith was a child actress who was working with Griffith at the time. Lillian and her sister, Dorothy, would get the acting bug, get involved in the theater, and tour in different plays.

Gladys, who would take the stage name Mary Pickford, introduced the sisters to Griffith in 1912 and he put them in a movie together, An Unseen Enemy (1912). After appearing in 25 shorts and features in her first two years as a film actress, Gish became a major star and was eventually known as "The First Lady of the Silent Screen". She would appear in many of Griffith’s major works including The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920) and Orphans of the Storm (1921).

Gish would later sign with Metro Pictures, which would become MGM, and starred in The White Sister (1923). She would appear in Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) as an uncredited extra and star in La Bohème (1926), The Scarlet Letter (1926), Annie Laurie (1927), The Enemy (1927), and The Wind (1928). When the latter was considered a flop, MGM dropped Gish.

She only made a few films in the 1930s before returning to the stage. She would be considered for several roles in Gone With the Wind, but not be selected. She would return and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Duel in the Sun (1946). She would also appear in Portrait of Jennie (1948), Night of the Hunter (1955) and A Wedding (1978), but would do a lot of work on television. Her last screen appearance was working with Bette Davis, Ann Sothern and Vincent Price in The Whales of August (1987).

As I wrote earlier, I find it hard to judge the acting of many silent movie stars. Their movements, especially in movies from this time period, always seem to be exaggerated as they use their whole bodies to express an idea or an emotion that would normally be communicated through words. That said, I must say I liked Lillian Gish. She’s cute and seems natural in front of the movie lens, especially in comparison with the other female lead, Mae Marsh.

Marsh also got her big break due to Mary Pickford. An actress at Biograph, Marsh appeared in small roles until Pickford, the studio’s resident star, refused to play the role of Lily-White in Man’s Genesis (1912). The role would call for Pickford to appear bare-legged and in a grass skirt. Griffith told her if she wouldn’t play Lily-White, she couldn’t star in his next film, The Sands of Dee (1912). The role of Lily-White and the subsequent lead in The Sands of Dee went to Marsh.

Working with both Mack Sennett and Griffith, Marsh appeared in nearly 60 films between 1912 and 1914. She would appear in both The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance before signing with Samuel Goldwyn, making $2500 a week. After she married Goldwyn’s publicity agent, Lee Arms, in 1918, her output decreased to about one film a year. Her last notable silent film, though, was for Griffith, The White Rose (1923). She would retire from films in 1928 but return to appear in Henry King’s Over the Hill (1931). She would also appear in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms (1932) and Little Man, What Now? (1934). Director John Ford liked Marsh and featured her in such films as The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), 3 Godfathers (1948), The Robe (1953), and The Searchers (1956).

If her performance in The Birth of a Nation is any indication, Marsh seems to be more of the stereotypical silent actress than Gish. Marsh’s Flora is hyper, kinetic, and overly dramatic. Still, she’s not out of line with the acting style of her time, it’s just that it wears thin after 100 years.

As a side note, three notable actors turned directors appear in The Birth of a Nation. John Ford (uncredited) appears as a Clansman in Part 2. Raoul Walsh, also uncredited, plays John Wilkes Booth in the historical recreation of Lincoln’s assassination. And finally, Jules White, who would later direct the Three Stooges in many of their Columbia Pictures shorts, also appears as a Confederate soldier.

While The Birth of a Nation tells a bigoted story, it is a very well made film for its time. Griffith was a very talented and influential film director, no matter what you may think of his political view or at least the view expressed in this film. I don’t know if this is how he really felt or has been suggested, he thought the Clansmen would simply make a good story. Technically, this is a very well made film by a director that not only understood the medium, but was also one of its pioneers and innovators. The fact that this is one of the few silent film titles most people have heard of, and is still controversial, shows the staying power of what Griffith created.

Now would I recommend this film? Honestly, if you really love films and more importantly, film history, you should see The Birth of a Nation at least once. Trophy Unlocked does not endorse the political viewpoint of the film, but technically, this is one of the standards by which other feature-length silent films at the time are judged. It is also a bit of a history lesson, not so much about the Civil War or Reconstruction, but more about what was considered popular entertainment 100 years ago. You can see how far we've come as a society that such overt racially insensitive messages, although they still exist, are no longer considered mainstream fare.

But like Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935), in order to appreciate the technique of the director, you have to divorce the work from the subject matter. [Triumph of the Will is considered by some to be a masterpiece of film making, but also Nazi propaganda in much the same way as The Birth of a Nation is propaganda for the KKK.] If you can’t do this, then you should not watch the movie, as the politics expressed will no doubt upset you.

¹ D.W. Griffith in Black and White by Bryan Curtis, Slate magazine: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/dvdextras/2003/01/dw_griffith_in_black_and_white.html

Stubs – It All Came True

It All Came True (1940) Starring: Ann Sheridan, Jeffrey Lynn, Humphrey Bogart, ZaSu Pitts, Una O’Connor, Jessie Busley. Directed by Lewis Seiler. Screenplay by Michael Fessler, Lawrence Kimble. Based on the short story "Better Than Life" by Louis Bromfield in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan (Jan 1936). Produced by Jack L. Warner, Hal B. Wallis. Run time: 97 minutes. US. Black and White. Comedy, Crime, Musical, Drama

On the cusp of the 1940’s, Bogart was still a B-actor making B-movies at Warner Bros. He seemed to be a perpetual second or third on the bill, never the headliner. Known for portraying gangsters, he played it tough, but always got outsmarted or outgunned by a bigger name, like James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson.

75 years ago finds Bogart one year away from his big break, The Maltese Falcon, but it must have seemed like it was never going to happen for the 40-year-old actor. He had no way of knowing that in a year’s time he would become an icon and eventually become perhaps the biggest star Hollywood ever created.

While making It All Came True, Bogart was working on another film, the big-budget Errol Flynn western, Virginia City, in which Bogart was fourth billing behind Miriam Hopkins and Randolph Scott. Literally, for weeks he traded off between the roles, playing urban gangster in the morning and a western desperado in the afternoon.

Aspiring songwriter and piano player Tommy Taylor (Jeffrey Lynn) pins his hopes on the promises of his employer, gambler, gangster, and recluse "Chips" Maguire (Humphrey Bogart). Having finally had enough, Tommy tells Chips that he’s through and wants to quit. But the resignation is halted when the police raid Chips’ nightclub.

Taking Tommy with him, Chips escapes, but discovers that one of his associates, Monks (Herb Vigran), has betrayed him to the police. Using a gun registered to Tommy, Chips shoots and kills Monks on the spot. Chips informs Tommy in their taxi cab escape that he had Tommy carry the gun for just such a situation. If the police find the gun, Tommy will be the fall guy.

When Chips (Humphrey Bogart) discovers one of his associates, Monks,
has betrayed him, he gets his own revenge. Tommy (Jeffrey Lynn) watches.

Chips uses this to blackmail Tommy into providing him a hiding place, a theatrical boarding house owned by his mother, Nora Taylor (Jessie Busley), and her longtime friend, Maggie Ryan (Una O'Connor). Tommy hasn’t been home for five years and Nora keeps thinking up stories to explain this. She tells Maggie that Tommy will someday be a big success. They need for that to come true, because the mothers owe back taxes, less than $1200, and are on the verge of losing the boarding house to the bank.

Nora is overjoyed to see her son after such an absence and is only too happy to rent a room to Tommy’s friend, who pretends to be a man named Grasselli recovering from a nervous breakdown. The room used to belong to a long-time tenant, now dead, whose taxidermy specimens are still on display. Grasselli is told not to touch anything, nor does he want to.

By chance, Maggie's showgirl daughter, Sarah Jane (Sheridan), returns home the same day. And once again she is flat broke. While the two mothers dream of their children getting married, they’ve known each other all their lives, Tommy seems indifferent to Sarah Jane.

Sarah Jane becomes suspicious of Grasselli, since he does his best to avoid being seen. She eventually hides in the hall bathroom and recognizes him, having worked for him once. Unwilling to get Nora and Maggie in trouble, she agrees to keep Chips' secret. Chips asks her to come by and talk to him sometime since he’s going stir crazy looking at the stuffed monkeys.

Meanwhile, Sarah Jane makes up with Tommy, who she finds is writing songs. (There seems to be a rule that all sound Warner Bros. films have a song in them somewhere.) Tommy plays a couple of his compositions for her, "Gaucho Serenade" and "Angel in Disguise". He teaches her the songs and she decides they could work up an act (of course).

Sarah Jane (Ann Sheridan) finds out her old boyfriend, Tommy, also writes songs.

Nora starts mothering Chips, as does Maggie after a while. Chips, who doesn’t like mothers, now has two. Tired of hiding in his room all the time, Chips emerges and becomes acquainted with the other boarders: Miss Flint (ZaSu Pitts), Mr. Salmon (Grant Mitchell), washed-up magician The Great Boldini (Felix Bressart), and Mr. Van Diver (Brandon Tynan).

Chips doesn't like mothers, but ends up with two: Nora Taylor (Jessie Busley) and Maggie Ryan (Una O'Connor).

In honor of his coming down, the former performers put on a show for Chips. Mr. Salmon reads his original poetry and The Great Boldini does his magic act, but unwillingly, thanks to his dog, ends up doing a comedy routine. Sarah Jane and Tommy steal the show with their song and dance number.

Chips watches the other tenants perform and dreams of making the boarding house into a nightclub.

That night, when Sarah Jane learns that Nora and Maggie are about to lose their house, she turns to Chips for help. He gives her the money but tells her that it will only postpone their financial problems. He suggests (out of sheer boredom) that they set up a small exclusive nightclub, The Roaring Nineties, in the boarding house, with the added advantage that Tommy and Sarah Jane can showcase their talents. Nora is enthusiastic and makes up a story about how a successful nightclub could save them, but it takes some persuasion to get Maggie to go along.

Meanwhile, Miss Flint sees Chips' picture in a crime magazine and recognizes him as Mr. Grasselli. She confronts him and enjoys feeling control over him. Chips starts to pack to leave, but Sarah Jane knows if he leaves, the boarding house will close. Sarah Jane intimidates Miss Flint into keeping quiet, since guys like Chips have stool pigeons killed and in a gruesome manner.

Sarah Jane intimidates Miss Flint (ZaSu Pitts) to keep her from talking to the police about Chips.

On opening night, Chips makes remarks that further scare Miss Flint. Drunk on too much champagne, she becomes so frightened that she goes to the police asking to be arrested for her own protection. When she finally confesses that it’s Chips Maguire she’s afraid of, two detectives go to the nightclub to arrest Chips.

The policemen agree to let him watch the rest of the show, as he promises something if they do. Tommy sees the cops and assumes the worst, that he, too, will be arrested. He goes to the roof to be alone. When Sarah Jane joins him there, he finally admits he loves her. She urges him to flee, but he refuses to run away.

After the show, even though he can easily incriminate Tommy, Chips sees how happy Sarah Jane is with Tommy and decides to let the police take him in, even though he refuses to talk without his lawyer present.

In the end, all of Nora’s stories about love and money do seem to all come true.

Seeing how happy Sarah Jane and Tommy are, Chips decides to give himself up to the police.

Sort of an odd film, a mashup of the gangster, musical comedy, and drama. There is a murder committed early on, but the rest of the film is interesting without being tragic. While Bogart doesn’t embarrass himself, it is clear why he’s not best remembered as a comedian. The role of Chips Maguire was originally offered to George Raft, who turned it down, deeming it a Humphrey Bogart part. I don’t think that was meant as a compliment.

You almost feel sorry for Bogart, because he is clearly typecast and trapped in the B-movie universe at Warner Bros. In It All Came True, he’s playing a part he could no doubt play in his sleep by this point in his career. Still, he has a screen presence that demands the attention of the viewer. Clearly, he hasn’t earned the respect of the studio heads and is biding his time waiting for better things to come.

While this would appear to be a star-vehicle for Ann Sheridan, Sarah Jane is a role Bette Davis reportedly turned down first. Sheridan is good in the part, even if she’s not the reason I wanted to see the film.

Shapely with a head of red hair, Sheridan got into films almost as a joke. While attending North Texas State University, Sheridan’s sister, Kitty Kent, sent her photo to Paramount Pictures’ “Search for Beauty” contest. Ann, then called Clara Lou, emerged the winner of the local contest. The prize was a bit part in a Paramount Pictures film and Clara left college for Hollywood. Her first appearance in film was at the age of 19 in the movie that resulted from the contest, Search for Beauty (1934).

After playing parts at the studio where she didn’t receive screen credit and with no one trying to develop her talent-wise, she moved to Warner Bros. It was at Warners where a press agent dubbed her The Oomph Girl. While she reportedly loathed the moniker, Paul Muni convinced her that it would further her career, so she acquiesced and became an overnight sensation.

She is best remembered for her roles in films such as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Dodge City (1939), Indianapolis Speedway (1939), Torrid Zone (1940), They Drive by Night (1940), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), Kings Row (1942), Nora Prentiss (1947), The Unfaithful (1947) and I Was a Male War Bride (1949). During her career, she worked with such actors as James Cagney, George Raft, Bogart, Ronald Reagan, and Cary Grant.

Her film career slowed down considerably in the 1950s, with parts becoming harder for her to get, so she moved to television, appearing on Stop the Music (a Name That Tune type of show) in 1950, Wagon Train, and the soap opera Another World. She died in 1967 at the age of 51 of esophageal and liver cancer.

The other actor receiving billing over Bogart is Jeffrey Lynn. Lynn, a former school teacher, first appeared in Out Where the Stars Begin (1938), but received notice in Four Daughters (1938) appearing with Claude Rains, John Garfield, and the Lane Sisters: Rosemary, Lola, and Priscilla. The film spawned two sequels Four Wives (1939) and Four Mothers (1941), all including Lynn. A fourth film, Daughters Courageous (1939), has much of the same cast but is about a different family than the other three.

Following the success of Four Daughters, Lynn was screen-tested for the part of Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind (1939). Though the part would eventually go to Leslie Howard, Lynn was used extensively in the “Search for Scarlett” screen tests. He also appeared in The Roaring Twenties (1939) and The Fighting 69^th (1940). His career was interrupted by military service during World War II, but when he came back to Hollywood he never did find his groove. He appeared in A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and Strange Bargain (1949), but his career stalled. In the 1960s, he would also appear in Butterfield 8 (1960) and Tony Rome (1967). His last appearance was on an episode of Murder, She Wrote in 1987, The Days Dwindle Down, a remake of Strange Bargain, and reunited him with his co-stars from that film, Martha Scott and Henry Morgan.

Compared to Bogart, Lynn doesn’t have the same screen presence. Again, like Sheridan, he’s good, but I can’t stop thinking he’s taking away screen time that should have gone to Bogart.

The rest of the supporting cast is pretty solid, featuring the likes of ZaSu Pitts, whose career is touched on in the review of The Plot Thickens (1936); Felix Bressart, perhaps best remembered as Pirovitch in The Shop Around the Corner (1940); Una O’Connor, who had small but memorable parts in such horror classics as Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1933) and The Bride of Frankenstein (1936); and Jessie Busley, a stage actress/comedian who appeared in only six feature films: Personal Maid (1931), Brother Rat (1938), King of the Underworld (1939), Brother Rat and a Baby (1940), It All Came True and Escape to Glory (1940).

Felix Bressart and ZaSu Pitts head up the supporting cast of It All Came True.

The film also features some rather forgettable stage acts: Tommy Reilly, The Lady Killer's Quartet, The Elderbloom Chorus, Bender and Daum, and White and Stanley; no doubt vaudeville performers getting their shot in Hollywood. I don’t believe any of them ever caught on and for good reason.

The story is strictly movie fare, in that there is no way this would really happen in real life. Realism is never a requirement for a movie, but this is obviously not ripped from the headlines, the way so many Warner Bros. gangster films seemed to have been. The main curiosity for watching the movie is Bogart. He’s still struggling with third-billing behind actors that his career would soon enough eclipse. It All Came True is a solid-B picture and no doubt provided a pleasant diversion when it was first released. Still does to this day. 

Stubs – The Plot Thickens

The Plot Thickens (1936) Starring: James Gleason, ZaSu Pitts, Owens Davis Jr. Directed by Ben Holmes. Screenplay by Jack Townley, Clarence Upson Young. Based on the short story The Riddle of the Dangling Pearl by Stuart Palmer (Mystery, Nov. 1933). Produced by Samuel J. Briskin (Executive), William Sistrom (Associate). Run time: 69 minutes. US. Black and White. Mystery, Drama, Comedy

It seems Hollywood has always liked sequels. If The Thin Man was good, why not five more films with the same actors and the same basic frame work. Except, back in the heyday of studios they didn’t call them sequels so much as a film series. They weren’t called franchises, probably because studios made so many films that they weren’t dependent on one big film to carry the day as much as they are now.

But then as now Hollywood is always on the lookout for the source for a series of films. As with sequels today, they can develop a built-in audience that comes because they know what to expect. Sometimes there is a popular book or books that propels the series forward. In the 1930s one such series was made based on the characters developed by Stuart Palmer.

Author Stuart Palmer.

A former taxi driver and newspaper reporter, Palmer turned to writing fiction in 1932 with the mystery, The Penguin Pool Murder. His main character was a spinster school teacher named Hildegarde Withers, who also happened to be an amateur sleuth. Miss Withers was apparently based on Miss Fern Hakett, Palmer’s high school teacher.

RKO studios made a film version of Palmer’s book in 1932 starring Edna May Oliver. Her co-star James Gleason played Inspector Oscar Piper. While leading ladies came and went, Gleason would continue to play Inspector Piper in five more films. Twice more with Oliver, Murder on the Blackboard (1934), Murder on a Honeymoon (1935), once opposite Helen Broderick, Murder on the Bridle Path (1936) and twice opposite ZaSu Pitts: The Plot Thickens (1936) and Forty Naughty Girls (1937).

The Plot Thickens was only in production for a few weeks from mid September to early October 1936 and was released on December 11, 1936.

Pitts and Gleason’s first pairing, The Plot Thickens, starts late at night at the estate of John Carter (Richard Tucker). Two of Carter’s household employees are going out on a date, but Carter, who had promised them the roadster, commandeers it for himself. He tells them to take his sedan instead, but before they can take it, another household member, Joe (Paul Fix), the chauffer, takes it and follows the roadster.

While he’s out driving, Carter spies Alice Stevens (Louise Latimer) looking abandoned by the side of the road. He stops to offer her a lift when he is accosted by her boyfriend Robert Wilkins (Owen Davis, Jr.), who tries to stop her from going with Carter. Defending himself, Carter punches Wilkins, who is about to retaliate when a policeman who has witnessed the encounter steps forward. He plans to take Wilkins into custody, but Carter intercedes. Instead the policeman walks Wilkins back to his car, while Carter and the girl drive off. Even though the policeman tells Wilkins to go home, Wilkins promises revenge on Carter.

Later, when Carter puts the moves on Alice, she gets out of the car. While she is only a few feet away, Carter is shot and killed by an unknown assailant. Alice flees, looking for a phone to call the police. A gas station attendant (Billy Dooley) offers to let her use his phone, but before she can call the police, Wilkins, who has been following her, shows up. She tells him what happened and they return to the scene of the crime.

Trying to protect her, Wilkins sends her away in his car while he takes care of Carter’s body. Of course, the right thing would be to call the police, but that wouldn’t be thick enough for this plot. Adding flour to the gravy, Wilkins drives Carter’s car back to his estate.

But the next morning, Kendall (Arthur Aylesworth) finds Carter’s dead body in his study. He calls the police and inspector Oscar Piper (James Gleason) is assigned to the case. When you get Piper you also get Hildegarde Withers (ZaSu Pitts), a schoolteacher and clever amateur sleuth. Since first appearing in films, the character’s relationship had heated up. When Edna May Oliver played Hildegarde, she and Piper were careful not to touch. Now, Piper and Hildegarde are considered to be dating.

If Inspector Oscar Piper (James Gleason) is on the case,
amateur sleuth Hildegard Withers (ZaSu Pitts) is not far behind.

Oscar's first suspect is pretty Alice who was with Carter seconds before he was murdered, and her boyfriend, Wilkins whose jealous tirade against Carter had been witnessed. While inspecting Carter's house, however, Hildegarde discovers a mysterious jewel case containing a large emerald and learns from a jeweler that the gem is the famous Sultan emerald, which had been stolen years before from the Louvre. Her inquisitiveness nearly gets her arrested when the jeweler calls the police.

Under pressure from Oscar, Robert admits that, to protect Alice, he had returned Carter's corpse to his garage but not to the study. Back in his office, Hildegarde tells Oscar about the jewel and the two return to Carter's estate to question Joe, but Joe has fled. While Oscar tries to get to the bottom of Joe’s disappearance, Hildegarde goes through Carter’s study, looking at photographs of a decorative cup. With her back turned, Hildegarde is knocked out by a masked thief, who steals a cup from Carter’s safe that resembles the one in the photographs.

Hildegarde determines that the cup is the valuable Cellini Cup, which is housed in the city's Cosmopolitan Museum. At the museum, we see street kids running around making mischief and noise and a sculptress, Dagmar (Agnes Anderson), attempting to copy a museum piece. Hildegarde talks with Mr. Gordon (John Miltern), a guard very knowledgeable about the Cellini Cup. He shows Hildegarde that a dangling pearl in the cup vibrates to the clock chimes. But shortly after they talk, Gordon is murdered by being thrown down the steps. In the confusion, the cup is stolen, but the exits are locked and everyone is trapped inside. Dagmar is found unconscious and the police search in vain for a man wearing a derby. After an exhaustive search of the museum, the cup is found quite easily in the cloak room, wrapped as a package being held. But Hildegarde notices that its dangling pearl doesn’t vibrate; it’s a fake.

The police funnel everyone in the museum out through a single door and search them on their way out. Oscar notices one of the boys taking great interest and then running back into the museum to warn his accomplice, who happens to be Dagmar, of the search. The boy turns out to be a midget (John T. Bambury) in disguise, sort of a la Mission: Impossible. The Cellini cup is found in the base of Dagmar’s sculpture. Oscar and Hildegarde deduce that a gang of thieves connected killed Gordon (the only expert on the cup) and tried to plant a fake in its place.

With all the suspects lined up in Oscar’s office, the inspector, in the tradition of cozy mysteries, goes down the line, telling why each one has a reason to be a suspect. Joe snaps, stealing a policeman’s gun. But it’s full of blanks and he’s arrested for Carter’s murder.

It is the pairing of Gleason and Pitts that carries the film. Both are talented actors who possess great comedic timing. They make for a cute onscreen couple and the chemistry plays into the relationship between amateur sleuth and her policeman partner.

The pairing of James Gleason and ZaSu Pitts makes The Plot Thickens worth watching.

While I best remember Gleason as a bit actor, playing the parts like Sylvester the cab driver in The Bishop’s Wife (1947), there really was a lot more to the man. Like practically every film actor, he got his start on stage. He was also a writer of plays and for our purposes, dialogue for comedies. As an example, along with Norman Houston, Gleason is credited with writing The Broadway Melody (1929), the second film and first sound film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. And this was at the beginning of his career. He also made his first movie appearance in The Broadway Melody in an uncredited role.

In 1931, Gleason and Robert Armstrong, Carl Denham from King Kong (1933), starred in a radio sitcom, Knights of the Road. The syndicated series, sponsored by Union Oil, ran for 103 episodes which were each fifteen minutes long, including commercials. While I have never heard an episode, the series revolved around two men, oddly enough named Jimmy Gleason and Robbie Armstrong, who have a dream of opening a gasoline station on land they plan to buy from Robbie’s girlfriend’s father. Their plan is to tour the U.S. for one year, observing how other filling stations are run so they can make theirs the best.

Gleason would appear in Change of Heart (1934), which he also wrote; Meet John Doe (1941); Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), A Guy Named Joe (1943); Arsenic and Old Lace (1944); The Bishop’s Wife; Suddenly (1954) and The Night of the Hunter (1955) to name a few. He was nominated Best Supporting Actor for his role as Max Corkle in Here Comes Mr. Jordan, which he later reprised in the musical sequel Down To Earth (1947).

ZaSu Pitts’ career goes back even farther. She got her first break in films playing in The Little Princess (1917) starring Mary Pickford. She appeared in a series of one-reel comedies for Universal starting in 1919, which led to a rise in her popularity. Her first full length lead was in King Vidor’s Better Times (1919).

Known as a comedic actress, Pitts was cast in 1924 to appear in Erich von Stroheim’s adaptation of Frank Norris’ 1889 novel, McTeague. Called Greed, the original film is both celebrated and notorious for being a 9 and a half hour long, line for line adaptation of the book. Hailed by many, seen by few, Greed is often touted as one of the greatest films ever made. Pitts played Trina Sieppe, McTeague’s wife.

ZaSu Pitts as she appeared in Greed (1924)

Declaring the comedienne “the greatest dramatic actress”, von Stroheim would cast her in The Honeymoon (1928), The Wedding March (1928), War Nurse (1930) and Walking Down Broadway, released as Hello, Sister! (1933). Pitts would also show off her dramatic skills in Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).

She would also continue to make comedies: Finn and Hattie (1931), The Guardsman (1931), Blondie of the Follies (1932), Sing and Like It (1934) and Ruggles of Red Gap (1935). She would also appear in Life with Father (1947), the film adaptation of the long running Broadway play. Her last film was It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, playing Gertie the switchboard operator.

My first attraction to the film was the title, which, as it turns out, nails it. The plot is as thick as gravy. It is saved by the fairly brisk pace. This is a lighthearted approach to the murder mystery and there are some funny moments. One of the more memorable ones revolves around the search for the man wearing a bowler whom Dagmar claims knocked her out. The bowler the police find and are trying to match, unbeknownst to them, belongs to Oscar. Having not read Palmer’s short story, I don’t know if these are touches from his pen or from Jack Townley and Clarence Upson Young, who wrote the screenplay.

This is not a movie to take too seriously. This was meant as a comedic diversion rather than a heart-pounding mystery/thriller. The Plot Thickens follows the standards for what is termed a cozy mystery the established routine of a crime victim, suspects, clues, questioning, locked rooms, alibis and so on, throwing in comedy without being an outright spoof of the genre like The Cheap Detective (1978) or as over-the-top as say Clue (1985).

The Plot Thickens is a B-picture all the way and one that is worth watching, especially if you’re in the mood for a comedic cozy mystery.