Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1916)

September 23, 1916 MOTION PICTURE NEWS 1887 It is his ability to combine the spectacular with the intimate that makes him great — or at least that is part of his greatness. And so with the Babylonian theme he introduces the story of a mountain girl who worships the sight of Belshazzar. From the time she is introduced ranting in the marriage market until she dies defending her king, she is a constant center of interest. Constance Talmadge in this role creates an exceedingly sprightly and attractive character. The romance of Brown Eyes and her lover so rudely ended by the massacre furnishes the personal interest for the medieval story, while of course the story of the Christ needs nothing personal other than itself. Modern Story is Mostly Personal The modern story is mostly all personal. In it Mr. Griffith takes a hard whack at the mercenary reformists. His plot concerns a young husband and wife who sufTer unjustly at their hands, but who come through all right finally after a governor's pardon, thrillingly procured, has arrived just in time to save the husband from the gallows. This part of the picture, too, offers the greatest opportunities for acting, which are most ably taken care of. Mae Marsh as the wife surpassed her wonderful success in " The Birth of a Nation " and Robert Harron as the husband has seldom appeared to such good advantage. Other principals who appear in one part of the production or another are Josephine Crowell, Frank Bonnet, (excellent as Charles IX), Marjorie Wilson, Elmer Clifton, Eugene Palette, Alfred Paget, Seena Owen, Miriam Cooper, Walter Long and Lillian Gish. We find such well known members of the Griffith players as Bessie Love, Howard Gaye, George Walsh, Lloyd Ingraham, Max Davidson, Edward Dillon, George Siegmann and others doing parts that amount to little more than bits. In a production of such magnitude as " Intolerance," the camera work is almost a consideration second to none. It can only be added here that G. \\'. Bitzer and his staff have done flawless work in every instance. Some of the tints procured on the panoramas are little short of marvellous. It is natural that many will ask themselves and others whether " Intolerance " is as good as " The Birth of a Nation." From every standpoint it is, certainly. But as for comparisons one might as well attempt to compare the light shed by the moon with that of the sun — the two have an entirely different effect. The New Griffith By Henry MacMahon Editor's Note. — As Special Press Representative for " The Birth of a Natioti,'" loith the tiiagaciiies of the country as his field, Mr, MacMahon for the first six months of the career of that picture, was in intimate touch n'ith Mr. Griffith and lujd' many unusual opportunities to become acquainted ivith his views, and his dramatic and artistic ideals. The appreciation which Mr. MacMahon gives below of the great successor to " The I Birth of a Nation " is entirely spontaneous and should be of\ I more than passing interest to those who have followed the achievements of David W. Griffith and are looking forward to his future performances. BOLD Columbus sailing into uncharted seas, D. W. Griffith discovered another artistic continent. This is the continent, the Atlantis, the Prospero's isle of pure fantasy or imaginative reverj', and Griffith transmogrified has become a sort of ]\Iaeterlinck of the film. Such is the impression I derived from " Intolerance." To borrow Griffith's own foreword, " events are not set forth in their historical sequence or according to accepted forms of dramatic construction, but as they might flash across a mind seeking to parallel the life of the different ages." What is this but poetizing? How can it be called Drama at all? The comparison is with the vers libre of Walt \\'hitman or the encyclopaedic range of Goethe in " Wilhelm Meister " or the searching of heaven and earth in Maeterlinck's " The Blue Bird " rather than with any standard work of the legitimate or film stage. The new Griffith has enlarged the boundaries of film technique. He pictures four streams of action in four different periods of history which his facile mind classifies as striking examples of Intolerance. He might have given us, first, the Fall of Babylon; next, the persecution of the Man of Sorrow.; : third in order, the massacre of the Huguenots : fourth and last, modern Society's persecution of members of the " submerged tenth." But, instead. the poet's eye pictures these four actions traveling side by side and presented by brief alternating scenes of each. The almost incredible feat of carrying four stories along in parallel columns, so to speak, is successfuly performed. Undeniably the most successful of the stories are the Fall of Babylon and the modern tale formerly yclept " The Mother and the Law." Babylon's Fall proves to be a marvelous concept in which the commonly accepted version of Belshazzar's feast and the handwriting on the wall is knocked into a cocked hat and the monarch is represented as a patriotic prince trying lo restrain the bigotry of the priests. The one great acting reputation achieved in this part of the film is won by Constance Talmadge in the role of the Mountain Girl. The wild, untamed thing from the Susiana hills, her every breath virginal fire,, proves one of Griffith's happiest conceptions which is realized with beautiful artistic surety by the young actress. Renascence of Babylonian Art in Everyday Life Of the spectacle itself the director gave us some foretaste in " Judith of Bethulia." But that earlier splendid spectacle was circumscribed by bonds of limited expense and time pressure. With unlimited resource and unrivaled scholarly aid at his command, the producer has fashioned in the Fall of Babylon a classic for all time. I venture the prediction that it will be frequently reissued as a separate film, and certainly it will immediately start a renascence of Babylonian art in dress, architecture, sculpture and house decoration. The Christ story is somewhat too fragmentary, and the Huguenot and Catherine de Medici story I found somewhat muddy. I am inclined to think that these stories suffered from the author's kind intent to avoid giving offense. Yet both are illustrated by many noble pictures and scenes, among which I may mention the miracle of turning water into wine, the view of Calvary, Admiral Coligny and his family, and the horrific emotions of the female ^ledici, the instigator of St. Bartholomew's massacre. The work of Joseph Henaberry as Coligny and Josephine Crowell as Catherine de Medici recalled their fine performances in " The Birth of a Nation." " The ^lother and the Law " side of the spectacle may be characterized as social-problem melodrama. It starts with an attack on " social ufilifters " and points out the dangers of entrusting the regeneration of Society to moral and educational Foundations established by billionaire wealth. A plea is made for the workingman's beerdrinking and dancing parties. The evils of capitalism are shown in the grinding down of the toilers on the one hand and the trying to uplift them by intolerant reform at the same time. Intolerance drives the poor into the arms of the criminal classes, rifles the infant from the bosom of its mother, finds the wrong victim for punishment and all but hangs on the gallows the friendless type of ex-gangster who is " framed " by his former associates. The tale is told with the customarj Griffith melodramatic skill, intermingled with the charming domestic touches for which he is famous, and it is carried in the most convincing fashion by Mae Marsh as the girl-wife-mother and Robert Harron as the young ex-gangster husband. The attempted assault, the murder, the accusation, the chase and the fi*al rescue at the eleventh hour are indeed familiar components of Griffith melodramas, yet the acting is so human and so unexaggerated and the great climaxes are so magnificently handled that the spectator does not crave novelty of plot. A Poet's Far-Flung Vision Characterizes the Picture After all, the real novelty of " Intolerance " is the poet's farflung vision of the force of bigotry operating in many ages and climes, stifling the freedom of the human spirit and crushing ideality beneath the iron weight of its machine-made patterns. It is a vision that could not have been realized except through the medium of the film. By thus expressing it Griffith has enlarged the boundaries of Art. You could not convey " Intolerance " by novel, play, poem, painting or sculpture. Only the living, moving picture can embody the seer's revery of the past and the present. And, aside from questions of technique, particularly at this time is such a monumental production valuable. By its awful lessons it inculates a spirit of tolerance and bigmindedness which should be the hope of the New Era. " Live and let live ! " must be the slogan of Humankind, else it will sink permanently into the barbarism marked by a frequent recurrence of internecine wars and deadly economic struggles.