Karl Dane Movies

Based on the classic American novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, this silent period drama was put together by star Lillian Gish, who was forced by Louis B. Mayer to assure religious groups that the still-controversial material would not offend their sensibilities. Gish plays heroine Hester Prynne, who becomes the object of affection for Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale (Lars Hanson) in 17th century colonial Massachusetts. Hester is in a loveless marriage to Roger Prynne (Henry B. Walthall), who has not followed her to the colonies. After a trip home to England, Dimmesdale returns to discover that Hester has given birth to his daughter, Pearl, and has been branded with a scarlet letter "A" (for adultery) that she is forced to wear visibly on her person at all times. Hester forces the tortured Dimmesdale to keep the secret of Pearl's paternity, and the sudden appearance of Roger, who was shipwrecked and kidnapped by natives, further complicates matters. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

The Son of the Sheik, Rudolph Valentino's last film, may well be his best. A sequel to (and vast improvement upon) Valentino's 1922 blockbuster The Sheik, the 1926 film casts the legendary Latin Lover in the dual role of the now-older Sheik and his son Ahmed. The latter falls in love with bejeweled dancing girl Yasmin (Vilma Banky), the daughter of a scurrilous thief, who in turn is in cahoots with Ghabah (Montagu Love), "whose crimes outnumber the desert sands." Captured, held for ransom and tortured by Ghabah, Ahmed escapes, seething with revenge. Believing that Yasmin has betrayed him, he kidnaps the girl, spirits her away to his desert tent, and rapes her (not shown, of course, but brilliantly suggested by a series of wide-eyed, soft-focus close ups). Bitterly chastised by his father, Ahmed begins feeling pangs of remorse for his treatment of Yasmin, even more so when he learns that she is innocent of all wrongdoing. He follows Yasmin to her father's den of thieves, where he vanquishes all the bad guys, saving the unspeakable Ghabah for last. Son of the Sheik was partially filmed on location in the deserts of Yuma, Arizona, under intolerable conditions that caused virtually the entire cast and crew to fall seriously ill. The finished film manages to convey a tongue-in-cheek, larger-than-life approach to its melodramatic material without ever actually making fun of that material or condescending to Valentino's legions of fans. Rudolph Valentino had made Son of the Sheik in hopes of boosting his slightly flagging career; while it succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams, Valentino, alas, had died just before the film was released. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Big Parade was designed as a modest programmer concerning one young man's disillusionment in the face of war. When the MGM executives took a look at the projection-room rushes, they gave director King Vidor the go-ahead to film an all-out "spectacular", which ended up running 13 reels and costing a then-astronomical $382,000. Shorn of his matinee-idol mustache, John Gilbert is perfect as an all-American-boy who signs up for World War I service, dreaming of adventure and glory. The first half of the film is taken up with the jocular byplay between Gilbert and his army buddies Tom O'Brien and Karl Dane. These scenes seem to take forever, especially to those awaiting the big battle sequences that the MGM advertising copy had promised. But Vidor's slow buildup had its purpose; by lulling the audience into complacency, the director was able to shock the viewers with the horrors of war as suddenly and effectively as the doughboys had been shocked back in 1918. Gilbert survives the war, but returns home minus one leg (the film's script was written by Laurence Stallings, himself a war vet and amputee). MGM head Louis Mayer was terrified that the scenes of a crippled Gilbert would offend his fans, so he ordered that "protection" footage be shot with Gilbert being merely wounded, but with both legs intact. So powerful were the climactic scenes between Gilbert and his parents, however, that not one preview audience ever demanded that the alternate ending be shown. The film's many highlights includes the cute scene in which Gilbert teaches French girl Renee Adoree how to chew gum; the famous shot of Adoree desperately clinging to Gilbert as he and his fellow soldiers march to the front; the chilling Belleau wood sequence, in which the soldiers, walking stealthily amidst the tall trees, are picked off one by one by snipers; and the heart-rending reunion sequence, in which Gilbert's mother (Claire McDowell) embraces her amputee son as she flashes back to the time that he took his first steps. The only concession to MGM formula was in having Gilbert depicted as a wealthy young man, living in a mansion the size of Rhode Island. Though its original impact has been blunted by years of imitations, The Big Parade remains an unforgettable movie experience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Certainly the best-known of the out-and-out WWI propaganda films, My Four Years in Germany is also one of the silliest of the batch. The film was based on the book by James W. Gerard, who from 1913 to 1917 served as the American ambassador to Germany. Gerard, an avowed and somewhat rabid anti-German, also worked on the film; according to historian Kevin Brownlow, the former ambassador helped director William Nigh locate the actors who most closely resembled their real-life German counterparts (Gerard himself was played by Halbert Brown). Concentrating on the most extreme examples of German brutality -- the POW camps, the mass executions, the systematic humiliation of conquered countries -- the film "authenticated" its images by constantly flashing subtitles reading "FACT, NOT FICTION!" Not above resorting to caricature to make its points, the film depicts the Kaiser (Louis Dean) as a leering Devil Incarnate, and his General Staff as a collection of inbred morons. For example, Admiral Triplitz is seen playing with toy battleships, while Chancellor Von Bethmann-Holweig (played by Swedish actor Karl Dane, long before his prominence as a screen comedian) is likewise shown wasting his time in childish pursuits (Conversely, the enthusiastic bayonetting of half a dozen "Huns" by an American soldier, a scene that cannot be watched today without wincing, was treated as perfectly normal behavior!) While the atrocities of WWI were quite real, however, the re-creation of those outrages in My Four Years in Germany were purely the product of the filmmakers' imaginations, notably the scene in which German doctors blithely permit a group of POWs to die of typhus and even help spread the disease. The finished film proved so shocking that Major Metellus Lucullus Cicero Funkhouser, Chicago's official police censor, ordered that several of the more lurid scenes be removed. George Creel, chairman of the U.S. Government Committee of Public Information (popularly known as the Creel Committee), counterdemanded that Funkhouser be asked to resign, stopping just short of calling the Chicago-based censor a "pro-German." As it happened, Funkhouser was eventually removed from office for unrelated reasons (neither he nor Creel were precisely selfless saints), and his replacement, William Ludhardt, restored My Four Years in Germany to its original length. It is this restored version, running well over two hours, that survives today, an often ludicrous but undeniably powerful document of the prevailing national sentiments during the "War to End All Wars." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide