Olga Grey Movies
- 1917
With the exception of Joan the Woman, which contained a "contemporary" subplot, The Woman God Forgot was Cecil B. DeMille's first all-out historical spectacular. The story is set in Mexico during the reign of Emperor Montezuma (Raymond Hatton). Upon his arrival on Mexican soil, Spanish conquistador Cortez (Hobart Bosworth) sends Captain Alvarado (Wallace Reid) to the imperial palace with a demand for Montezuma's surrender. The emperor immediately puts Alvarado in chains, but he is rescued by Montezuma's daughter Tecza (Geraldine Farrar), who has fallen in love with the young Spaniard. This does not rest well with Tecza's parent-appointed fiance Guatemoco (Theodore Kosloff), who prepares to sacrifice Alvarado to the Aztec gods. To save her sweetheart, Tecza leads Cortez' army into battle against her own father. The price of her devotion to Alvarado is the total destruction of the Aztec empire, but rather than die herself (which would seem to be the logical denouement given the sequence of events), Tecza is permitted to live happily onward with her one true love. Though she was not exactly sylphlike, opera diva Geraldine Farrar wore her revealing costumes quite well, establishing a precedent for such later underdressed DeMille leading ladies as Gloria Swanson, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Though he was obliged to share directorial credit with Wilfred Lucas, Tod Browning graduated to "prestige" pictures with his 1917 release Jim Bludso. The film was based on a popular ballad, written by former U.S. Secretary of State John Hay. The original ballad ended tragically, as steamboat captain Jim Bludso sacrificed his life for the sake of his passengers. In the film version, however, Bludso (played by Wilfred Lucas) not only saved his ship, but also survived to win the love of the beautiful Gabrielle (Olga Grey). The film was shot on location along the Sacramento River, a familiar movie substitute for the mighty Mississippi. According to Tod Browning's biographers David J. Skal and Elias Savada, Wilfred Lucas' "co-director" credit may have purely been a contractual matter; recently uncovered evidence indicates that Browning was the sole director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wilfred Lucas, Olga Grey, (more)
Sometime during the shooting of the landmark The Birth of a Nation, filmmaker D.W. Griffith probably wondered how he could top himself. In 1916, he showed how, with the awesome Intolerance. The film began humbly enough as a medium-budget feature entitled The Mother and the Law, wherein the lives of a poor but happily married couple are disrupted by the misguided interference of a "social reform" group. A series of unfortunate circumstances culminates in the husband's being sentenced to the gallows, a fate averted by a nick-of-time rescue engineered by his wife. In the wake of the protests attending the racist content of The Birth of a Nation, Griffith wanted to demonstrate the dangers of intolerance. The Mother and the Law filled the bill to some extent, but it just wasn't "big" enough to suit his purposes. Thus, using The Mother and the Law as merely the base of the film, Griffith added three more plotlines and expanded his cinematic thesis to epic proportions. The four separate stories of Intolerance are symbolically linked by Lillian Gish as the Woman Who Rocks the Cradle ("uniter of the here and hereafter"). The "Modern Story" is essentially The Mother and the Law; the "French Story" details the persecution of the Huguenots by Catherine de Medici (Josephine Crowell); the "Biblical Story" relates the last days of Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye); and the "Babylonian Story" concerns the defeat of King Belshazzar (Alfred Paget) by the hordes of Cyrus the Persian (George Siegmann).
Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Rather than being related chronologically, the four stories are told in parallel fashion, slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity. The action in the film's final two reels leaps back and forth in time between Babylon, Calvary, 15th century France, and contemporary California. Described by one historian as "the only film fugue," Intolerance baffled many filmgoers of 1916 -- and, indeed, it is still an exhausting, overwhelming experience, even for audiences accustomed to the split-second cutting and multilayered montage sequences popularized by Sergei Eisenstein, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Joel Schumacher, and MTV. On a pure entertainment level, the Babylonian sequences are the most effective, played out against one of the largest, most elaborate exterior sets ever built for a single film. The most memorable character in this sequence is "The Mountain Girl," played by star on the rise Constance Talmadge; when the Babylonian scenes were re-released as a separate feature in 1919, Talmadge's tragic death scene was altered to accommodate a happily-ever-after denouement. Other superb performances are delivered by Mae Marsh and Robert Harron in the Modern Story, and by Eugene Pallette and Margery Wilson in the French Story. Remarkably sophisticated in some scenes, appallingly naïve in others, Intolerance is a mixed bag dramatically, but one cannot deny that it is also a work of cinematic genius. The film did poorly upon its first release, not so much because its continuity was difficult to follow as because it preached a gospel of tolerance and pacifism to a nation preparing to enter World War I. Currently available prints of Intolerance run anywhere from 178 to 208 minutes; while it may be rough sledding at times, it remains essential viewing for any serious student of film technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, (more)
The most successful and artistically advanced film of its time, The Birth of a Nation has also sparked protests, riots, and divisiveness since its first release. The film tells the story of the Civil War and its aftermath, as seen through the eyes of two families. The Stonemans hail from the North, the Camerons from the South. When war breaks out, the Stonemans cast their lot with the Union, while the Camerons are loyal to Dixie. After the war, Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall), distressed that his beloved south is now under the rule of blacks and carpetbaggers, organizes several like-minded Southerners into a secret vigilante group called the Ku Klux Klan. When Cameron's beloved younger sister Flora (Mae Marsh) leaps to her death rather than surrender to the lustful advances of renegade slave Gus (Walter Long), the Klan wages war on the new Northern-inspired government and ultimately restores "order" to the South. In the original prints, Griffith suggested that the black population be shipped to Liberia, citing Abraham Lincoln as the inspiration for this ethnic cleansing. Showings of Birth of a Nation were picketed and boycotted from the start, and as recently as 1995, Turner Classic Movies cancelled a showing of a restored print in the wake of the racial tensions around the O.J. Simpson trial verdict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, (more)
- 1915
Former D. W. Griffith assistant William "Christy" Cabanne, in collaboration with Frank E. Woods, called the shots in The Absentee-NRA. Robert Edeson, another Griffith alumnus, stars in this tale of labor unrest. When a justifiable strike goes on indefinitely, the owners call in the militia, with violent results. Many of the scenes are allegorical in nature, placing the events in context with worldwide strife. Absentee NRA was the sort of film that would disappear from screens during World War 1, a period when free speech was bascially "closed for the duration". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
