Bessie Love Movies
Love was born Juanita Horton. While still a Los Angeles high school student she began appearing in films in 1915. She was given her screen name by filmmaker D.W. Griffith. In 1916 she began appearing in lead roles opposite several major stars, and made a big impression as the Bride of Cana in Intolerance. Her subsequent career was a roller-coaster; each time she appeared to have broken through as a major star in a big film, she was cast in several forgettable ventures and had to start her way back up. Also, producers weren't sure how to cast her: at first she was an ingenue heroine; in the early '20s she played somber leads in melodramas; in the late '20s she was in light films. A footnote: in 1925 she introduced the Charleston to films in King on Main Street. She had several "comebacks," the most noteworthy of which was in the talkie musical The Broadway Melody. Successfully making the transition to sound, she proved herself to be a very talented song-and-dance star and received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Once again very popular, she nevertheles appeared in few additional films, primarily because the films in which she was cast were of low quality. In 1931 she appeared at the New York Palace. In 1935 she moved to London, where she remained the rest of her life; after that her film work was sporadic, though it continued until the early '80s. During World War Two she served with the American Red Cross in England and worked as a film technician at Ealing Studios. Later in her life she did much stage work, starring in numerous plays; she also wrote the play The Homecoming (1958), designed to star herself. ~ All Movie Guide- 1916
With the assistant of his trusted associate Clifford Smith (who handled most of the second-unit stuff), William S. Hart directed his own starring vehicle The Aryan. Hart plays a westerner who suffers betrayal at the hands of seductive Louise Glaum. Seeking revenge, he resorts to robbery and murder. He is at last redeemed by virtuous Bessie Love. Incredibly, despite his box-office clout, William S. Hart's salary as both actor and director was a paltry $150 per week. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William S. Hart
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)
