William Brown
- 1935
Advertised by Paramount as "Another Lives of the Bengal Lancers," The Last Outpost actually has more in common with two RKO releases, Friends and Lovers and The Lost Patrol. The story takes place during the Kurdistan campaign in WW I. Left to die in the desert, British officer Michael Andrews (Cary Grant) is rescued by intelligence agent John Stevenson (Claude Rains). While recuperating in the base hospital, Andrews falls in love with his nurse Rosemary (Gertrude Michael) -- who happens to be Stevenson's wife! This romantic entanglement is taken care of only after a climatic battle at a remote outpost in the Sudan, with Andrews and a skeleton crew desperately fending off hostile Kurdish tribesmen while awaiting reinforcements. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Claude Rains, (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)
- 1916
Produced by D.W. Griffith, Little Meena's Romance was adapted for the screen by F. M. Pierson from his own novel Katie Bauer. Dorothy Gish plays wide-eyed heroine Meena Bauer, a Pennsylvania Dutch lass. Expected to marry local boy Jacob Kunz (Robert Lawlor) and thereby unify the valuable farmlands owned by the Bauer and Kunz family, Little Meena surprises 'em all by marrying a German nobleman, Count Frederich Von Ritz (Owen Moore). But first, of course, the audience is treated to the standard deceptions, wherein the Count is assumed to be a humble book agent and Meena is mistaken for a household servant. In addition to the presence of Lillian Gish's sister, Little Meena's Romance was distinguished by the performance of Marguerite Marsh, the sister of Mae Marsh. Unfortunately, the film is now considered lost, the unhappy fate of many another pre-1920 Dorothy Gish vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1913
The three most popular actors of the Los Angeles-based Selig Polyscope Company -- Kathlyn Williams, Hobart Bosworth, and Harold Lockwood -- starred in this moralistic melodrama directed by Francis J. Grandon. Williams is not only crippled in an accident but loses her callous fiance (Lockwood). Ironically, he, too, suffers injuries in yet another accident and Kathlyn almost accepts his proposal of marriage. In the last minute, however, she realizes how selfish the youngster really is and weds instead the stolid older gentleman (Bosworth), who had always loved her from afar. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1913
Like its immediate predecessor The Conscience Fund, the Selig three-reeler Bridge of Shadows was hokey in the extreme. The story is set in Cincinnati, where the Ohio River overflows its embankments and floods the town. Among the businesses affected by the deluge is the Edmunds Insurance Company. After the building has dried out, the head of the insurance firm orders his trusted chief clerk to seek out the company's financial ledgers. Alas, the boss dies of a sudden heart attack, thus the clerk is arrested as a looter. He is cleared of the charge, but his good name has been permanently besmirched. At the same time, the daughter of the clerk's late boss has been reduced to poverty and is likewise now a social pariah. On the verge of suicide, the hero and heroine "find" one another, vowing to start life afresh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1913
This early silent melodrama starred Harold Lockwood as a struggling young writer who cannot marry Kathlyn Williams because of the their different social positions. Years later, however, Lockwood saves the now widowed woman's young daughter (Baby Lillian Wade) and they are reunited. A one-reel Selig Polyscope presentation, The Tide of Destiny also featured Anna Dodge (aka Mrs. George Hernandez) and William Brown. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
