The New York Hat (1912)

Time to close out 1912 with a rather slight tale from D.W. Griffith, The New York Hat.  When a mother in a small town dies, she leaves money to the local pastor to buy her daughter all of the fine things she never could own. The pastor notices the girl admiring a fine, but expensive, hat from the big city and buys it for her.  Soon, the town gossips are speculating as to why their pastor would be purchasing such a gift for the beautiful young woman.  Can the pastor and the woman avoid the scandal?

Okay, as I said above, it is a slight tale.  The story itself attempts to be very dramatic, but (and it may be my modern sensibilities), it's just a hat.  In true sitcom fashion, the story hinges on characters postponing the conversations that provide the easy and obvious resolution.  The act that sets the drama of the story in motion shows a real naivete on the part of the pastor as he never stops to consider what a shop full of patrons might think of man of the cloth buying a woman's hat.

The positive I really find worth highlighting here is the acting. Griffith allows Mary Pickford room to act in the lead role and she does a remarkable job.  Her sadness as she pantomimes wearing the hat of her dreams is palpable despite the absence of soundand her joy and trepidation at receiving the gift are very well-conveyed.The movie features Pickford before she became the first real Hollywood celebrity.  It also showcases a young Lionel Barrymore, who hails from my hometown of Philadelphia and will go on to become one of the biggest stars of the 1920s.

So long 1912!

Random fact speculation:  Do not know this for certain, but the girl's apartment appears to be the same apartment from The Musketeers of Pig Alley, which would be the first reused set I have noticed.

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Algie, the Miner (1912)

Algie, the Miner was directed and produced by Alice Guy, who is regarded as the first female filmmaker in history.  The film follows an effeminate New Yorker who must travel to the West and prove himself a man in order to win the heart of his beloved.  In his travels, he confronts some rugged cowboys and saves his firend from would-be robbers.  But will it be enough to convince his girlfriend's father he's a changed man?

Algie is the first movie to feature a "gay" character in the lead role.  He likes his lace handkerchiefs, packs a comically small gun and kisses cowboys upon greeting them.  I was cringing at the start because of how they were playing the stereotypical gay character for laughs.  However, as the film moves forward, the relationship between Algie and his cowboy mentor becomes much more complex.

Algie ultimately trades in his tiny pistol for a six-shooter and saves his teacher Big Jim from bandits. However, he also comforts Jim through an illness and helps him overcome alcoholism.  By the end, when Algie heads back east, Jim hangs his head in sadness and decides to travel with Algie.  The subtext of the scenes is striking, considering it would take almost 100 years to get to Brokeback Mountain.

Technically, the movie is pretty simple. The opening and closing have a good deal of humor in them, though the middle segment is very dramatic.  All of the tonal shifts are handled really well.  The camera doesn't do anything remarkable and the film doesn't feature any effects work, but none of that was necessary to tell this story.

As far as movie tropes, there some very stereotypical behavior from Algie, playing the type of character who was relatively common in films of this time.  Other tropes include bad guys with facial hair and a couple of mine prospector characters who look like they are directly from central casting.

As I said above, I was pleasantly surprised by the nuance of the movie.  Algie learns from his experiences in the West, but it doesn't completely change him and Jim ends up learning more from Algie than vice versa.  Very well done.

Watched on YouTube.

Picture from tinypic.com

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912)

So far I've been out of luck finding any available feature films from 1912 from Netflix or other sources.  Instead, here's another early genre film.  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the earliest film adaptation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale.  The movie is directed by Lucius Henderson and stars James Cruze in the dual role of Jekyll and Hyde.

The film opens with Jekyll drinking the formula that turns him into Hyde.  After a few moments, he takes another liquid that transforms him back.  Over the next few months, he falls in love with the minister's daughter, but he has also lost control of his transformations into his alter ego.  Can he find a cure before he destroys the lives of all those around him?

This is not a great movie. Unlike other versions I'm familiar with, Mr. Hyde here is basically an out-of-control chimpanzee.  You know he's a bad guy because he throws things around in the lab and knocks a little girl over in the street.  There's one moment of violence, but the movie never really gives Hyde the sense of menace he needs (and at an eight minute running time, never has much chance).

The only thing I thought was really done in the movie was the initial transformation.  While the camera trick they use is fairly obvious, it's very effectively done.  It is also clear that the movie industry is learning from its successes as this is much better than The Wizard of Oz from just two years earlier.

Watching this feels like a bit of a step back from the other films I've seen.  I'm curious to see how other fimmakers continue to fair against the likes of D.W. Griffith and Thomas Ince moving forward.

Available for free on YouTube.

Random film fact: In certain scenes, an actor named Harry Benham portrays Hyde in an uncredited appearance.

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The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)

Here's another by legendary filmmaker D.W. Griffith.  The Musketeers of Pig Alley is the earliest example of a gangster film and features Lillian Gish in one of her first screen roles.  The film follows a musician and his fiancee as they struggle in New York City.  The musician leaves in order to make some money.  While he is away, the young woman meets the Snapper Kid, head of a gang in the slum.  The musician returns a richer man, only to have his wallet taken by the Snapper Kid.  After the death of the girl's mother, a friend takes her to a ball with the gangsters.  The girl is almost drugged by a rival gangster when the Snapper Kid intervenes.  The argument over the girl erupts into a battle in Pig Alley.  Will the Snapper Kid survive and elude the cops?  Can the musician get his money back?

Of the films I've watched so far, this is easily the most violent.  The gun battle is quick, but gives you a sense of the brutality of it despite the lack of sound.  Griffith continues to prove his mastery of both shooting and editing film. There's one shot in particular where the Snapper Kid walks into a full close-up of his face which provides a great sense of mood.  The film creates a great atmosphere with the Snapper Kid's cigarette smoke wafting into the frame in certain scenes before you even know he is there.

Some more movie tropes are on display.  Obviously, the Snapper Kid is about as stereotypically a gangster as you could expect. He cocks his hat in his first appearance and the hat stays exactly in place for the remainder of the movie.  This is essentially every gangster you've seen in the first half of the 1900s, including James Cagney.  Although her appearance is brief, the woman's friend who shows up to take her mind off her mother's death exists in just about every romantic comedy of the last 30 years.  And of course, the musician to demonstrate his lack of cash, reaches into his pocket and pulls it completely out.

I liked this film, though not as much as Griffith's previous work.  There was a lot going on over the course of 17 minutes, but I thought the pace really slowed leading up to the gun battle.  The short shoot-out was well done and the ending has some great pantomime by the actors, particularly the gangster, that made me laugh out loud.

Watched on YouTube
Image from Some Came Running

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1912: Birth of a Studio (or Three)

Time to leave 1911 and jump ahead to 1912.  The theme in this year is the birth of a lot of things we all take for granted today.  IMP and other studios merge to form Universal Pictures Company.  That's right: the studio that brought you Jaws, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future and E.T. got its start in 1912.  Paramount's precursor, the Famous Players Film Company, and the Fox Film Foundation are founded this year as well.  And notably, the Technicolor Company forms to start development of early color film.

Beyond the studios, some simple innovations occur.  Thomas Ince gains prominence for developing shooting scripts and production budgets, both unheard of at the time.  Fanboys get their start with Photoplay, the first magazine devoted to film.  Oliver Twist becomes the first feature-length U.S.-produced movie shown in its entirety.  Two films based on the sinking of the Titanic appear in theaters mere months after the disaster.  Moviegoers also get their first gangster film (D.W. Griffith's The Musketeers of Pig Alley).

So what am I looking forward to this month?  I need to check availability, but I want to track down Richard III, the oldest surviving feature length U.S. film.  Quo Vadis? is considered one of the first successful feature films so that will likely be on the list. I am also trying to make a point of following Griffith and Ince moving forward, so films from them will likely be on the list.

Picture from Magazine Art.org

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