Arthur Johnson

Johnson is another in the "forever silent" category. According to the IMDb, he made his first movie in 1905. He would die of tuberculosis eleven years later, just shy of his fortieth birthday.

I just watched a short feature he made in 1909, directed by none other than D.W. Griffith. There is some of the posturing that was a trademark of those early films - arms flung wide, fists pressed to foreheads - but the actors are all very watchable.

The story's a bit lame; violin teacher falls for his rich pupil, then almost immediately joins a group of anarchists (Down with the Rich!) when she rejects him. When he discovers he's been sent to blow up her house, he regrets his hasty action and saves the day.

In her autobiography, Lillian Gish claimed that Griffith "discovered" Johnson, which may well have been true. Bobby Harron, for one,got his start first as a message boy, then as an actor, at Biograph. Johnson, however, never reached the fame of his fellow actors - certainly not the enduring fame of Lillian Gish, not the fleeting fame (and later, constant character roles) of Henry B. Walthall, and not the fame cut short of Bobby Harron.

The IMDb lists his final films as being directed by Johnson, as well as starring him; the production company was the "Lubin Manufacturing Company", which is a new one on me.

What intrigues me about this actor is not only that he died before the advent of sound, but that he didn't achieve any type of fame - at least, nothing that has lasted. Was it his health? Possibly. Tuberculosis is a particularly nasty disease. He wasn't lacking in the looks department, and if he improved his acting style, then I can see him being a very effective leading man, as was the younger Walthall.

Maybe we'll never know.

Click here to see one of his films.

The Avenging Conscience

I love this movie. It's one of Griffith's best, and Walthall's best. Anyone who really wants to know what Walthall was capable of doing, should watch this film. Griffith made it just before his (in)famous epic, The Birth of a Nation, which, of course, also starred Walthall.

In brief, Walthall is a young man with only one surviving relative, his uncle, who has raised him. When Walthall's character (simply known as "The Nephew" in the titles) falls in love, the uncle feels threatened by his nephew's lack of attention, and grows intolerant and demanding. This leads to...

A hell of a good story, is what it leads to. Walthall really shines in this movie, as the young man in love/devoted nephew/thwarted lover/criminal/nervous wreck. Nobody could do it the way he could, and he's just marvelous. The movie shows a strong Poe influence (even down to one of his poems). And the outdoor scenes! They show a bucolic Southern California that now only exists in these classic films. Isolated houses, empty fields, and even the sepia air looks better, somehow.

Great Halloween watching. Take a look.

Intolerance

Will you look at that? Will you just look at that?

This is one of my favorite images of all time. The scale of the Babylonian set is breathtaking, as is the pioneering "crane" shot Griffith created. (He had a scaffold built which contained an elevator, on which the camera was placed. The scaffold had wheels, so the cameraman cranked away while the elevator went down as the entire structure was slowly wheeled forward.)

I must say, I'm glad Griffith got huffy and self-pitying after the storm of protest following the release of The Birth of a Nation. If he hadn't gotten it into his head that he'd been dreadfully wronged, he might not have made Intolerance. And we wouldn't have this stunning spectacle to view.

What really gets me is that something this beautiful wasn't carefully maintained and preserved. Nope; it was just a movie set. Get rid of it. It stood at the studio on Prospect Street. Imagine walking past and just drinking in the sight of it! I showed a friend a clip from the movie, pointing out the wall where a chariot was driven. He was impressed - not as much as I am, though.

You just don't see sets like these anymore. CGI, eat your heart out.

A Midnight Dreary

I'm one day ahead, but I couldn't wait any longer.

Tomorrow, January 19, is the 200th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, inventor of the modern mystery story, whose disappearance and death are as mysterious as anything he himself could ever have written.

I've waded through all sorts of ideas about Poe's death: That it was due to alcohol; that he had contracted rabies; cerebral edema; you name it. Whatever the cause, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Poe would have been delighted to know that he would still be a subject of debate more than 150 years after his death.

A quick look at the IMDb provided an interesting reminder. In 1909, one hundred years ago, and one hundred years after Poe's birth, D.W. Griffith made the short film The Sealed Room, loosely based on Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado". In 1914, Griffith made another Poe-inspired film, the truly creepy The Avenging Conscience. In 1915 came a very loose Poe biography (this one from director Charles Brabin).

The link between these films, besides Poe himself, is that they all starred Henry B. Walthall, who made The Sealed Room the same year he began acting in films. By the time The Raven was filmed, Walthall had left Griffith's stable of actors.

Now that we know - well, most of us, I hope - that Poe was maligned by Griswold well after his death, these bygone looks at his life show how he was viewed by long-gone audiences. Poe's life was tragic enough without being accused of alcoholism and drug abuse, but as Mark Twain so aptly put it, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."

The Avenging Conscience is my favorite of the Poe-inspired films. Walthall plays a nameless man who is well and firmly under the thumb of his uncle, and experiencing almost unbearable anguish when the domineering old man refuses to allow the nephew to marry the woman he loves (whom Walthall's character calls Annabel; we never know her real name, either). Walthall was the perfect choice to play the sensitive lover, downtrodden nephew, and unwilling criminal in the film. His scenes with a suspicious police officer will have you on the edge of your seat.

It's sad, but true, that the films have not treated Poe well, by and large. Some of the most dreadful schlock has been "based" on his works; very few of these films are worth watching. The silent films I've seen that have been influenced by Poe - especially the three mentioned here - are the best, in my opinion.

Forevermore, Mr. Poe.