Deutschland, Interrupted

Silent film accompanist Donald Sosin returns to the Pacific Northwest this weekend for a pair of shows, at Kenyon Hall in West Seattle and the Rose Theater in Port Townsend.

Way Down East (1920)
Friday January 26, 8:00pm, Kenyon Hall

D. W. Griffith’s great melodrama of social morality, with its sensational river rescue was featured as the opening presentation for Le Giornate Del Cinema Muto on October 6. Donald Sosin appears for one night at Kenyon Hall to showcase his new score written for Pordenone. Along with Way Down East, Sosin will also accompany Griffith’s 1909 Biograph film A Corner In Wheat.

Billy Bitzer and D. W. Griffith, on location for Way Down East (1920)

It was D. W. Griffith’s second greatest success, but when he paid an outrageous sum ( double the budget of Birth of a Nation,1915) for the rights to Way Down East (1920), everyone thought he’d lost his mind. It was the stodgy old story of a naïve woman, betrayed by a man and rejected by a moralistic society. The film was so successful it paved the way for all of Griffith’s subsequent films. Way Down East also represented a major change for Griffith and his movie ‘family’.

Cameraman G. W. ‘Billy’ Bitzer played a major part in Griffith’s development. Already a seasoned cameraman when Griffith transformed himself from an actor into the greatest director of his day, Bitzer was his technical advisor, mentor and sounding board. By 1920, other cameramen had begun to ridicule Bitzer and his out of date Pathe newsreel camera. In his autobiography, Bitzer explained, " After me made Way Down East, my part in making Griffith films was that of just another cameraman."
The Great director was known for discovering talent, but his head was easily turned, and the loyalty his crew and actors gave him was often a one sided affair. Griffith’s favorite leading man had been Robert Herron almost from the beginning. The star of True Heart Susie (1919), Hearts of The World (1918), Intolerance (1916) and many others, had been cast aside in favor of a sophisticated new Griffith discovery, Richard Barthelmess. The night before Way Down East premiered in New York, Bobby Harron accidentally shot himself in his hotel room. He had purchased a pistol from a man in the street that was down on his luck and left it in his jacket pocket. As he took the jacket from his suitcase, the gun fell out and discharged when it hit the floor. Two days later, Bobby Herron was dead. He was twenty-six years old. Bitzer believed, " His death marked the end of an era. With Bobby’s passing some thread of unity seemed to leave us."

Regardless, Way Down East was magnificent. By 1920, Lillian Gish had become an actress of considerable depth and the story, with its harrowing climax has never entirely left the cultural consciousness of the American Cinema. Gish suffered permanent nerve damage in her hand after three weeks of rehearsal and filming on a frozen river where she insisted on submerging it in the icy water. By 1922, Gish was also shown the door.

Peter Pan (1924)
Sunday January 28, 12:30 & 4:00pm The Rose Theater, Port Townsend

Seventeen-year-old Betty Bronson was hand picked by author J. M. Barrie to play the boy who wouldn’t grow up, in Paramount’s star studded production of Peter Pan. Delightful art direction (frolicking mermaids on the beach, flying pirate ships) and perfect casting (Anna May Wong as Tiger Lily, Ernest Torrence as Captain Hook and Mary Brian as Wendy) made Peter Pan a charming, magical holiday sensation in 1924. An impishly joyful Bronson lit up the screen as Peter, while Barrie’s original text was used for the inter-titles in what remains the finest telling of this well-loved paean to eternal childhood.

Speaking of cute ... And the Oscar goes to ...