Sept. 17, 1973

The Theodore Huff Memorial Film Society

The importance of Griffith's personal involvement in the Fine Arts releases that he supervised is demonstrated by this film which, it seems safe to hazard a guess, he probably was able to devote little time to. It's incredible of course that in the year of Intolerance he had any time at all to devote to his share of the films under the Triangle banner, but the record shows that he did. He even wrote the story for another Marsh-Harron Lloyd Ingraham-directed release of that same year, Hoodoo Ann, and his hand shows in the final result. A Child of the Paris Streets (an interesting forerunner to the much more ambitious French Mysteries of Paris, due for showing in December) looks as though everybody was carefully emulating the Griffith formula, but didn't know quite how to bring it off. Admittedly, the print has some badly hypoed sections and is clearly missing substantial footage; yet it has beginning, middle and end. Its continuity makes sense, and it can presumably be considered a representative version of the origimal. The climax in particular seems sadly below the prevailing standards of Griffith excitement, and in fact doesn’t represent much of an advance from 1909's The Lonely Villa. Still, newly-discovered Triangles are rare these days, and its always good to fill in one more gap, especially of a Mae Marsh vehicle. The Tully Marshall Lee relationship somewhat foreshadows the Frochards in Griffith's later Orphans of the Storm, and an odd "foot" scene involving Tully Marshall also calls to mind his later foot-fetish Baron Sadoja in The Merry Widow. Incidentally, W.S. Van Dyke appears to be an extra in one or two scenes.

* Intermission *

Coming right after Borzage's Lazy Bones (and probably made quickly, wholly in the studio, after the more ambitious location-shooting of that lovely film) one’s expectations for The First Year are high - not least because the original reviews were good, not only stressing the film's fidelity to the original play, but also the humanistic touches that Borzage inserted throughout. Alas (unless it is the kind of film that needs audience reaction to bring out its warmth) it is a little hard to find those touches; even a basically weak and disappointing Borzage like Bad Girl does have those odd magical moments so typical of him, and seemingly so absent here. If anything, The First Year seems too slavishly faithful to the form and content of the play, and only when it "opens up" - as in the rainstorm sequence where the wife is unwittingly abandoned - does it take on a more spontaneous quality. Even the amusing running gag with the inept Negro maid seems a bit heavy handed after a while. Too, the hero - in Matt Moore's hands - is frankly uninteresting, and quite undeserving of the devotion of the charming Kathryn Perry. However, generalisations about films like this – and particularly Borzage films like this - are perhaps dangerous when based on solitary viewings; music, and audience response, often bring them to life quite remarkably. In any event, it’s good to have another lost Borzage back among us, if only for the record. The film was quite faithfully remade in 1932 by William K. Howard, with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell in the leads, and Leila Bennett rather surprisingly cast as Hattie, the maid.

William K. Everson   

Tonight we are faced with the stiff competition of We Are Not Alone at the MMA and Chaney's The Monster on tv. It's unfortunate when choices have to be made between so many riches, but our own schedule is tight and inflexible, and there is just nothing we can do -- except to pad the beginning of our program so that MMA attendee's can at least arrive in time for The First Year.

Not wanting to waste good material on a "filler" slot, we have added to the front of the show one of George Jessell’s tv 3-reelers. Jessell's graceless and artificial personality is no asset, and his film history is often awry - he even gives the wrong Costello as star of Lights Of New York - but the clips of Gilda Gray, John Barrymore and others are interesting, and the sheer fakery and gimmickry of the presentation has some academic interest too!