Scott Lord Silent Film: Civilization (Thomas H Ince, 1915)

Linda A. Griffith, wife of D.W. Griffith, in an autobiographical article for the periodical Film Fun Magazine during 1917, not only reminisced of Thomas Ince having spent time at the Biograph Studios, but also of his wife, actress Elinor Kershaw, having spent her short lived on screen career with the Biograph Film Company. By the time of its publication, Elinor Kershaw had left silent film acting to devote herself to being the mother of three children. Before having married Thomas Ince, Elinor Kershaw had appeared in the films "The Course of True Love" (D.W. Griffith, 1910), "Taming a Husband"(D.W Griffith, 1910), "The Love of Lady Irma" (Frank Powell, 1910) and "Phone 1707 Chester" (Joseph W. Smiley, 1910).

"Civilization" stars actress Enid Markey, who during 1915 also starred in the film "The Despoilers" (Reginald Baker), co-written by Thoms Ince and J.G. Hawks.

The periodical The Moving Picture World announced "Civilization" as "his greatest masterpiece to date", a "mammoth production" of eleven reels about which Ince was remaing reticient before its release. Moving Picture World later quoted Thomas Ince after having been invited to Shadow Lawn to meet President Woodrow Wilson, "I found Mr. Wilson courtesy and affability personified. A more cordial reception I could not possibly have had."

Picture Play Magazine titled their review of the film "Making an Eighth Wonder". Picture Play announced the "film spectacle" as having been written by "that highpowered literary dynamo, C. Gardner Sullivan, his wizard of photodramatic construction".

John H. Fell, in his volume A Hstory of Film, chronicles, " 'CIvilization' is noteworthy for editing skills that relate a range of characters and events; it is diminished by a vagueness untypical of Ince in characterizations."

In a similar way that H.G. Wells depicts idyllic ante-bellum England as being a remote and isolated unsuspecting participant it the sudden outbreak of World War I, perhaps Iris Barry hints that the idea of war was new to modern America "But for the moment the United States was preparing to enter the European war: J.Stuart Blackton's pro-war and anti-German The Battle Cry of Peace and Thomas Ince's anti-war and anti-German Civilization had already indicated the uses to which films might be put and now it was the moment for propaganda for the Allied cause." The propaganda of the time period seemed abruptly more direct, more explicit than yellow journalism and propaganda of American Imperialism in the Phillipines decades earlier. Iris Barry later credits Thomas Ince and D.W. Griffith as having "taught the Scandinavians to use an isolated face or guesture as a unit of expression rather than (as on stage) the actor".
Anthony Slide approximates the film detective of my leitmotiv of Lost Film, Found Magazines by chronicling "The Battle Cry of Peace" as a lost silent film while providing a synopsis to the film from the programme of the film's premiere from which "the content can clearly be gauged". Slide, in his volume The Big V, The History of the Vitagraph Company, relates an ancedote within the extratextural discourse of the film where J. Stuart Blackton, who lived near Theodore Roosevelt on Long Island, read the scenario of the film to Roosevelt, who took out a Holy Bible and read Ezekial 3:33 and asked Blackton to include it in the film. Luckily for film detectives, J.Stuart Blackton published a seventy two page novelization of the film, subtitled A Call To Arms Against War, which included a letter Theodore Roosevelt had written to him from Sagamore Hill.

In the film, Magdalene is portrayed by actress Julia Swayne Gordon. Images of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and General Grant are evoked in the film. Several allegorical scenes invluding the figure of Columbia appear toward the end of the film. Kenneth MacGowan, in his volume Behind the The Screen, called "The Battle Cry of Peace" the "preparedness polemic" that catapulted actress Norma Talmadge to fame.

In Boston, the film opened at The Beaux-Arts Majestic Theater, which is still in operation at present. The periodical Motography gave the running length as ten reels, which was to be cut down to nine or less during the season. Motion Picture News proclaimed, 'Battle Cry of Peace' is an Epic of Patriotism". It wrote, "Interest sustained by plot. The picture contains a well-defined story...The photography is remarkable for a number of beautiful dissolves and fade-ins....The film does not end with this terrible climax but goes on to show a brighter America, as a reminder of what we now have and ought to take pains to cherish."

Silent Film Intolerance The Invaders

Scott Lord Silent Film: Knight of the Trail (Ince, 1915)

Frank Borzage stars with director William S. Hart and actress Leona Hutten, in the two reeler "Knight of Trail". Borzage shortly thereafter went on to direct silent film for The Triangle Film Corporation and although copies of the 1918 film "The Gun Woman" still exist, the remaining seven films directed by Borazge during 1918, "Innocents Pogress", "The Shoes That Danced", "Society For Sale", "An Honest Man", "Who Is To Blame", "The Ghost Flower" and "The Atom" (five reels) are presumed to be lost silenr film, with no surviving copies existing, as are the remaining two silent films Frank Borzage directed for the Triangle Film Corporation during 1919, "Tonton the Apache" and "Prudence on Broadway" (five reels).

Kenneth MacGowan, in his volume Behind the Screen, explains, if not inadvertantly, genre as having the component of developing along with the audience's expecting a recognizable star exacting similar characterizations by seeing the Western as having belonged to the actors Broncho Billy Anderson, Tom Mix and W.S. Hart, Anderson having portrayed a cowboy in four hundred shorts, Mix having portrayed a cowboy in over sixty Fox features, accompanied by three of his horses to extend the genre's parameters. "At the peak of MIx's career, he was even more popular than Hart...His short films go back to 1910 with Selig, further than Hart's, but Hart's rise was swifter. Under Ince's skillful handling, Hart developed in 1915 from an actor in two reelers into one of Triangle's two most important stars."
John H. Fell, in his volume A History of Film, chronicled, "The Westerns made for Ince by William S. Hart and others struck critics and foreign audiences, the French particularly, as remarkable for their attention to natural detaill, especially the spare backgrounds on which elemental dramas played."

Silent Film

Silent Western Film

Cover Letter: Scott Lord on Silent Film https://garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com

The website hosted at garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com is a specialized digital archive, scholarly repository, and critical blog authored by researcher Scott Lord. Dedicated primarily to the history, aesthetics, and cultural impact of early international cinema, the site focuses heavily on the golden age of Swedish and Danish silent film, alongside the artistic trajectories of legendary figures such as Greta Garbo, Victor Sjöström (often referred to historically in American contexts as Victor Seastrom), Mauritz Stiller, D.W. Griffith, and other pioneers of early motion pictures.

Core Themes and Subject Matter

• The Golden Age of Swedish Cinema: The blog provides deep-dive analyses into the monumental era of Swedish silent film, particularly the pioneering work produced by studios like Svenska Bio and Biograph. It explores how directors like Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller transformed cinematic art through deep integration of landscape, naturalism, psychological intensity, and folkloric motifs.

• Greta Garbo and Early Collaborations: A significant focus of the archive centers on Greta Garbo's transition from her formative Swedish roots—such as her breakthrough performance in Stiller's Gösta Berling's Saga (1924)—into her iconic Hollywood career. It investigates the intricate web of creative influences between Garbo, Stiller, and the broader Scandinavian cinematic diaspora.

• Lost Films and Archival Recovery: Much of the commentary engages with the phenomenon of "lost films in found magazines," utilizing historical print culture, contemporary reviews, trade papers, and photoplay editions to reconstruct, analyze, and contextualize deteriorated or entirely vanished celluloid artifacts. This extra-textual approach examines how contemporary audiences, critics, and novelists experienced and interpreted early cinematic adaptations.

• Cross-Cultural and Transnational Influences: The essays map the reciprocal artistic exchanges between European cinemas and Hollywood, exploring how Scandinavian directors and actors shaped American film grammar during the silent and early sound eras, as well as how American directors like D.W. Griffith influenced international filmmaking techniques.

By merging rigorous historical scholarship with a deep appreciation for archival ephemera, the blog serves as an invaluable digital resource for film historians, silent-era enthusiasts, and researchers studying the transnational history of early narrative cinema.