Scott Lord Silent Film: The Covered Wagon (James Cruze, 1924)

SILENT FILM The book Pictorial Beauty on the Screen, written by Victor Oscar Freeburg in 1923, was dedicated to James Cruze, director of the silent film 'The Covered Wagon' (ten reels). The introduction to the volume was written by silent film director Rex Ingram. Ingram notes that the silent film "must be composed of certain pictorial qualifications such as form, composition and a proper distribution of light and shade." Film poetry began with the silent film, despite any rennaisance in the nineteen seventies.

John L. Fell, in his volume A History of Film chronicles, "'THe Covered Wagon', directed by James Cruze in 1923, proved even more successful than 'The Iron Horse'. It was epic in conception, weak in plot, and impressively photographed." The cinematographer to the film had been Karl Brown.

Allan Eyles notes that "The Covered Wagon" (Cruze, 1923), made in the United States at a time when film criticism was giving more than a cursoy glance to the work of Swedish silent film director Victor Seastrom who had only just then arrived in America with Mauritz Stiller to bring a close to the Golden Age of Swedish Silent, was remarkable for its depicting the relationships of the characters within narrative to the enviornment in which the story takes place, its plotline built around the interaction of its three primary characters.

After mentioning "The Covered Wagon" as having been a western differing in genre from the comedies directed by James Cruze, author Gary Carey, Museum of Modern Art, in his volume Lost Films, as early as 1970, writes of the comedy "Beggar on Horseback", directed by Cruze during 1925 having been once considered lost before copies of it had resurfaced. Gary Carey includes the comedy 'Merton of the Movies" (eight reels), which featured the cameos of fifty silent film actors and actresses, directed by Cruze during 1923 as having been a Lost Silent Film during 1970 while overlooking a second satire on tinseltown titled "Hollywood" (eight reels), also presently considered lost, starring Viola Dana and directed by James Cruze during 1923. The film "Ruggles of Red Gap" (eight reels), directed by James Cruze in 1923 and starring actress Lois Wilson, is also presently considered a lost silent film.

James Cruze had again used cinematographer Karl Brown to film while directing the films "Hollywood", "Merton of the Movies" and "Ruggles of Red Gap".

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Scott Lord Silent Film: The Kiss (Vitagraph, 1914)

Thought to be a lost silent film, "The Kiss" was appreantly rediscovered in the modern era. As early within the historiography of film criticism as 1979, John L. Fell, in his volume A History of FIlm, relates that prevalence of a lack of film preservation, "Becuse of general unavailability, materials of Vitagraph, Selig and Lubin, as well as many French, British and Italian titles have so far been less carefully considered thatn Edison and Biograph work."

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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 L. Fell, in his volume A History 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."

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