D.W. GRIFFITH's ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL PART 1 CAROL DEMPSTER
BackISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL was D.W. Griffith's last independent production before he was forced to sell his Mamaroneck studio to help pay off mounting debts from his Revolutionary War epic AMERICA and his bad business practices. It incorporates the best elements of intimate dramas like BROKEN BLOSSOMS with a large scale backdrop like HEARTS OF THE WORLD. This story of a poor family's trials and tribulations in inflation ravaged post World War I Germany is remarkably grim and is presented realistically. Griffith came under heavy criticism for presenting a sympathetic portrait of a family in Germany (they were changed from German to Polish although one character tears up a picture of the Kaiser) and for shooting the film in Germany itself. His protégé' Carol Dempster gives the performance of her brief career showing what she could have been capable of had Griffith used better judgment as to what he put her in. She plays Inga, a poor girl trying to keep her family's spirits up while trying to realize her own dreams. As the wounded veteran Paul who hopes to marry Inga, Neil Hamilton (who would play Commissioner Gordon on TV's BATMAN 40 years later) gives a sensitive and engaging performance. The film plays like an early neorealist drama and had an impact on later filmmakers such as G.W. Pabst, Sergei Eisenstein, and even Vittoria De Sica. It is starkly but beautifully photographed and full of social criticism which did not go down well at all with Jazz Age audiences. http://www.YouTube.com/DIRERECTORSSERIES http://www.YouTube.com/THEATRECORNER http://www.YouTube.com/IRARONA http://www.YouT http://www.YouTube.com/DIRERECTORSSERIES http://www.YouTube.com/THEATRECORNER http://www.YouTube.com/IRARONA http://www.YouTube.com/TVNETWORK http://www.YouTube.com/TVDAYS http://www.YOUTUBE.com/GALLENMOVIES http://www.tvdays.com (400 DVD TITLES ) DAVID WARK GRIFFITH at BIOGRAPH by IRA H. GALLEN. He was already thirty-three years old when he began with the Biograph Company. He was born in Crestwood, Kentucky, on January 22, 1815, the son of Jacob Wark Griffith, a former colonel in the Army of the Confederacy. The Civil War was a decade past when he was born; yet his family, his home and the entire social and cultural atmosphere of the Confederacy were to help shape the man who would become the father of all moving picture making. His deep chest and his articulate, compelling voice, complete with a touch of the Southern accent, completed the portrait of a logical and very rational mind. His first and last ambition, until fate would turn his attention into picture, was to be a writer, a dream that he had nurtured since he was six years old. His Southern background, aided and abetted by his father's military career, added a martial air to Griffith's character, but with the war but a memory, he turned himself to more scholarly pursuits. He dreamed of becoming a great literary figure, a dream that was to turn more specifically to the interest of becoming a dramatist. In furtherance of this goal, he started acting to better his feel of and for the theatre. Griffith was very young when his father passed away; with the family wealth also gone, he looked for work along with the other able members of his family. Jobs ranged from the indignity of a wire elevator operator to the somewhat more refined status as a salesman for Encyclopedia Britannica; but eventually his interests would join hands with economic need and Griffith turned to acting. But survival as an actor meant that he would dig ditches and pick hops among other odd jobs to survive the periods of unemployment that are so characteristic of theatre work. During this time in his life, free moments were spent reading, writing and in dreaming of goals yet unachieved. Griffith was a dreamer; when it came to his future, he had an ego matching his confidence in himself and his future. His dreams and attitudes brought LINDA ARVIDSON into his life. They were traveling together in a road show company and she was taken up in the Griffith personality and dreams. She shared his dreams and wanted to develop with him. After they had been married for two years, a time of continued traveling with theatre troupes, finds them back in New York City. Even as a youth, Griffith seemed an unlikely candidate for marriage. Within him there was that certain something that rendered him larger than the conventional concept of marriage seemed to require. Yet now he's married and new responsibilities goaded old ambitions.
Category: Film
Uploaded: November 18th, 2007 @ 7:20 am
Author: GriffithMovies
Length: 31:39
Rating:
Views: 1,582
Tags: caroldempster dwgriffith griffithfilms griffithmovies isn'tlifewonderful neilhamilton
Related Video Links:
» View Video Comments For D.W. GRIFFITH's ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL PART 1 CAROL DEMPSTER
» View GriffithMovies's Other Uploaded Videos
Video Thumbnails:
Video Embedding Code:
* Embed this video on your website, social bookmark, myspace, or blog.