Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and
endures, and is patient,
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Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of
woman’s devotion,
|
List to the mournful tradition, still sung by the
pines of the forest;
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List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the
happy.
|
In 1755 British soldiers deported a group of French-Canadians,
Aradians, who refused to join with the Empire in fighting their French
challengers. The communities were forcibly removed from Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick and Prince Edward Island – up to 11,500 from a total population of
14,000… one of the first large-scale population redistribution and a large
scale operation for the British.
In 1847 the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
published Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie,
is an epic poem that follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search
for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the
Acadians.
It became the poet's most famous piece and remains one of his most enduring works in spite of the inevitable historical inaccuracies... since when have poets been required to be historically accurate?
Never-the-less thousands of lives were lost and the
British were responsible for a high-mountain of human misery.
In 1929 Edwin Carewe made a film version starring Dolores
del Rio, shot in Louisiana and more about the poem than the history. The film
was silent but featured a Vitaphone soundtrack – don’t you just love
transitional technology: always some great innovation but never as
prosaically-practical as the eventual winning technology!
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| Delores sings? |
For this Milestone DVD the majority of the sound disks
were used which adds tremendously to the atmosphere and authenticity if not the
hi-fidelity. You get to hear Miss del Rio (or someone else) sing and as with
all things Vitaphone, the soundtrack is not directly synched with the dialogue
just music, songs and sound effects. There are a few audio segments missing and
so pianist Philip Carli filled in sympathetically for Hugo Riesenfeld’s music.
The impression quickly gained from this film is one of
scale as well as poetic emotional sweep: this is definitely a tone poem and not
a book adaptation and the rhythms are quite operatic: Evangeline is found
singing to herself as she works away in her impossibly sweet cottage whilst her
love Gabriel (Roland Drew) sweeps into the harbour not on wings but posed
heroically on the bow of a fishing boat.
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| Roland Drew sweeping... |
We see Father Felician (Alec B. Francis) strolling along
the harbour surrounded by innocents and accompanied by lengthy dolly shot that
introduces the town of Grand Pre in Acadie, then the toothless fiddler Michael (Bobby
Mack) who will provide much comic relief even played against the stern Notary Rene
la Blanc (George F. Marion).
To the main players, the alpha leader blacksmith Basil
(James A. Marcus), father of Gabriel and the richest farmer in the town,
Benedict Bellefontaine (Paul McAllister) and his son Baptiste (Donald Reed)
who, for all his charms can’t prevent Evangeline’s heart beating for Gabriel
even for a second: theirs is a steadfast passion – far more than that as we
will see..
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| Cheers! |
Now the sailor is returned it is a time to celebrate and
Edwin Carewe directs a cast of thousands with aplomb and there are some
gorgeous set-pieces captured by the cameras of Robert Kurrle and Al M. Green. A
marriage contract is drawn up and signed in good humour and the community
gathers again to witness the wedding of the year.
Meanwhile, the British have been getting set for war with
those pesky Frenchies and the time has come to force them off King George II’s
soil. The British Governor-General (Louis Payne) impresses the need for the
Arcadians to join in the fight but they are reluctant to battle their fellow
Frenchmen.
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| The march to the church |
Now, dear reader, this is one of those moments in film
historicals when the delicate Brit must look away in shame (my clan were
variously Irish and Scottish at this point or Shropshire peasants so I’m taking
no blame) but that aside, there’s no doubt this film is as kind to the “Mother
country” as it could be. Most of the blame for the bad behaviour is laid at the
table of Colonel Winslow (Lee Shumway) whose rogue, hot-headedness leads to the
worst of consequences: the reality was far more organised and shameful.
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| Acadia burns as the boats start to take its citizens away |
This genuinely-shocking development changes the tone of
the film – and things get a whole lot darker form this point on as things kick
off in a desperate struggle inside the church only halted by the appeals of
Father Felician.
British guns mean that there can be no compromise and the
community is dispersed - with contemporary images of mass-displacement all too
fresh in the mind, this is, again, unsettling. The Army is relentless, not giving
a fig for man, woman or child and the families and the lovers are split and
taken away on boats.
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| As long as waters flow, their love will endure... |
The months roll by and we follow Evangeline as she follows
her search for her Gabriel: theirs is a true love and one that will endure “as
long as waters flow…” You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be pulled in
by this one and sometimes melodrama just works in spite of yourself.
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| Great composition and camerawork... |
The film is lovely to look at and has the air of
unreality required to match the poet’s phrases. Roland Drew and Delores del Rio
make for a lovely lovelorn couple – the latter may not be one of the very best
actors but she has an ethereality all of her own and is easily the stand-out
performer.
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| Dolores del Rio |
It’s also great to hear her “sing” her song – a theme
apparently written by Billy Rose and one Al Jolson.
Evangeline is
available from those nice Milestone people and is available direct from their
shop – shipping is quick and very reliable!
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| Buy the Milestone DVD! |
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