There’s a point at which The Italian really grabs its audience by the throat – cutting across the comfort of a century of cultural remove to push you right back into your seat. The main character has gone from being a caricature to being a man almost pushed into the camera in the desperate struggle to save his young child.
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| Fighting for his family |
As the Los Angeles
Times said at the time, a “less clever character artist” than stage veteran
Beban might ignore the deeper possibilities of this melodrama and indeed he
does help to make what the paper terms as “a story that pulsates with human
interest” and he can even bring a tear to the modern eye…
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| The Gondolier in love with life and his customers |
In fairness George had thrown in plenty of comic
miss-direction in the film’s opening sequence in Italy. He plays a hapless
gondolier who is so distracted by his canoodling passengers and thoughts of his
own sweetheart that he crashes into a bridge and tumbles into the canal.
Beppo (no relation to Harpo, Chico, Gummo, Zeppo... Groucho) loves Annette Ancello (Clara Williams) but her father Trudo Ancello (J
Frank Burke) isn’t convinced by the boy’s economic prospects – not just his
wayward oarsmanship – and will marry her off to a well-off merchant unless he
can prove his worth within a year.
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| Love and freedom in the old country |
Beppo sets off to New York to make his fortune certain
that the land of opportunity will provide… but we’ve been here before or at
least many times since. This immigrant tale is so familiar not just because of
the dozens of Italian stories that followed – especially including, The Godfather Part 2 – but because of
the eternal truths of immigration.
He ekes out a living shining shoes and then Corrigan buys
his vote on the condition he persuades other Italians to vote for him and he
becomes obliged to him. With the
Irishman’s help he is able to pay for Annette’s passage to America and the two
are re-united after one last piece of comedy at the docks as Beppo waits for
her at the first class landing.
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| Clara Williams and Baby "Tony": his star soon faded... |
The two marry immediately and twelve months’ later they
have a son, Antonio – Tony… of course.
But it’s a hot town, summer in the city and they cannot
afford to buy pasteurised milk for baby Tony and he begins to decline… Then
comes the fateful moment when their luck runs out.
Beppo returns home after his brief sentence and finds
Annette still beside herself with grief… In his anger Beppo looks to the man he
now holds responsible and then the fates conspire to offer him the most
dreadful revenge imaginable…
There’s an idea that this film may have been intended as
a deterrent but in the USA of all places, surely the nation was only as strong
as the people who came from all round the World to build it?
Nominally written by Thomas H. Ince (a credit-taker of Thomas
Edison proportions and a similarly-significant figure in the development of
film) and actually by C. Gardner Sullivan The
Italian is superbly directed by Reginald Barker who really shows how much
invention there was in 1914: a lovely Bauer-esque camera “zoom” into Beban at
the start followed by a number of close ups and some excellent composition as
Annette lies in bed with the new born. Credit to cinematographer Joseph H
August!
The film is still moving and is no simple morality tale:
the story is unresolved with no simple solution. Whatever Beppo’s naivety, his
tragedy is not deserved – it’s not fair -
and as his love for Annette endures we can only hope they fight on to build
their lives anew.
John Sweeney accompanied with his usual aplomb and, was
it just me or was there the odd bar or two of the Godfather theme morphed amongst his deft improvisation?
On tonight’s undercard were a strange French comedy
involving a bear – Patouillard et l'ours
policier (1911) English title more prosaically Bill and the Bear – which was uncomfortable watching for animal
lovers whilst also not being remotely funny… mind you, if the creature could just have
loosened his muzzle a few inches; it might well have been!
Spirits were lifted by Felix Gets Broadcast (1922) in which the feline with cattitude gets radioed to Egypt and
blows smoke rings to make himself a unicycle: what indeed, were they smoking?
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| Gustavo and Felix |
There was also a lovely Italian short Stella Marina (1912) which was in
magnificent condition following restoration. It featured the grand Gustavo
Serena (star of Assunta Spina (1915),
Quo Vadis? (1913) and many more…) in
pursuit of a, lovely but evasive, fisher-maid played by Enna Saredo (his wife?).
The backgrounds were so clear you could almost smell the Neapolitan sea air…
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| Isle of Death: the test shoot and the painting |
Before that we had a glimpse of a new silent… Isle of Death inspired by both Arnold Böcklin’s original painting and Rachmaninov who was in
turn also inspired by it… The score is from local favourite Costas Fotopoulos and the project is directed
by Alberto Bona who also acts and was on
hand to explain the project.
It is a Kickstarter Project and looks really worth your
time and investment so take a look at the website isleofdeath.
Accompaniment was also provided by the supernaturally-skilled Cyrus Gabrysch and Lillian Henley who next month, will sing accompaniment to Evangeline (1929) - recently reviewed on this site and a film I can't wait to see on the Bioscope screen!
Another grand evening at the Kennington Bioscope:
celebrating past silent and helping promote the next generation! There's plenty more to come...
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