Nurture vs Nature... The Mollycoddle (1920)

"The man of him has never lost sight of the boy of him." Mary Pickford

"A mollycoddle is a body of man entirely surrounded by super-civilization." reads the title card immediately following a foreword dripping in irony which thanks the "picturesque Hopi Indians who... in their savage way heartily welcomed us to their prehistoric villages and with primitive cheerfulness played an importance in this picture."

I think he means us don't you?

According to Fairbanks' biographer, Tracey Goessel, Douglas was so taken with the term mollycoddle as it was a favourite of his hero, Theodore Roosevelt that he paid $5,000 to retain the term for later use. I'm sure Teddy would have approved of this film, the "biggest and best production of his career" according to the trade ads.

Artificial life in mollycoddled Monte Carlo

Directed by Victor Fleming (yes, him) and written by an uncredited Fairbanks along with Tom Geraghty, The Mollycoddle (1920) was made just after When the Clouds Roll By, with sense of humour firmly back to earth... the equivalent of Fairbanks "getting it together in the country" . It carries a semi-serious message for the audience: don't be fooled by the adornments of civilization - mankind is just the same whether living in primitive buildings in Arizona or those more "highly polished" on the rocks of Monte Carlo or at least a Monte Carlo specially faked on the Californian hills.

To show us how this works,the film takes one mollycoddled man from Monte Carlo and throws him up out West where he re-connects with his inner "man" - a spirit gone soft released by the tonic of adventure! Pure Doug and very much a response to contemporary concerns that modernity was making America soft; one that could be seen in a number of his films in the early period of his cinema career.

Marshall IV - secure in his wild-western masculinity

Fairbanks plays Richard Marshall III, IV and V... the first two men of courage and adventure who's bravery and success led to the Mark V version living in wealthy comfort in Europe, disconnected from his American nature. Mark III was a "leather-necked, shag-gutted buckaroo..." followed by IV, who "...put the fear of God into the heart of many an evil-doer along the frontier".

Strolling the gardens of Monaco, Marshall V encounters a group of Americans on a yachting party: society widow Mrs Warren (Adele Farrington), her daughter Molly (Betty Bouton), intrepid journalist Virginia Hale (Ruth Renick) and their host, an unamused-looking Henry van Holkar (Wallace Beery, always a pleasure). They are accompanied by three American college boys: Patrick O'Flannigan, Ole Olsen and Samuel Levinski - played by Morris Hughes, George Stewart and Paul Burns in no particular order - who seem to represent the diversity of the frontier country.

Ruth Renick

"Nobody would ever take you for an American..." Virginia is immediately fascinated with the euro-fop with his polite language, monocle and cigarette holder - Americans roll their own! But he's from Arizona even if the college boys think he's "...contrary to the Constitution of the United States". They resolve to do something about it... he needs curing.

He's not the only one who is not quite as he seems as Van Holker is a "blackguard" (we should use that word more often... Mr Gove, Mr Johnson and Mr Trump) and one of the world's greatest diamond smugglers as illustrated by an animated sequence showing how his operation works from a mine worked by "renegade Indians" to the European cutters who fashion the gems. The yachting party is just a cover for the trade and Fleming and Fairbanks are in a real hurry to get to the action!

To cut a long back-story short... a cartoon is used. The real Beery.

Van Holker receives news that the secret service is on his trail... naturally he assumes that the too good to be true Marshall V is his man and refuses a request to take him back with them. Virginia is wistful: "I think he had the makings of a man." "Bah! That mollycoddle." responds Mrs Warren.
But... the college boys have smuggled Marshall aboard and he is discovered by Van Holker's men and sent to work stoking coal in the engine room. After some grubby hard work he's rescued with good humour intact: "You Johnnies are great spoofers! I rather like it..."

Things start to happen thick and fast as we discover Virginia is the secret agent and Van the Man blames Marshall for some papers she'd disturbed in his safe. He decides to drop the spy into the ocean but the college boys rescue him and he swims to shore only to get caught in the nets of a fishing boat used by the smuggler - some good work done by Doug on a floor of dead fish here... Marshall is starting to prove his mettle and escapes again as events move on land to that rogue Indian mine...

Sea yacht and land yacht...

As the party make their way on Van H's "desert yacht" - a bus rigged with a veranda at the back - Marshall encounters an "educated Carlisle Johnny": a native American who finds his laughable attempt to barter in, umm, primitive lingo well, er, laughable. But Fairbanks' point is an interesting one again: the primitives are civilized and the civilized are primitive. Yellow Horse - "a college Indian gone wrong" - is in charge of the mine but it hardly matters, he and all the of the henchmen are only there to provide an obstacle to be overcome. As Richard Schickel put it... "to see Doug at bay and fighting off his enemies... this was the moment of high deliciousness in all his work."

Civilization and natural life

Marshall - now back in his true element - spends much time with the Indians smoking a peace pipe, laughing and dancing in the most inclusive way... Fairbanks paying due respect to the Hopi tribe on whose land they filmed. Van H is convinced now that everyone's a spy and plans to blow them up at the ominously-named Death Defile, the entrance to Haunted Canyon: he aims to blow up Hanging Rock and start and avalanche.

Marshall looks on from as the baddies make their move...

"Primitive cunning, born of instinct, now guides his every move." Marshall tracks Van H's men as they capture the college boys but then rides to their rescue even going back to pick up one of the injured: he's becoming a pure hero returned to his land and his soul is fired in the midst of this adventure.

There are some spectacular sequences as Marshall heads off across the Arizona desert on horseback, Hanging Rock is blown up and the rocks come tumbling down. Then there's a climactic battle between... you know... which sees the protagonists chasing each other as they slide down rock and scree. Fairbanks broke a finger and badly strained two wrists during the production so that stuntman Richard Talmadge had to perform at least one of the fight stunts but the vast majority are pure Doug.
Fairbanks and Fleming see "civilization" as "primitive" polished and only by reconnecting to our natural state can we gain happiness and love. Slouching about in Mediterranean casinos is most certainly not the way...

Doug tackles Wallace Beery's stuntman on the rock slope

"He never sat when he could stand, never walked when he could run; and,to Doug, chasms were built to jump over." said Anita Loos and in The Mollycoddle as elsewhere Fairbanks preached Roosevelt's idea of the Strenuous Life to the full.

I watched the David Shephard restoration which features a new "musical setting" by Philip Carli which runs along with the story in true Fairbanks' style and speed! It is available as part of the Douglas Fairbanks: Modern Musketeer box set on sale from Amazon and others at above RRP prices... time for a re-issue?

Quotes above lifted from Tracey Goessel's lovely biography The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks - it's especially strong on his relationship with Mary Pickford with the author having acquired their love letters... you may well shed a tear or two. It's available from Amazon too.

An inconvenient truth… Hypocrites (1915)

"...the most startlingly satisfying and vividly wonderful creation of the screen age..." New York Evening Journal January 1915

Ah Lois Weber, this time you’ve really upped the ante: this is a film ostensibly about Christianity but which boils down to the simple battle to live true to yourself as well as your beliefs. Let he who is without sin and a sense of perspective… cast the first stone.

Naked Truth examines political honesty...

Weber was a supremely accomplished film-maker as well as being a direct and opinionated one and whilst this film was entirely an expression of her own philosophy it also contains some marvelous technique and not a little humour. It was an incredibly successful because its simple, robust message chimed so well with contemporary beliefs but also, possibly..., because of its daring use of female nudity. The Truth is naked throughout and she is played by one Margaret Edwards, former winner of a body beautiful competition - "the most perfectly formed girl in the world..." - who reveals pretty much all in misty double exposure… I’m sure Lois knew what she was doing and, because of the religious  content she got her way… mostly.

The film opened on 20th January 1915 at the Longacre Theatre in New York with an actor dressed as a monk providing a live prologue... this was serious and very popular, stuff. The New York Times called it "daring and artistic" whilst the Evening Telegram went so far as to say it was "...the most remarkable film ever seen". Margaret Edwards even appeared at the Los Angeles opening, dancing between the screenings - it was an event.

In spite of scrupulous efforts to ensure that religious and secular authority were won over by the moral message Ohio banned the film and the Mayor of Boston reputedly asked for Truth to be painted over so that the whole truth was less revealed. Never the less, Hypocrites made Lois Weber's name and Mr de Mille was no doubt taking notes...

Courtenay Foote as the priest and the monk

 Hypocrites begins its slightly convoluted narrative in a small-town church in which an earnest priest (Courtenay Foote) is trying his upmost to connect with his mostly-complacent parishioners. Weber’s camera focuses on groups in the audience, a bored businessman here, a distractedly faint-hearted family there and many who would just rather be somewhere else. There’s knowing looks and watch-checking whilst afterwards a senior figure asks for the priest to be removed but to “keep my name out of it”.

These are people caught up in everyday concerns who are just going through the motions, attending church as a social obligation whilst they think of better things to do. Yet there are some who try – a woman in black who looks mournful and another in the choir who gazes with zealous love at the priest, his every word caressing her belief.

And some fell on stoney ground...

But it’s not enough for the preacher and he despairs of truly reaching them, the wandering attention of his own choir being aptly demonstrated by his discovery of a Sunday scandal-sheet featuring a story on Why the Truth has Startled Paris (Truth is again naked in the illustration in the paper… Lois was thorough in her imagery and this allegory is controlled from start to finish).

Exhausted the priest falls asleep and starts to dream of his struggle, finding himself attempting to lead his parishioners up a steep hillside. Few follow, the woman from the choir and the woman in black but the family fail as the father cannot carry their sick child and the banker is weighed down by his money. As the few climb higher and higher the difficulty increase until only the singer remains – near the hill top she reaches out for the priests help but she needs to find her own way to the truth.

Myrtle Stedman asks for help on the path to truth...

As the people cannot make the journey to find the truth the priest asks for the Truth to come to them and the two descend into a story within the dream in which he is Gabriel the Ascetic…

He sculpts a statue of truth which nearly blinds even his fellow monks once it is revealed to the public there is mayhem. The scene involving the unveiling is a great set piece from Weber, her camera panning round a circle of assorted rich and poor,the royal family, soldiers, drunkards, working girls and the innocent. They are made up of the same faces from the church all deaf to the truth with the exception of a young girl, a woman who has fallen too far and a nun who loves Gabriel the man not the monk...

The outlook turns black as the people reject Gabriel...

For the closing section we see a lot more Truth as Gabriel brings her to the modern world in order to hold her mirror up to scenes of politics, high society, relationships, and family. All are found to be flawed with the family facing the death of a child through their over indulgence.

In one remarkable sequence, The Mote in the Eye, the camera focuses on the eye of Myrtle Stedman to show Gabriel's face: she wants to do the right thing but her feelings for him overwhelm her moral decision. It's a great bit of composition and if you look hard enough you can see the cameraman's hand whirring the camera's handle around.

The mote in the eye of Myrtle Stedman

Lois makes sure we get the point, again and again... but her technique is so very polished you have to admire the film even if you don't want the preaching.

There are good, if mannered, performances particularly from Courtenay Foote without which the whole enterprise would fall apart.  Myrtle Stedman is also convincing as the woman with the Ascetic in her eyes whilst Adele Farrington covers her range of roles with assurance and Dixie Carr makes for a mournful Magdelan. Of course, Miss Edwards deserves a special mention for sheer commitment...

Margaret Edwards, Courtenay Foote and Adele Farrington

I watched the Kino DVD which is available direct or from Amazon. It comes with a suitably earnest new score from Jon Mirsalis who helps the film hold its mirror up to the modern viewer... we can scoff at the century-old conceits but, all that aside, are we being true? Lois Weber is hardcore even now...

"Everyone told me that ...plays, aiming at anything like a moral,would never pay... Hypocrites was my first chance to prove that I was right." Lois Weber from a Moving Picture Weekly interview in July 1915.

I would heartily recommend Anthony Slide's excellent biography Lois Weber - The Director Who Lost Her Way in History which is also available from Amazon as an e-book. Thanks to him, she's finding her way back...

Spot the cameraman!