Isn't Life Wonderful

Isn't Life Wonderful is the type of small-scale drama that Griffith excelled at, and this particular one, though a bit too stretched out, still managed to be effective (and affecting). The basic story is of a family of Polish refugees in post-WWI Germany who do their best to survive economic uncertainty. What keeps them going, and is the main theme of the film, is their love for each other. While that might seem trite or cliched on paper, hardly any of it is overplayed. In fact, I see the basic themes in the film still having resonance today, even if the cultural specificity is a little outdated. Of note to me was the simple way that this was photographed, with camera movement reserved for the most dramatically intense moments. I also responded to the score, which was arranged for piano and violin from the original 1924 score. The best part was how different recognizable folk tunes and classical pieces were used as motifs throughout. And while most of the most emotionally impactful moments occurred in the first half, this was overall quite an uplifting drama that represents the best aspect of what Griffith had to offer cinema.

Director D. W. Griffith was with United Artists since its founding in 1919. However, by 1924, after a year of not producing any blockbusters, his partners decided the film pioneer and their UA studio should part company. The irony of the departure's timing is Griffith directed in what today is considered his last great masterpiece, November 1924's "Isn't Life Wonderful."

As great as the film is, "Isn't Life Wonderful" had a difficult time finding an audience. The public just wasn't interested in seeing a Polish refugee family painfully trying to exist in an economically dysfunctional Germany. The postwar country was experiencing an inflationary monetary system never seen before, with its marks currency escalating literally by the minute. Fatigue, hunger and crime greeted its citizens after its defeat against the Allied countries, especially France, demanding Germany keep up with its reparations for its invasion in 1914. Griffith, reading Geoffrey Moss' account of the German's life in his series of 1923 short stories, decided to produce a movie based on one of them. To make his production appear even more authentic, he took his crew and actors to film in Germany and Austria .

The often-criticized actress Carol Dempster, a favorite of Griffith after Lillian Gish left his fold, has been particularly praised here as showcasing a credible performance as the orphan Inga. Her fictitious character had grown up with the Polish family before their immigration to Germany. Griffith changed the citizenship of the film's central figures from German to Polish, knowing American viewers would be more apt to sympathize with them than the German populace.

The movie's male love interest, Paul (Neil Hamilton), suffering from a mustard attack in the war, has a twinkle in the eye for Inga, even though he's hobbled by the injury. In the one dramatic scene that "Isn't Life Wonderful" is known for, Inga stands patiently in a long queue in front of a butcher's shop after pooling the family's money for some long-desired meat. As the minutes tick by, the store owner repeatedly steps out to the blackboard and changes the escalating price of the meat, so much so that the money Inga has in her hand becomes inadequate. Incidentally, actor Hamilton, who had a long career in over 260 films, is recognizable today as the police commissioner in the 1960's 'Batman" TV series.

Not as mind blowing as "Intolerance", as Epic as "Birth of a nation" or beautiful as "Broken Blossoms", this film still holds up very well in Griffith's catalogue. Some great stuff, and many masterly sequences. Funnily, this was made at a time when Griffith's influence and credibility was waning, but in many ways this film is as influential as any of his others. "Isn't life wonderful" takes social realism to a new heightened level, and had immediate impact on G.W. Pabst when he made "Joyless Streets", which in turn influenced the entire Italian Neo-realist movement! This film confirms Griffith's position as the most important director of them all.

Griffith does a really good job of showing the horrors of war as they relate to the masses and then personalizing it. We are focused mostly on a family that has connections to all the implications of the First World War. Our primary focus is on lovers, the woman in waiting, and the man with scorched lungs from a gas attack. This war was probably the most devastating ever fought because of the dirty conditions and the hand to hand combat. The Germans used poison mustard gas which killed and maimed. And yet this film has a positive message because humans are resilient and manage to move forward no matter how horrible the cost. A more mature D. W. Griffith film.

After "The Great War" (later called "World War I"), unfortunately orphaned Carol Dempster (as Inga) goes to Germany, with an also-on-the-move homeless Polish family. There, she waits for handsome soldier Neil Hamilton (as Paul), childhood sweetheart from her "adopted" family. So, living virtuously must have been difficult for the couple, since they grew up together. Presently, Ms. Dempster and Mr. Hamilton find their changes for happiness averted by devastating post-war conditions…

Absent collaborators G.W. Bitzer, Robert Harron, and Lillian Gish might have given director D.W. Griffith another masterpiece with "Isn't Life Wonderful". His closest film-making partner was, by now, protégée Dempster. One of the problems with Dempster is evident herein - note the scene where she forces herself to "smile" while Mr. Hamilton is bedridden; this acting business is swiped from Ms. Gish's "smile" in "Broken Blossoms" (1919); and, Hamilton is directed to act like Mr. Harron.

This doesn't mean Dempster and Hamilton aren't adequate in the parts - but one of Mr. Griffith's problems was pigeonholing an actress like Dempster into something she was not. Griffith directed a "type" - the old lady, the mother, the virginal heroine, the suitor, etc. Herein, he is obviously directing his cast to act like the "types" co-created with performers like Gish and Harron; and, he incorrectly assumes one performer (Dempster) is able to deliver the same kind of performance as another (Gish).

This thematically beautiful film was said to be Griffith's apology for his ostensibly pro-War and necessarily anti-German "Hearts of the World" (1918, with Harron and Gish). But, Griffith apologists should have looked at "Hearts" more closely, and beat a hasty retreat; because, the turnaround began within that film. Like a war weary world, Griffith foresaw a pacifist mood. He knew how to be both ahead of the curve and behind the times; pulling no punches, "Isn't Life Wonderful" serves up blistering pessimistic optimism.

******* Isn't Life Wonderful (11/23/24) D.W. Griffith ~ Carol Dempster, Neil Hamilton, Lupino Lane, Frank Puglia