True Heart Susie

Both major stars in 1919, this bucolic tale by D.W. Griffith was old-fashioned even when it was made, but its simple charms and top stars make it worth a look. The girl loves the boy, helps him thru college without his knowledge, but he marries another. But because she has a true heart, she prevails. Gish has a few nice scenes, and Harron is good as the confused boy. Clarine Seymour is good as the bad girl (powder and paint!). Not much action but the scenes carry you along and Gish is watchable in anything. Harron was exceptional in Intolerance a few years earlier, and died soon after this film (gun shot wounds)as did Clarine Seymour--both in 1920!. Kate Bruce, Loyola O'Connor, and Carold Dempster co-star.

Charming and sentimental soap opera introduced as "The Story of a Plain Girl". Well, Susie (the so-called "plain girl", played by Lillian Gish) and William (Robert Harron) are two country teens who seem to be best pals having a small little romance as she walks home from school with him and he carves their initials on a tree - seems sweet, right? But then again, she pretty much trails behind him as they walk (like his shadow) and he pretty much pulls away as they start to kiss (bashful or just not interested - it's hard to tell). He dreams of going to college, she secretly sells her cow and other goods (after all, she "must" marry a smart man) and sends him the money under the guise that it is from a "philanthropist" they previously met in town. He comes back grown-up, with mustache - she secretly writes of plans to marry him in her diary and keeps it a secret about who his real benefactor was. But - enter one flirty Bettina: she believes in paint, powder, tight skirts, and silk stockings. Young William, now ready for marriage, unbelievably asks surprised Bettina to become his wife. Oh dear, poor Susie. But it doesn't exactly work out the way he hopes!

This is a really sweet and entertaining film - I like it a bunch. Lillian Gish is quite a bit too pretty to really seem realistic as "plain", but they manage to braid and slick down her hair in the earlier scenes, and with her shuffling along and the like, it almost works - and she's great in the part, of course. The character of Bettina is not really in the vein of "evil vamp" or anything like that - she's really just an immature young girl who likes to party and flirt and just isn't ready to settle down with a house and husband yet. Clarine Seymour, who plays Bettina, is really excellent in this film - she completely brings her character to life and even manages to make what appears to be a man-stealing home-wrecker into a sympathetic character. It is hard to forget while watching this film, the early deaths of two of the stars here, Harron and Seymour, in only a year's time. The art direction and camera-work nicely captures the rural setting and youthful faces of the stars. The Kino DVD of this film features a clear, tinted print that looks great - the music is a nicely done score by the Mont Alto orchestra featuring contemporary tunes, which completely suits this film. An emotional, absorbing, and at all times enjoyable silent film.

"True Heart Susie" is one of my top five or four favorite silent films -a timeless masterpiece of simple beauty and innocence. Set in small rural town in America, it is about a simple and devoted young woman "True Heart Susie" (Lillian Gish, in what is perhaps her finest performance) who makes painful sacrifices to promote her next door neighbor and ignorant love William Jenkins (Robert Harron) to college. This is D.W. Griffith at his peak. There isn't a scene in the this marvellously lyrical film that never attains emotional beauty and resonance. It may not have the technical invention and epic sprawl of "Birth of a Nation" or "Intolerance" or "Way Down East" but it remains one of the most honest and beautiful films I have ever seen.

A work of art you don't want to miss.

A rare chance to see Robert "Bobby" Harron perform on film. Most of his silent films have been lost. He died tragically, at the height of his popularity, at only 27 years of age. He was a handsome young fellow who definitely makes an impression in this film. Lillian Gish's character is almost too long-suffering to be believed, but somehow she makes it work through little flashes of humor and tenderness. My favorite scene: she takes the minister's wife into bed with her to save her from being locked out of her home on a frigid, cold, rainy night. As the wife sleeps, Lillian (in love with the husband herself), clenches her hand into a fist, and for a moment considers pummeling her rival, but instead the pure love of her heart wins out, and she reaches out for the sleeping wife and hugs her close, caressing her.

Watch "True Heart Susie" to see its stars shine. The story is simple, but it will capture your attention immediately and give you a chance to see yet another classy silent film with heart.

Lillian Gish (as True Heart Susie) is an ordinary country girl; she is in love with typical "boy-next-door" Robert Harron (as William Roberts). The film begins with a series of seemingly silly, sentimental, and hopelessly old-fashioned observations about the relationships between men and women like "True Heart Susie" and "William Roberts". Director D.W. Griffith astutely notes, "Of course they don't know what poor simple idiots they are -- and, we, who have never been so foolish, an hardly hope to understand…"

You can tell, early on, that minister-to-be Harron is not really interested, romantically, in Gish. Harron prefers the "kind" of woman later idealized by Clarine Seymour (as Bettina). Ms. Seymour leads a fine supporting cast, as the painted and partying "other woman". Gish tries "power and stockings", but it is not in her character. When she accidentally chances upon Harron and Seymour kissing, Gish realizes circumstances are beyond her control, and Harron is lost to her -- this is followed by an incredible close-up of Gish, which defies description.

With "True Heart Susie", director Griffith and company achieve "non-epic" perfection. In its own way, the film is as "epic" as the director's "Intolerance" (1916). Ms. Gish and Mr. Harron are superb, as usual; though they are young adults, they are thoroughly convincing as opening-scene schoolchildren. The performances are almost outerworldly; especially, after Harron expresses discontent, and Gish reacts. Gish's reactions are particularly amazing; in fact, this may be her most supreme silent-era achievement, besting her own performance in the recently released "Broken Blossoms" (1919). If "Best Actress" awards were given out in 1919, Lillian Gish's "True Heart Susie" might have won over her own lead performance in "Broken Blossoms".

Truly classic.

********** True Heart Susie (6/1/19) D.W. Griffith ~ Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Clarine Seymour, Loyola O'Connor