The Craving

"The Craving" (1918) stars Francis Ford, Mae Gaston, Peter Gerald, Duke Worne, Jean Hathaway, and Frank Lanning. It is also directed by Francis Ford with a dollop of help from his brother John.

After finishing watching this film, I'm still trying to figure out my impressions about the direction of this film, and by that I mean both in what direction it goes and the actual directing of the film by Francis Ford. Both Francis and John Ford are also credited with writing the film. The plot elements are confused, with none of them going in a solid linear movement without getting interrupted by another plot line which doesn't go in a solid direction forward either. There are fantastical scenes which periodically interrupt the flow, too, and they are by far the best thing about the entirety. The fantastical scenes include two and threefold exposure which must have been mindboggling in 1918, but the shots of the four pixies in a glass that Francis Ford was drinking from still is marvelous today!

The film opens with Francis Ford in his laboratory where he is trying to finish his lifetime's great desire, that is, to create an explosive that is far greater than any other. His brother (played by Duke Worne) is trying to persuade him to come into the other room with their mother and relax, get away from his compulsive behavior in the lab. At first we don't realize that Francis Ford has an obsessive-compulsive disorder. In fact, we learn later, he's a "recovering" alcoholic of the worst sort, one who suffers delirium tremens.

Next comes the scenes with the man from India (played by Peter Gerald), an "Easterner" who is plotting to steal the formula for the explosive from Francis Ford. He also has an English ward (Mae Gaston), one he found (read "stole" or "kidnapped" or took with nefarious plans for) when her parents were killed in a fort in India during an attack. He is able by looking at her fiercely "with his deep black eyes" to keep her in his power, much like the story of Trilby! He also is able to convince her to eventually try to "persuade" Francis Ford to join her in a drink.

The story is simple in plot lines, though there are too many. Nevertheless, it is very interesting watching the story progress. As an audience we are certainly kept guessing where in the world that it might be going! Far too many loose ends are dangling all throughout, and then the end finally comes far too pat.

Still, it was fun to watch for only 52 minutes, and the special effects were indeed wonderful. Francis is definitely not his brother as a director, even with his brother's help. He's not a bad actor, though; yet even then he's rooted in a mimic tradition that seems stage bound.

Great to see this film restored by the Eye Museum and then newly released with new intertitles taken from Dutch intertitles. The film was found only recently in the last couple of decades. It was thought to be lost. The new release is an Undercrank production with musical accompaniment by Ben Model.

Thanks, Ben! Also on the release are three short films starring Francis Ford. A worthy and most noteworthy release, one which resurrects a long neglected participant in silent films who was very highly thought of in the 1910s and early 1920s. One coda: there are thematic elements about "Easterners" which may greatly offend sensitivities today, so, be aware.

Francis Ford is a research chemist. He has invented a new explosive. Oriental Peter Gerald wants it. So he sets his ward, Mae Gaston, to play on Ford, reigniting his alcoholism.

First let's clear up the matter of who wrote and directed this. The IMDb claims that Ford's younger brother John co-directed it and co-wrote it. The younger Ford later denied this, and the records at Universal bear this out. In addition, there is no indication in the visual elements that John had any hand in this; set design and framing show no indication of the visual sophistication, the reframing of the images that For was already putting into his images. And the story is a psychologically complex one, far from the younger man's metier.

For this is a complex story, with a strong subtext of the power of the rational, Western mind to triumph over the irrational, Eastern powers of the body. Ford conquers his alcoholism by an act of free will, and in doing so, sets Miss Gaston free from Gerald's domination. It's certainly not a subtle subtext. Film makers of this period, having recognized that they were working in an entirely new form of art, tried all sorts of techniques and motifs, using already hoary camera techniques like double exposure to show fraught states of mind. Francis Ford's story is bold, and while modern techniques in story telling are subtler in their uses of such matters, he tells the story exuberantly.

Francis Ford entered the movies in 1909 for Gaston Melies, who was producing westerns in Texas for France's Star Films. By 1914, he was working for Universal, where he and Grace Cunard were major stars for the company. Besides acting, he also directed almost 200 movies. He gave that up with the coming of sound, and remained an actor in roles large and small until his death in 1953 at the age of 72. He appeared in just shy of 500 movies.