Sally, fille de cirque

I put off watching SALLY OF THE SAWDUST for years. Comedy was never Griffith's best genre and the 1920s were not his best decade. However, it turned out to be better than I expected, though that might be more because of WC Fields than anything else. He's funny, though decidedly lacking the misanthropic edge he had in his great 1930s work (the man warmly hugs a child in an early scene so you know you're not dealing with pure Fields here). The story is a 1920s take on Dickens' style melodrama: an eccentric con-man tries to reunite his adopted daughter with her rich relatives. The plot is stretched out, but there are charming episodes throughout and I was never bored.

Carol Dempster is quite mixed. I tend to find her unremarkable in most of her work and she only tended to shine in less glamorous/winsome roles (see ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL for a genuinely great performance from her). Here, she veers between outright badness and inspired in what might be the most uneven performance of her short career. It often does not feel like she's playing a character so much as employing several facial tics repetitively in front of the camera: she winks, she coos, she does little dancing motions. It's supposed to come off as peppy but it often grates. Her emotional scenes are disastrous, complete with shameless mugging. However, Dempster excels in the physical scenes, like when she escapes a courthouse through a high window or when she's interacting with an elephant. I maintain that Dempster was best at playing active, everyday characters and not the Victorian girl-women Griffith liked to populate his movies with.

SALLY OF THE SAWDUST was one of Griffith's last films and is quite unlike anything else in his filmography. It's definitely worth seeing, though if you've never seen a silent movie before, I would not make this one your first.

Seems to have been made as a vehicle for W.C. Fields and Carol Dempster and they dominate it. Fields already has his film character well developed. Carol Dempster seems to dance through the film and her acting reminds me of Mary Pickford, who also worked a long time under D.W. Griffith. Typical of later Griffith films technically.

Later remade as Poppy (the original title) with Fields in the same role.

The plot of "Sally of the Sawdust" is the usual melodramatic stuff-- an orphan, rags-to-riches-- but the film rises above most silents thanks to four people:

This is not, of course, D. W. Griffith's masterpiece, but it does showcase his film-making savvy in full maturity. He uses all his innovations, which are techniques we take for granted now: close- ups, cross-cutting, a mobile camera, and the ability to modify acting from theatrical exaggeration to cinematic subtlety.

W. C. Fields also showcases his skills-- not his signature gruff delivery, but his remarkable dexterity as a physical comedian. He does a few inventive juggling acts, cut too short to be fully appreciated, and some very deft pickpocketing, but it seems that every prop that comes within reach gets manipulated for comic effect-- hat, cane, car roof, dog, cash. He's a joy to behold.

Much has been said against Carol Dempster as an actress, but not by me. She was 22 at the time, playing a teenager, and her combination of grace and awkwardness is engaging, particularly when she dances. She's not a beauty-- though she's positively luminous in the scene where she's gussied up like a Talmadge sister-- but her plainness enhances her simple affection for Fields, her guardian.

Finally, there is Alfred Lunt in one of his rare film roles, as a dashing leading man. He and his British wife Lynne Fontane (a lavender marriage) made one talkie together-- a wonderfully funny one, "The Guardsman," in 1931-- after which they quit movies forever for the Broadway stage, where they reigned from 1923 to 1957. So famous and powerful were they that they would only accept theatrical contracts which allowed them to work together. As for movies, Fontanne wrote to the Hollywood producer who tried to lure them back with huge flippin' wadges of cash, "We can be bought, but we cannot be bored."

I am a great fan of W.C. Fields, and continue to study his life and especially his work that is available to us. This is the only movie currently available to me to judge his work as a confident silent movie actor and comedian. I admit that perhaps I am not coming to this movie with the best agenda to appreciate it as a film on it's own terms. This is a D.W. Griffiths film after all - the alleged father of movies as we know them today. Don't ask me. I wouldn't know if that's a deserved reputation or not.

I did enjoy this film. I thought Carol Dempster was good in her role, but of course I was more interested in the times when Fields is on screen. There are some specific moments for Fields fans to savour. The fleeting shots of his juggling skills, the first evidence of the subtle reactions and gestures that we know from his classic talkies of the 1930's, and the peanut cart disguise for a liquor cabinet that survives from his Zeigfield Follies days.

This won't be a movie I turn to as often as I do to the great W.C. Fields films of 1932-34, but I'm just so glad that it has not been lost to us as have been other of Fields silent film work.

SALLY OF THE SAWDUST (United Artists, 1925), directed by DW Griffith, the man responsible for such early silent epics as THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) and INTOLERANCE (1916), as well as Hollywood's first tragedy, BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1919), now past his prime, attempts a feature length comedy taken from Dorothy Donnelly's 1923 stage play of "Poppy," which helped establish the career of vaudevillian WC Fields. Reprising his stage role as Professor Eustace McGargle (sporting checkered pants, derby and a mustache), this not only became Fields' first important screen role, but one of his most notable characters. He would repeat his McGargle role once more (minus derby and mustache) in the 1936 sound version of POPPY (Paramount) with Rochelle Hudson taking the title role. As for the silent original, Poppy is renamed Sally as the movie itself has been retitled, with the background shifting from the 1800s to modern-day 1920s era. Being able to see and compare both SALLY OF THE SAWDUST and POPPY, it is evident that no two versions are alike. The only similarities would be McGargle (Fields), the carnival con man, rearing a young girl since childhood as his own, unaware to he that he's her surrogate father; his attempt to restore her back to her deceased mother's wealthy parents; and the girl's love for a rich man's son.

For SALLY OF THE SAWDUST, being the best known feature length film for either WC Fields or Carol Dempster during the silent era, mainly due to its current availability and frequent revivals, it's nearly forgotten that this particular assignment was actually directed by the father of film himself, DW Griffith, in spite the fact that many of his famous trademarks are evident here, such as his signature beneath the title cards; numerous closeups on the title character being Dempster; flashbacks giving insight to Sally's origins, her mother, and how McGargle was chosen as the little girl's guardian prior to her mother's death; along with cut to the chase and last minute rescues. For today's audience aware of this film's very existence, SALLY OF THE SAWDUST is remembered solely as a Fields comedy, but it's Dempster who acquires most of the attention under Griffith's careful supervision. Dressed nearly throughout the story in shabby attire, one scene, set during a society function, spotlights Dempster's Sally all dolled up in elegant fashion, styled hair, necklaces, and wearing low-cut evening gowns.

As for the story, Sally (Carol Dempster) is the circus waif reared by Professor Eustance McGargle (WC Fields), a lovable con man, sideshow juggler and entertainer. (Flashbacks reveal that Sally, whose mother had married a circus man against the wishes of her father, later becoming a widow with a child, and before she, too, dies, entrusts her little girl to their best friend, McGargle.) Now that Sally is a young adult, McGargle comes to the conclusion that Sally is growing up and decides to return her to grandparents, now living in Green Meadow. Upon their arrival, they both stir up controversy when attending a charity bazaar for homeless children which is taking place near the estate of the very wealthy Judge Henry L. Foster (Erville Alderson) and his wife (Effie Shannon), who happen to be Sally's grandparents. Complications arise when Peyton Lennox (Alfred Lunt) ,the rich young son of a respected leading citizen engaged to marry a society society girl he does not love, becomes infatuated by the visiting Sally. After her "Pop" escapes arrest for dealing in a crooked card game, Sally, in turn is arrested and jailed, while Peyton gets sent out of town by his parents hoping that he'd forget about this common girl. As McGargle learns of Sally's predicament, he's in one himself being held hostage by bootleggers in a far away cottage.

Regardless of numerous changes from the original play, SALLY OF THE SAWDUST does remain loyal to Fields' character, a juggler and shifty con man who "never gives a sucker an even break," with motto being "It's the old Army game." Fields, who makes the most of his initial movie lead, does display his given talent through several key scenes, but it's director Griffith who makes one big mistake by shifting Fields' juggling act in the background with the camera range at a far distance distracted by the heads of his curious spectators, instead of focusing in a nearer range and center stage of him. While not one of the best comedies from the silent era, SALLY OF THE SAWDUST does include some fine comedic moments, mostly supplied by Fields himself.

SALLY OF THE SAWDUST was first introduced to public television as part of the 13-week 1971 presentation of THE SILENT YEARS, hosted by Orson Welles, which was, by this time, the only known surviving WC Fields from the silent era. During Welles' profile on both film and Fields, it's interesting to note how Welles affectionately spoke of Fields by addressing him as "Uncle Claude." Out of circulation for little over a decade, SALLY OF THE SAWDUST resurfaced on video cassette by the 1980s, with one of the distributors being Blackhawk Video, accompanied by Wurlitzer pipe organ score by Jack Ward, the same score that was used for THE SILENT YEARS. The movie's length, ranging from 90 minutes to nearly two hours, depending on the distributor and the silent projector speed. For an added bonus, KINO Video distributed the restored 112 minute VHS /DVD version with new orchestral score consisting of prologue opening and some lost footage supposedly unseen since its initial release.

Because of the mild success to SALLY OF THE SAWDUST, Griffith reunited Dempster and Fields in THAT ROYAL GIRL (1926). Due to the unavailability of that reunion, SALLY OF THE SAWDUST goes down in movie history as the one that paved the way to the future comedy cinematic world of a man named WC Fields. (***)