The Virginian

Interesting silent from the very early days of Universal, based on a popular Owen Wister novel and perhaps partly scripted by him. What impressed me the most about it was the command that director Cecil B. DeMille has over feature editing at this early stage. His handling of the principal actors is not particularly outstanding; and DeMille would not further distinguish himself in this area as his long career unfolded. But DeMille understands how to intercut separate scenes so they fold into one another and move the story forward. Also DeMille shows skill in coordinating crowd scenes, which would certainly serve him well in his later biblical epics. In these respects "The Virginian" is one of the most advanced features of it's time, at least of the ones from 1914 which we can still see today.

Aside from the film "The Squaw Man", "The Virginian" is about as good and well made western as you can find from the silent era. It is a quality production throughout and I strongly recommend this Cecil B. DeMille film.

Dustin Farnum stars as the title character--a fun-loving cowboy from Virginia who is the hero of this tale. The Virginian's friend is Steve--a guy described as weak in the intertitle cards. You see this weakness when Steve succumbs to the villain, Trampas, and joins in with his gang of baddies. The Virginian is friends with Steve---but he's also on the side of justice and eventually you know this will bring him into conflict with Steve and eventually with the dreaded Trampas. In addition, there is a new school mistress, Molly Wood, who both admires and is annoyed by the Virginian's rough and tumble ways. So what becomes of all these folks? See the film.

While folks who see this film today might not be that impressed by it, for 1914 it IS an incredibly well done film. The acting (aside from one instance where Molly does overact), direction and look of the film actually are way ahead of their time--as most 1914 films were much more primitive in style and look. In essence, this film helped to establish a prototype for later westerns and the only thing it had that was sadly missing in many 1930s and 40s westerns was the use of REAL Native American tribesmen-- something that shows that the studio and director tried to get the look right instead of just painting up white guys to look like Indians!

This was Cecil B. DeMille's first picture as sole credited director. Like the better known yet inferior Squaw Man, which he co-directed with Oscar Apfel, it is a western starring Dustin Farnum. Unlike its predecessor, The Virginian bears the hallmarks of having been made by a classy albeit inexperienced director, and the definite DeMille style is beginning to emerge.

Part of The Virginian's superiority over The Squaw Man is its tighter storyline. This is probably helped by the fact that it unswervingly follows genre convention. The western may have been in its infancy, but even in 1914 the iconic cowboy and his inevitable shootout with the villainous outlaw were already synonymous with it. One factor which characterises this as an early western is the theme of an outsider coming to the west – in this case the love interest Molly. At this time the west was not yet old, and it was an exotic place for easterners to discover. There's already something of a shift going on here though as the hero himself is an established westerner. I have to say, Dustin Farnum looks a lot more comfortable here playing the genuine cowboy as oppose to the English gentlemen traveller of The Squaw Man.

Right from the start, Cecil DeMille differed somewhat in approach from DW Griffith in that he was most concerned with what went on in individual shots rather than the relationship between them, favouring long takes and rich compositions. He shows some promise here, making good aesthetic use of depth and balance, although he's not quite there yet when it comes to clarifying action and character. For example, he introduces the villain Trampas with a title card, then confuses us by showing three men sitting round the table. Our eyes will probably be drawn to the man on the left with the large sombrero, but it's only thirty seconds or so into the scene that we realise it's the man on the right who is Trampas.

Some more typical – and innovative – DeMille touches emerge later. DeMille was one of the first filmmakers to convey psychology through technique. For example, when Farnum and his pal Steve are fondly remembering their adventures together, he literally shows their memories on screen in a superimposed image. Of course, this technology had been around since Melies' heyday fifteen years earlier, but DeMille is using it to photograph thought. You don't see anything like that in the work of Melies, or Griffith for that matter.

By and large however, De Mille is still taking his lead from Griffith, which is fair enough as Griffith was the undisputed master at the time. His staging and use of close-ups looks very much like that in the Biograph shorts. There's also some Griffith-style parallel editing to contrast the diverging paths of Steve and Farnum, when the former falls in with the cattle rustlers and the latter falls in with the school ma'am. The later DeMille tended to keep individual scenes intact. However, it would not be long before fully-fledged DeMillean classics such as The Cheat would appear.

First of two silent versions, this one is directed by C. B. DeMille, stars Dustin Farnum as the Virginian, and runs just under an hour. Compared to the 1929 Gary Cooper version, this one isn't bad, although Farnum probably could have dropped a few pounds. Still, he's a likable hero. This version contains the "baby swap" sequence, as does the 1929 version; in each case, I don't get why this is even in the film, since it just seems too stupid and a waste of time. I guess it's supposed to be funny, but I didn't see the humor. The hanging sequence is over pretty quickly; we get to see the shadows of the hanged rustlers, and that's an effective scene. In the final shootout, Farnum shoots his gun like he is swatting at flies. I've seen this weird motion in other silents, and wonder who came up with this, because I can't figure out how someone could aim while doing this.

Dustin Farnum is "The Virginian", a cow-puncher who arrives to settle in Bear Creek, Wyoming; where, he meets, and falls in "lov" (sic) with newly arrived schoolteacher Winifred Kingston (as Molly Wood). His life is complicated when his best friend Jack W. Johnston (as Steve) gets involved with town gangster William 'Billy' Elmer (as Trampas).

The part, early on, with Mr. Farnum and Hosea Steelman (as Lin McLean) exchanging guests' babies while they dance and drink whiskey, is amusing. There are some interestingly set-up outdoor shots from director Cecil B. DeMille. The story is sometimes odd; for example, Mr. Johnston takes up with Mr. Elmer, it's stated, as Farnum "neglects" him to be with Ms. Kingston. Later, Johnston writes something on a newspaper - "good by (unreadable) i couldn't speak to you without (unreadable) the baby Steve". I watched it with my finger on still, and still couldn't figure it out. Among the featured players. Johnston delivered the best performance. Farnum and Kingston, who had just co-starred in "The Squaw Man" (1914), would later marry.

***** The Virginian (9/7/14) Cecil B. DeMille ~ Dustin Farnum, Winifred Kingston, Jack W. Johnston