The Sands of Dee

The opening title tells us that this film is inspired by Kingsley's poem, but even more than that, Griffith loved to shoot the sea and the shore. To him the restless motion told of unending, strong emotion, and he uses it that effect here, as Miss Marsh is enamored of an artist who throws her over when his society lady shows up. She refuses to accept Bobby Harron as a substitute and drowns herself in the sea.

Griffith used to complain of the studio-bound productions that arose in the late 'Teens and Twenties that "We have lost the wind in the trees." Looking at this poorly known work, the viewer can grasp what he meant: not the pathetic fallacy of storm during emotional upheaval, but the constant movement that betokens the movements of the soul.

There is also the wonderful way in which the actors manage to tell the story with no titles for speech. Words are not necessary to express emotion; indeed, to the skilled pantomimists that Griffith trained himself, they would simply get in the way.

This is another typical Biograph picture and a very decided success. It is a study of human life and human impulses and was suggested by Kingsley's sorrowful lyric, "The Sands of Dee." You will remember that the song mourns for a girl, Mary, who went out to call the cattle home across the sands of Dee, and who was drowned. The picture tells, in a series of beautiful scenes, set in a background of the ocean's everlasting waves, a story of over-trustful love and of cruel abandonment. The characters are mostly simple seaside folk in costume of many years ago. The trouble maker is an aristocratic artist. These characters are remarkably well drawn, with no exception; they in their truthfulness add to the picture's convincing atmosphere. The backgrounds also are skillfully used to deepen the feeling of tragedy. But the sincere, strong, acting of the heroine, and her restraint at the picture's deeply emotional moments give it a grip that makes it able to hold. It brought a large audience completely under its spell. It is well photographed. - The Moving Picture World, August 3, 1912

D. W. Griffith tragedy that takes it title (and little else) from the Charles Kingsley poem. Mae Marsh is an effective heroine, cruelly discarded by the dastardly artist Edwin August.

Robert Harron's performance from "The Sands of Dee" is showcased in Dore Schary's 1945 box office hit "The Spiral Staircase", starring Dorothy McGuire. In the film's opening, Ms. McGuire is at a nickelodeon, thrilled by Mr. Harron's desperate search for his lost love; meanwhile, a serial murderer is claiming Myra Dell. It appears as if a superior print of D.W. Griffith's "The Sands of Dee" was used in the Dore Schary-produced film; so, where is it?

Before the events projected in "The Spiral Staircase", Harron (as Bobby) is rejected by leading lady Mae Marsh (as Mary). Ms. Marsh forsakes Harron's boyish charms for sophisticated painter Edwin August, after Mr. August flatters her, and steals a kiss. Harron wanders sadly along the beach, and slumps over some rocks. Marsh is happy with her new love, but finds the fickle finger of fate pointing her toward tragedy…

Director Griffith and photographer G.W. Bitzer create beautiful seaside location images. Marsh and Harron perform expertly together; and, audiences longed to see them reunited. Charles Hill Mailes and Grace Henderson are notable, among the always dependable Griffith stable of supporting players. The poetic on-screen story is a believable adaptation of Charles Kingsley's original, simpler poem.

******** The Sands of Dee (7/22/12) D.W. Griffith ~ Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, Edwin August