The Sorrows of Satan

A young Ricardo Cortez struggles to play against type as a struggling writer in this Faustian tale directed by the great D W Griffith, who, by this stage in his career, was a director for hire whose best years were behind him. A few strong moments, but it never really captures our attention.

After an introduction showing a war between angels and the transformation of Lucifer and his cohorts into demons (!!!), we move to contemporary times and meet would-be writer Geoffrey Tempest (Ricardo Cortez), who lives in a shabby boardinghouse across the hall from another struggling writer, Mavis (Carol Dempster). After Geoffrey makes a comment about selling his soul for money, Prince Lucio (Adolphe Menjou) appears at his door with news that Geoffrey has inherited a vast fortune. Lucio tempts the young man with the expensive life, including sultry temptress Olga (Lya De Putti), but will the love of wholesome Mavis be enough to save Geoffrey's eternal soul?

While the proceedings run slowly at times, Griffith throws in enough memorable imagery to make this worthwhile. I particularly liked a scene where the demonic shadow of Lucio looms over Geoffrey. Menjou is dapper, slim and perfect in his role. Dempster, the last of Griffith's "favorite ladies" after the Gish sisters and Mae Marsh, retired from the screen after this film. She wasn't much liked by critics at the time, but I thought she was good here.

When it was first published in 1895 Marie Corelli's novel "The Sorrows of Satan" was a sensational success, so much so that it made Corelli the best-selling author in English since Charles Dickens, a distinction she continued to hold for a number of years. Her wildly histrionic tale was essentially an update of the Faust legend set in "Gay '90s" London, which the author used as a vehicle to condemn what she considered the sinful excesses of the day, and to urge people back to the paths of righteousness. Readers lapped it up, and Corelli, the Barbara Cartland of her day, obligingly cranked out many more such works. However, as the new artistic and literary trends of the twentieth century kicked in, and popular attitudes and mores began to change, Corelli's works were increasingly regarded as dated and somewhat embarrassing relics of the Victorian era. Read today, her novels are hilariously awful, full of unintended humor on every page. "The Sorrows of Satan" in particular reads like the work of a precocious, feverishly inspired 9 year-old, albeit one with a pompous and highly moralistic sensibility.

One would think that by the mid-1920s this sort of thing would look hopelessly dated as potential movie material, but somehow the brass at Paramount Pictures came to believe it would be the ideal assignment for their distinguished contract director, David Wark Griffith. Griffith, whose glory days were already past, had formerly been working independently and releasing his films through United Artists, which he co-founded, but he had lost his independence along with his New York studio for a number of reasons, including financial ineptitude and poor choice of material. More specifically, he had lost touch with his audience. Times were changing fast in the Roaring Twenties, and Griffith couldn't keep up. It's significant that the Paramount moguls believed this aging literary property would be just the thing for their aging director, who was himself something of a throwback to the Good Old Days.

So, Griffith adapted Corelli's Faust tale, updating the story once more to the present, and casting handsome Ricardo Cortez as struggling author Geoffrey Tempest, led astray by Adolphe Menjou's suave "Prince Lucio," i.e. Satan in disguise. As in Griffith's past half-dozen films the leading lady would be his girlfriend, Carol Dempster, a modestly talented and rather mousy-looking actress who was not widely appreciated. Cinema historians continue to puzzle over the director's dogged attempts to foist Miss Dempster onto the public. The film, at any rate, was not terribly expensive to make, especially after the Paramount brass vetoed a storm-at-sea climax, and Griffith appears to have made a concerted effort to affect a more 'modern' style. The results? The Sorrows of Satan was a flop which got Griffith fired from Paramount and drove Carol Dempster into permanent retirement.

Seen today, The Sorrows of Satan isn't all that bad, but it isn't all that good, either, and it's not hard to see why it failed on first release. The biggest problem by far is the film's frustratingly draggy pace: the opening scenes in particular are very, very, VERY slow. It takes a lot longer than it should to introduce our two leads and get the story rolling. Geoffrey Tempest (Cortez) and Mavis Claire (Dempster) are both struggling authors who live across the hall from each other in a shabby boarding house. When they go out together for a meal, it feels like their every gesture and expression is held a beat or so too long. When they decide to go get a marriage license, their every move is painstakingly (and unnecessarily) spelled out for the viewer. What's worse, we aren't given much reason to care about them. It feels like years before Adolphe Menjou's Prince Lucio shows up to tempt Geoffrey into sin, and frankly he's most welcome. Things do indeed pick up when Satan steps in -- Menjou is terrific in the role - - and we're treated to glimpses of decadent nightclub floor shows, and garden parties where guests are dressed as Nymphs and Satyrs. In short, Griffith makes like Cecil B. DeMille, and it's all very Twenties, but somehow the movie still doesn't quite click. We're kept at a distance from these characters, and just when things start to get interesting the camera pulls away, and the tempo slows down again.

The best sequence comes when Geoffrey, now wealthy but miserable, married to an exotic Russian princess in exile, wakes up in his Xanadu-like mansion sensing that something is wrong. His wife has cornered Prince Lucio in a drawing room downstairs, and is confessing that she married Geoffrey only to be near him (i.e Satan). Geoffrey creeps down the stairs and finds his wife throwing herself at Lucio's feet. It's a suspenseful, well-edited sequence, consisting of shadowy shots of the mansion which look creepy and menacing, and happily there are no intrusive title cards inserted to break up the rhythm.

But the ending is disappointingly flat, and we're left feeling deflated. The actors aren't to blame. Adolphe Menjou was ideally cast as the suave Lucio, and it's too bad he never played the role in a talkie. Ricardo Cortez has a nicely expressive face, and even Carol Dempster kind of grows on you after awhile (her washed-out, careworn appearance helps gains sympathy for the mistreated Mavis) but we are never given much reason to root for them. The director keeps us at a distance from the lead characters; perhaps he didn't care for the material much, himself. Griffith's Sorrows of Satan is an unusual and mildly diverting film -- that is, if you can get past the leaden opening scenes -- but general audiences, especially those unaccustomed to silent movies, would do just as well to skip it. Marie Corelli's novel is highly recommended, however: it's a hoot!

I was expecting this to be longer (it ran for just 90 minutes) since most sources cite it as being close to the 2 hour-mark...although one never really knows with Silent films given the variety of projection speeds involved!

Anyway, it's a rare 'horror' film for Griffith and one that, reportedly, he did against his will...in fact, it was originally intended for Cecil B. DeMille! As it happens, it's pictorially sumptuous but, typically of Griffith, rather static; for having been a pioneer of cinema, his occasional reluctance to move the camera is both strange and regrettable (some of the close-ups of his leading lady here seem interminable). The Faustian plot is reasonably compelling if predictable and the acting plaudits effortlessly go to Adolphe Menjou who brings his customary sartorial elegance to the titular character; on the other hand, Carol Dempster is nowhere near as expressive as Lillian Gish had been in Griffith's earlier films.

Even so, the director seemed far more at home during her melodramatic scenes than in depicting the sophistication of the high-life hero Ricardo Cortez breaks into, and even less so with its essential supernatural elements! While individual scenes deliver the goods (the fantastic opening sequence set in Heaven showing the banishment of Lucifer and his minions, Menjou's initial materialization in Cortez's apartment and the finale when he reverts back to his true form to menace Cortez - wisely shown only as a huge bat-like shadow), the film really needed a European sensibility to do it full justice rather than the hand of a Victorian romantic who was past his prime anyway! Still, it's very much a worthwhile if essentially patchy enterprise and I would certainly love to catch up with the director's other 'horror' work eventually - THE AVENGING CONSCIENCE (1914) and ONE EXCITING NIGHT (1922).

In the film's prelude, Lucifer is thrown out of Heaven, after rebelling against God's creation of "man in His divine image." Lucifer is forced to change his name to Satan, and is cursed to forever "tempt the sons of men to sin against the God who made you both!" Redemption is offered: "Only when all men turn from thee, canst thou resume thy glorious place at God's right hand… for every soul that resists thee, thou shalt have one hour at the gates of Paradise!"

The prelude is significant; it sets Satan up as a cursed, sympathetic villain. He is awarded an hour close to Paradise for every soul who resists his compelling (and compelled, by God!) invitation to sin. This sets up one of the film's greatest sequences, the resisting of temptation, by Carol Dempster (as Mavis Claire), upon meeting Adolphe Menjou (as Prince Lucio de Rimanez) at a party. But, first, director D.W. Griffith introduces the more luckless and susceptible protagonist, Ricardo Cortez (as Geoffrey Tempest).

Mr. Cortez is a poverty-stricken writer, living in the "humble quarter of a great old city". His boarding house is inhabited by another struggling writer, the self-described not "too beautiful" Ms. Dempster; she lives across the hall. Cortez is initially interested in Dempster for sex, but she is falling in love. The first part of the film deals with the convergence of their interests. The culmination is very well relayed by Dempster and Cortez - you can witness passion entering Dempster's thoughts as Cortez becomes love-struck. All seems to be going well for the couple.

But, on the eve of wedding, Cortez is fired from his job writing book reviews. His boss explains, "We find you condemn books that every one likes, and praise books that no one likes." Cortez curses God, triggering the thundering, Faustian appearance of Mr. Menjou, as Satan. Cortez receives the spellbinding news that a previously unknown uncle has made him "one of the richest men in the world." Menjou thwarts Cortez' efforts to share his luxurious news with Dempster; instead, providing him with sexy cigarette-sucking vamps, like Lya De Putti (as Olga Godovsky).

Meanwhile, Dempster sinks into depression. In her despair, she turns to God (Lord Christ). So, Dempster is able to resist Menjou's invitation to wickedness - the great Griffith sequence alluded to above occurs; and, it is lighted, directed, and performed extraordinarily well, by Griffith and company. The film's sets, backgrounds, lighting, and photography are exceptional throughout. Admittedly, Griffith spends too much time on making the opening stark, staid, and ordinary. And, the film's pace is slow, with too few edited breaks.

Still, "The Sorrows of Satan" is an excellent film. And, it's more faithful to writer Marie Corelli's original works than Carl Theodor Dreyer's more freely adapted "Blade af Satans bog" (1921). Interestingly, both Griffith and Dryer bring forth Corelli's popularized view of Satan as a sympathetic entity, cursed by God. More interestingly, Griffith produces a relatively ordinary picture, while Dryer's film patterns itself after Griffith's opulent "Intolerance" (1916), which had little to do with Corelli. Finally, unrelated to the film, but nonetheless noteworthy, this was the last product of the Griffith/Dempster partnership.

******** The Sorrows of Satan (10/12/26) D.W. Griffith ~ Ricardo Cortez, Carol Dempster, Adolphe Menjou