Tol'able David

Richard Barthelmess is a strange actor, an actor who performed in silent movies without pantomime. An actor who acted as if he were speaking dialogue. He was so natural an actor that in an era that that needed big gestures and flamboyance to convey emotion, he succeeded in doing this without the need. It is said he could have won many an Oscar if they had them in his hey days but it was not to be. He was nominated though, once. He wasn't one of those stars who died out because his voice didn't match the image when talkies came because his first sound picture was a hit. Rather, it was because he started to choose non-commercial or artsy movies so to speak. I watch them now and wonder who expected them to be hits. There is one movie he made that plays like a "new wave" picture of the sixties. Now to the movie in question. This picture itself is not complex. In some ways, make that lots of ways, it's heavy handed melodrama from Henry King, a man who survived to direct many a big budget sound picture and make one or two really good pictures. Easy to guess, this is a retelling of the David and Goliath story set in a small town where a bunch of really nasty escaped convicts who scream evil come to town. David is a cheerful boy who nobody expects much from. He is just so t'olable. As the nasties bring gloom to the cheeriness of the town, they also end up killing David's father and David is forced to sell the farm because he cannot tend it now that his Dad is dead. His mom in the death scene of his father has the longest heart ache scene I ever seen. She sits still staring into nothingness as her husband is dying for what seems like ten full minutes of screen time. Of course, there is the girl who ignores David because he isn't a man and David must prove himself to his family and the girl and save the town. What happens? Note: Watch for the scene where a sick David drives the horse cart.

Watch Barthelmess and learn the meaning of acting. I watched this movie at a revival house with a live piano score and it heightened a lot of the action and I felt as if I was back in the twenties. Not a great movie, passable entertainment but a good introduction to one of the forgotten silent greats. (If you care to know, this movie was a big hit.)

In many ways this silent classic reminded me of what I liked-- and didn't like-- about a much more recent film, Sling Blade. Both are sensitively observed movies that not only depict but genuinely seem to embody the simpler rhythms of country life. And both ultimately end in a way that may satisfy an audience's bloodlust-- but left me somewhat dismayed that the story had taken that turn. (The violence makes the movie seem much more modern than most films of its time.) That said, there's no denying that this was one of the most accomplished movies of its time; Barthelmess's portrait of eager juvenility is beautifully observed and completely charming, and King's handling is quite sophisticated in the way it tells a story through the eyes of a character who is really secondary to the action through the first half or so.

This pastoral melodrama still packs a punch after nearly a century, mostly thanks to a lovingly produced scenario concocted by director Henry King with screenwriter (and future director) Edmund Goulding, from a Joseph Hergesheimer short story, and featuring a nearly flawless cast led by the charismatic Richard Barthelmess.

There is nothing fancy here except perhaps some overdone Griffith-style editing flourishes at the climax which artificially prolong the action, stretching its essential slam-bang quality into something resembling the slow motion stylization that caught on in the Sixties (Bonnie & Clyde's ending, for instance).

Generally, the pacing, setup and unfolding of the story are smooth and sure; the characters are authentically embodied and intelligently cast; the acting is subtle and for the most part realistic; the photography reveals all of the necessary information without ever calling attention to itself. The full spectrum of human emotional and spiritual states are covered. The themes are as old as the Virginia hills in which the story takes place: God, family, home, good vs evil, kindness vs cruelty, mother love, personal responsibility, coming of age, the cycle of birth, aging and death.

Ernest Torrence, in real life as civilized and cultivated a man as one could hope to encounter, plays a despicable criminal, who with his father and younger brother comprise a trio of sociopaths. The way he is photographed and choreographed heavily underscores his wickedness, but this kind of heightened presentation was a staple of silent cinema both in the US and abroad. The height and body language of the three bad-guy actors is in marked contrast to the families they afflict, adding a visual dimension to their essential natures. The least satisfying acting comes from Warner Richmond, who too often substitutes stupid grinning for characterization as the title character's strapping older brother. But Marion Abbott never cloys as the emotionally ravaged mother, and Gladys Hulette is the perfect country girl next door. Barthelmass is the soul of the film and perhaps never equaled this performance.

Richard Barthelmess plays the title role in Henry King's tale of dark clouds in late-19th Century small-town Americana. He's the gawky youngest of two sons, wearing ill-fitting clothes and impatient to be looked upon as a man, who suddenly finds himself burdened with huge responsibilities when his older brother is crippled by three heavies and his father dies of a heart attack. Nothing more than a modern retelling of David and Goliath, but it's told with pace and vigour - and with lumbering Ernest Torrence stealing every scene he's in as the brutish thug with a leery eye on David's sweetheart.

Although it starts off seemingly on the wrong foot with one of my favorite heroes, Richard Barthelmess, forced to take part in some embarrassingly farcical scenes with a rain barrel, the movie soon settles down into high drama once the Hatburns come to roost at a neighboring farm. A vicious threesome, ostensibly led by Walter P. Lewis, the Hatburns are in fact dominated by a towering sadist, unforgettably played by hulking Ernest Torrence.

Although director Henry King does a lot of admirable scene setting with both his well-chosen locations and his hand-picked cast, this is a movie in which the minor players are just that: Minor! All play their parts most convincingly, but only Marion Abbott makes a lasting impression. Otherwise, this is strictly (as the script itself makes plain), a David versus Goliath confrontation. Even the sweet little heroine is relegated to the background once the action really starts. But that is all to the good, as that climactic fight-to-the-finish still packs a wallop that is unmatched in the cinema.

The above review, as published in my book, "Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD", was based on the 94 minutes Image DVD version. I have just seen the 99-minute Grapevine version which is superior in a number of respects. For one thing, it throws more attention on Gladys Hulette who really comes to the fore in the beautifully tinted and toned dance sequence, which Image presents far less attractively in a faded, dull-as-ditch-water tint. And I must admit I greatly prefer the superbly synchronized canned music in the Grapevine disc to Robert Israel's adequate but by no mens riveting original score for Image.