Rip Van Winkle

Washington Irving's story of Rip van Winkle, the old New York Dutch patroon who drank too much, lost his property, and slept for twenty years when he caught Henry Hudson and the dwarves playing ten-pins in the Catskills, only to return to his home an old, unrecognized man, is a familiar one. Less familiar is Joseph Jefferson, who played the role first in the mid-1850s, and then played no other role for the last forty years of his life. He was filmed in the role in 1896, and again in 1903. When he died, his son Thomas took over the role and played it in this early feature, with the combination of humor, pathos and a melodramatic ending that had been his father's revolutionary style of acting half a century earlier.

It's a pretty good adaptation of the play. It looks like it was shot in the actual Catskills, and Jefferson's daughter Daisy plays van Winkle's daughter as an adult. Of more interest to fans of old movies is that Gertrude Messinger is credited on-screen as the girl as a child. If it is she, she would have been only three at the time.

It's a bit old-fashioned in its techniques, like many a feature from 1914, but it's a fascinating relic.

The actor Thomas Jefferson (presumably named for the U.S. President, who was allegedly this actor's ancestor) was a son of Joseph Jefferson the Third, an extremely popular 19th-century American stage actor whose lifespan just barely overlapped with the earliest days of movies. Consequently, Joseph Jefferson's entire film career consists of only a few crude silent tableaux, tantalising us with a glimpse of Victorian-era dramatics. This film is Thomas Jefferson's attempt to preserve (through re-enactment) his father's most famous role. As my own cultural viewpoint is British, I was astonished to learn that the American actor Joseph Jefferson was the grandfather of the English author Eleanor Farjeon. Like the movie actor Tyrone Power, Joseph Jefferson the Third had a namesake father and paternal grandfather who were also stage actors. Shortly before Jefferson died in New York City in 1905, he expressed a desire to have his funeral at the nearby Church of the Transfiguration, which he referred to as 'the Little Church Around the Corner'. This house of worship has been known by that affectionate nickname ever since.

In the days before electrical recording, when all performances had to be live, it was possible for a barnstorming actor to earn an excellent living essaying the same role for decades at a stretch, and Joseph Jefferson did so in the title role of 'Rip Van Winkle'. Washington Irving's famous tale is a retelling of a Grimm Brothers folktale, transplanted to the Dutch Catskills in the mid-18th century but not otherwise changed. I shouldn't be surprised to learn that the Grimms adapted it from an earlier source.

This low-budget silent film takes place outdoors but is plainly filmed indoors against painted backdrops. The main setting is outside the tavern of Nicklaus Vedder in the village of Falling Waters. A tavern sign, bearing the likeness of King George III, indicates that this is pre-Revolutionary New York.

Jefferson makes his entrance with a small boy riding on his back, several other tots scurrying to keep up with him, and a mongrel following at his heels. Jefferson relies primarily on broad pantomime rather than inter-titles to establish Rip Van Winkle as a lazy ne'er-do-well with a fondness for Vedder's beer and an eye for the tavern wenches. He pauses in front of the tavern sign to pantomime his fealty to King George. The actress portraying Rip's wife Gretchen likewise uses broad pantomime to establish her shrewish nature. Rip bids a fond farewell to his little daughter Meenie and to Nick Vedder's little son Hendrik, and then -- more to get away from his wife than to put meat on the table -- Rip takes his musket and sets off into the forest.

The bizarre keglers in Washington Irving's story, playing at ninepins, are often described as dwarfs or goblins. Here, they're portrayed by physically normal men (probably down to the scarcity of dwarf actors) but wearing crepe-hair beards that are downright laughable. An inter-title identifies them as Henry Hudson and his lost crewmen of the ship 'Half Moon'.

The long transition of Rip's sleep is conveyed by a crude cut, returning to the same scene from a slightly different angle, with some cobwebs added to Rip, and a new backdrop representing the same forest decades later. Jefferson now wears a beard only marginally more plausible than those worn by the mysterious keglers. When he picks up his musket, it falls apart.

When Rip shambles homeward, his clothes in surprisingly good nick, the village of Falling Waters looks much as it did before ... save that Vedder's tavern now displays an American flag (with 13 stars) and a portrait of George Washington. When Jefferson goutily repeats his gesture of fealty to King George -- whom he assumes is still ruler of America -- the townspeople are outraged. The landlord of the tavern is now Hendrik Vedder, grown to young manhood and married to a demure young woman who is the former Meenie Van Winkle.

As the actor Thomas Jefferson was undoubtedly well familiar with his father's many performances in this role, I have no doubt that this crude but fascinating film is an accurate re-enactment ... necessarily performed silent. As such, it serves as a fascinating record of Joseph Jefferson's greatest role. So, this 'Rip' is no rip-off. Unfortunately, Rip Van Winkle isn't the only creaking relic hereabouts: even by 1914 standards, the photography, lighting, set design and acting techniques on offer here are shockingly crude. More for its historical significance than for its entertainment quotient or production values, I'll rate this movie 9 out of 10.