Captain Salvation

"Captain Salvation" (1927) stars Lars Hanson, Pauline Starke, Marceline Day, Ernest Torrence, and a host of fine silent character actors known well in the day, such as George Fawcett, Sam de Grasse, Flora Finch, Eugenie Besserer, and James Marcus. A seminary student - one who ardently loves the sea and ships - returns to a small town near Boston in 1840 where it is presumed that he'll soon take over the pulpit from his uncle. A ship comes into near harbor during a nor'-easter and a very bedraggled, sick, and possibly injured prostitute, Pauline Starke, is taken off of the boat and brought into the village. Here the young man of the cloth, Hanson, befriends and helps her recover, leading to what nearly looks like proclaimed damnation from the other citizens, including his fiancé, Marceline Day. Because of all this, he is later driven to take Starke to a waiting ship in harbor, where the captain, Torrence, says the ship is going to "Rio". It's not. It's a convict ship going to the far southern hemisphere where the convicts will be used in salt mines. The captain plans to "use" Starke. Hanson decides to stay on the ship to make sure she's all right. Of course she's not. The show proceeds from here, and we see many consequences of faith and lack of faith, retribution, good versus evil, and so forth.

Extremely well done, though admittedly more a potboiler than a great parable. Still, Pauline Starke shows what a great actress she was. Torrence as the evil captain shows his chops as he did in every film he ever made. Lars Hanson does a very creditable job as the young sailor/seminary student/preacher. It is often said he rather over acts in this film, and though their are definite flashes of over-melodramatic moments on his part, he nevertheless carries off the part remarkably well. Those particular moments are moments of temporary madness, and they probably aren't far off the genuine mark.

Superb direction by John S. Robertson, topping his superb direction in the silent classic "Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde" (1920), starring John Barrymore. Photography by William Daniels is equally good. Recommended highly. This is the Warner Archive release on DVD, and though it has grainy moments and several artifacts at different moments, is still very watchable and enjoyable. Philip Carli's accompanying music is quite apt and most enjoyable.

I recently watched "The Viking" (1928) and was especially impressed by Pauline Starke's performance. She seems to have had a large reservoir of talent; most of her films, beginning with 1916's "Intolerance", were silent, and many are lost. Too bad, because she seems to have had the acting talent to rank her with the best of them who are recalled today from the silent era.

I just finished watching "Captain Salvation" on Turner Classic Movie's "Silent Sunday". I was greatly impressed by the quality of the print, with great picture clarity, facial expressions, town scenes (we had just watched the "High Noon" DVD that evening, and it was comparable in picture quality). The new soundtrack showed copyright 2005. All of the dialog boards were, of course, new.

The storyline was something else, but still delightful to get a feel for the dramatic overacting required of silent stars in the 1920's. The ending storyboard explained "and that is how the first Gospel Ship came into being". What a great experience, to feel transported back in time.

Thank-you TCM for the efforts and monies to rescue these films, and then for sharing them with us.

Captain Salvation (1927)

*** (out of 4)

This Cosmopolitan picture contains a lot of melodrama but it also features some rather graphic material that certainly wouldn't have passed the Hayes Code only a short decade later. The story is pretty simple as a future preacher (Lars Hanson) is about to be married in his small town when there's a boat crash and a "unholy" woman (Pauline Starke) washes ashore. Near death, the preacher takes her in, which causes many of the gossiping Christians in town to spread the word that there's something sexual going on between them. Disgusted by the gossip, the preacher and woman board a ship not knowing that the Captain (Ernest Torrence) isn't being honest with them in regards to where it's headed. The plot of a town's gossip isn't anything too original seeing as how even D.W. Griffith was dealing with it a decade earlier but what makes this film really stand out are some great images, nice performances and some rather dirty stuff that wouldn't be in movies many more years. It's funny but if you want to see a more realistic movie then you have to go back to the silents because they appear to be the only films where the hero doesn't have to win in the end and they can also contain darker material. This film deals with rape, prostitution, murder and suicide; all of this in the short 87-minute running time. The movie comes off rather refreshing because we get to see all of this stuff and we also get a rather wild account of the Starke character being raped by her step-dad and then her saying how happy she was when the child died. These pre-code elements certainly separates this film from other melodramas out there and it's one of the reasons this film is worth viewing. Another are for the performances with Starke easily standing out and delivering a very memorable character and performance. She was wonderful early on as the vamp and we believe her transformation into the girl who wants to do good. Hanson, best remembered for playing the preacher in the Lillian Gish version of THE SCARLET LETTER, goes a bit over the top here but he still manages to be quite powerful. Pauline Starke, Torrence and George Fawcett all add nice supporting performances. What doesn't work in the film is the second half when we board the ship. There are some rather wild events that happen and I really didn't believe any of them as they all felt rather forced. I also wasn't as moved by the ending as I'm sure everyone making the film would have liked but with that said, this is still a pretty impressive film for fans of silents.

As was noted by Cine Tiger, this excellent silent film was offered by Turner Classic Movies on their Sunday Night Silent feature.

"Captain Salvation" was beautifully photographed, and although it does show the difference in the movie-making of that day to this day, it was a captivating journey. Marcelline Day was simply excellent in this film. My original vote for this drama was a 6 but after reflection, I raised the vote to a 7 because some of the scenes were so very haunting.

The newly added soundtrack for "Captain Salvation" was most enjoyable.

Plaudits all around to the restoration team, to the music composer, and to the Turner Classic Movies channel and its executives. This was a great film to restore and it was definitely an enchanting story to view on a quiet Sunday night. This movie also gives the lie to those modern cynics who say that spiritual or religious themes in movies are passe' or "old hat." Not so. Granted, this was truly a '20s movie and the 1920's had an element of resurgent Christian fundamentalism in that era, a resurgence which contrasted so very sharply with the age of "flappers, flivvers, and fol-de-rol".

With many other classics of the '20s awaiting restoration, we can only hope for the best and for the immediate rescue of these cultural documents from our true American history !! Let's hope TCM shows this one again and again.

"Captain Salvation" could have been a segment of "Intolerance." In 1840, faced with blind discrimination, unfounded gossip and strict religious judgment, Anson Campbell, a seminary student, retreats to the sea. There, through a series of unfortunate events, he is reborn to his faith, 'baptized' by the fallen woman who has enlightened him.

Most performances are standard, but Pauline Starke's work is excellent. George Fawcett's character, Zeke, provides some of the story transitions by being around when the transitions occur. It is a critical function in silent movies too often provided by title cards alone(in talkies, by a narrator or other dialog). Generally, this picture is very smoothly directed by John Robertson.

Cinematography by William Daniels helps this picture shine. The new orchestral score by Philip Carli (TCM induced, I think)is great.