Give Me Liberty

A short film from the Warner Bros. company, "Give Me Liberty" boasts Technicolor photography as the main attraction. It won an "Academy Award" as the best color short film of the year. This was one of several patriotic themed short films released as bonus historical features; they probably put theater audiences in a good mood. This one features John Litel portraying revolutionary war hero Patrick Henry, who is credited with the rallying cry, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" The line is cemented into the brains of kids who listened to their American history teachers; it perfectly illustrates the passion and determination of the United States founders.

**** Give Me Liberty (12/19/36) B. Reeves Eason ~ John Litel, Nedda Harrigan, George Irving, Robert Warwick

..........little gems from Hollywood's store rooms the forgotten .

IT NEVER CEASES to amaze us how so much great cinematic art seems to be locked away, forgotten or just plain discarded. Rather than being a part of the mainstream output of features, the short subjects field, although intended to be a sort of bonus and throw in for the studios' product, have in their own right left us with a wealth of on screen gems of their own.

WE DRAW YOUR attention to this case in point, GIVE ME LIBERTY (Warner Brothers/Vitaphone, 1936. With its viewing, we are treated to a sort of mini-masterpiece that easily succeeds on several levels. It is an historical novelette; which tells in depth a story which we are all familiar from our own American Revolution. The title is derived from Virginia Patriot, Patrick Henry's most famous quotation; being the first half of: "Give me Liberty or Give me Death !"

THE PRODUCTION TEAM goes into great lengths in making such historical moments as the meeting held while the Virginia House of Burgesses debated its continued relationship with the Crown. Director, B. Reeves Eason, gives us living scenes that may well be the celluloid counterpart to the finest oil painting representations around. In doing so, the production team and he were able to deliver 1936 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Color).

BUT THERE IS one point that we must emphasize is the underrated, though nonetheless, fine acting that is displayed (in this short in particular). And it is the virtuoso performance of John Litel (as Patrick Henry) that has the center stage spotlight.

AS IS COMMON knowledge, every film buff knows of the work of Mr. Litel. He is an ever present force in so many features, giving credence to whatever is the role of the day. This makes him undeniably forever numbered among those players classified as "supporting" or "character" actors.

WELL, THE PERFORMANCE by Mr. John Litel, here in GIVE ME LIBERTY, provides we, the viewers, with solid evidence of the outstanding talents possessed by so many in the movies, who rarely get opportunity to display same.

STRICTLY AS A suggestion from the standpoint of a non-professional, maybe some Hollywood bright boy could come up with puting a whole collection of these Historical Shorts together; making them available for tools of educational supplementation. They generally hold up very well and, being basically "Period Pieces", there is no danger of any fashions displayed going out of style.

Despite an half-decent effort from John Litel as he takes to a church in Virginia as Patrick Henry to espouse liberty from British colonial rule, the rest of this is all a rather lacklustre and overly theatrical costume drama with some serious over-acting. The presence of neatly suited and booted characters like "Moses" isn't deemed relevant as these privileged white folks pontificate about liberty and freedom whilst just about every manual function in their lives is carried out by slaves. It's that hypocrisy that becomes a little harder to stomach as this sets about illustrating, albeit inadvertently, that for the vast majority of women and for just about everyone of colour in Virginia, and elsewhere, all this would result in is a change from wigged and proud gents in London to equally wigged and proud gents closer to home. Had they just stuck to allowing Litel to deliver a complete version of Henry's rousing and impassioned speech as if it were a monologue, then it might have worked. They didn't, and what we have here is a borderline and nauseatingly simplistic critique on the glories of the as yet unformed USA versus the supposed and exaggerated tyrannies of the Old World. I found this to be annoying, sorry!

This is WB doing a Vitaphone Technicolor short on Patrick Henry. The highlight is his bombastic inspirational speech inside the Virginia legislature as he argues for arming the militia and abandoning any more negotiations.

With Europe in turmoil, it's easy to see the subtext in this freedom-loving historical short. It's pumping up the patriotism. It feels like a poor version of Masterpiece Theater until we get to the big speech. There is no doubt that the speech is a big crowd pleaser and I'm sure that the audience of its day loved it. This did win the Oscar for color short. The Technicolor probably helped a lot.

John Litel stars as Patrick Henry in this Warner Brothers Technicolor Short. It's a stodgy affair, with snippets of Henry's inflammatory speeches scattered here and there as folks in 18th-Century costumes spend most of their time posing, waiting for Litel to break loose and announce "Give me liberty, or give me death!"

The Warner Technicolor shorts were intended as prestige pieces, meant to show off the expensive three-strip process in an edifying manner. One of the strengths of the Technicolor process was its flexibility, and the entire film seems to have been given a beige wash, suggesting parchment, or old, oxidized paper. The print that plays on Turner Classic Movies is a little fuzzy, but quite watchable.