Le coeur sur la main

In Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard," a forgotten silent-film actress, Norma Desmond, explained the appeal of silent stars: "we had faces then!" In the musical version of that classic, the lyric "…with one look I'm the girl (or boy) next door…" expanded on the visual powers of silent film actors. Each of those lines could have been written for handsome, charismatic Richard Barthelmess, the star of Henry King's "Tol'able David." Although his too-short pants vainly attempt to obscure the actor's maturity, Barthelmess manages to convince the audience that he is a boy at the edge of manhood. Through his dark eyes, body language, and facial expressions, Barthelmess literally becomes "the boy next door" without uttering a syllable.

"Tol'able David" may be too sentimental and occasionally too hokey for modern audiences, but, if viewed in the context of the post World War I period, the bucolic Americana story is engaging. Like the United States in the years leading up to the Great War, belligerent outsiders disrupt David's idyllic family life, and the young boy becomes a man in the fight to restore his world. The tale is simple, but universal. Enhanced by location filming in Virginia, "Tol'able David" provides a glimpse of country life in the early 20th century. However, produced in 1921, the film preceded the golden period of silent movies that was reached in the late 1920's, and the technical perfection and acting subtleties of that later period are lacking here. Although Ernest Torrence makes a formidable, frightening villain, neither his appearance nor his performance are subtle, and he owes more to the oft-parodied "grand style" of the early silents than to the nuanced acting that evolved later in the decade. However, Barthelmess and his leading lady, Gladys Hulette, perform admirably, even in a broad comic scene with a barrel that seems to have been taken from another movie.

Henry King keeps the story moving, although his camera did not achieve the fluidity that distinguishes later silents. A transitional film made between the innovative days of Griffith and the heights of Murnau, Vidor, and von Stroheim, "Tol'able David" remains entertaining and affectionate towards a vanished way of life and a lost style of film-making. If the viewer can transport him or herself back in time, a dazzling star and a film with genuine warmth and sentiment will immerse the audience in the days when "sentimental" was not a four-letter word.

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.

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.

"Tol'able David" (Inspiration/First National, 1921), directed by Henry King, stars Richard Barthelmess in one of his most celebrated roles of his career. Following his previous successes opposite Lillian Gish in D.W. Griffith directorial masterworks of BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1919) and WAY DOWN EAST (1920), this is Barthelmess, like David, on his own and proving himself more than what he can be, in this case, a youth who becomes a man. Taken from the short story by Joseph Hergesheimer, with screen adaptation by Henry King and Edmund Goulding, TOL'ABLE David was so successful that it elevated Barthelmess to the rank of accomplished leading man. Even with these fine credentials, TOL'ABLE David, has become close to becoming a forgotten item of truly great movies from the silent film era.

Following the inter-title opener: "Behind three great ranges of mountains lay the pastorial valley of Greenstream. There the Kinemons had long made their home as tenants on the rich farm of John Galt," comes individual title introductions of its basic characters before the plot gets underway: "Hunter Kinemon (Edmund Gurney) kept the Biblical tradition of a family united by every tie of love and home"; Mrs. Kinemon (Marion Abbott), mother of a home her tenderness helped create"; David (Richard Barthelmess), the youngest son who was called his mother's boy;" Allan (Warner Richmond), the elder son, reckoned the strongest man in Greensteam County"; Rose (Patterson Dial), Allan's wife, loved as a daughter of the house; Esther (Gladys Hulette), the granddaughter of neighbor Hatburn (Forrest Robinson); and John Galt (Lawrence Eddinger), storekeeper, village postmaster, and richest man in the Valley." David is the central character, one many claim to be "tol'able." Aside from "David and Goliath" being his favorite Bible story reading, he wants nothing more than to become like his older brother, Allan, right down to assuming his job of driving the daily hack twenty miles to West Virginia. The family and neighbors live peaceful lives in their own little rural community. All that changes with the arrival of three outlaws ("trouble like the shadow of a black cloud hurried across the countryside toward Greenstream") fleeing from the law of another state: Iska Hatburn (Walter E. Lewis), "chief fugitive of a fugitive family"; Luke (Ernest Torrance), "his elder son whose peculiar humor it was to destroy whatever he encountered"; and Little "Buzzard" Hatburn (Ralph Yearsley), the "baby of the clan." After seeking refuge in the cottage of their Hatburn cousin, the trio begin to make life intolerable for the community, especially for Tol'able David and his faithful dog, Rocket.

While other movies have been inspired by the success of TOL'ABLE David, with the Harold Lloyd feature, THE KID BROTHER (Paramount, 1927) told through comedy with serious overtones, the basic premise itself of TOL'ABLE David was remade as a talkie by Columbia (1930) with Richard Cromwell, Joan Peers, Henry B. Walthall and Noah Beery under John G. Blystone's direction. Virtually forgotten, the 1921 original, under Henry King's leisurely paced direction, ranks one of the finer retelling of good versus evil stories captured on film. It's a fine example of a movie tailor-made for Barthelmess that also gives a well-produced account of rural West Virginia mountain farmers from another time frame. Though Barthelmess in true essence was older than his David of under twenty, he's youthful appearance is enough to make his David believable. The brutal beating of David's brother that leaves him paralyzed (scene eliminated in some prints) and wife with newborn baby in total shock, is quite grim and startling, but nothing compared to what's to follow with David and those responsible.

The film itself must have made an great impression on producer/director William Castle to insert TOL'ABLE David as part of a movie within a movie sequence for his classic "scream" feast of THE TINGLER (Columbia, 1959) starring Vincent Price. Once seen, it's hard to forget such an impressive scene set in a neighborhood silent movie house consisting mostly of teenagers mesmerized through the piano scoring action of young Barthelmess up there on the screen before something occurs to distract them. Unlike many well notable silent film classics, television showings of TOL'ABLE David have been extremely limited. It's only known broadcast (and rebroadcast) was on New York City's own public television station, WNET, Channel 13, for its "Million and One Nights of Film" (1965-66). As with the scene lifted from THE TINGLER, TOL'ABLE David did become part of the revival theater generation, including a presentation from New York City's Museum of Modern Art around 1980 to an attentive audience. Thanks to home video and later DVD format, TOL'ABLE David has become readily available through various distributors. The best and more accurate form (99 minutes as opposed to slightly shorter prints) was from Grapevine Video equipped with satisfactory orchestral score. Other prints include those scored by Robert Israel, or a bargain basement edition with no scoring at all.

In conclusion, TOL'ABLE David may look primitive to the modern eye, but remains quite tol'able for it's melodramatic theme and believable performances by entire cast. (****)

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.