Brownlow - Behind the Mask of Innocence

ALSO BY KEVIN BROWNLOW

The Parades Gone By

How It Happened Here

The War, the West and the Wilderness

Hollywood: The Pioneers

Napoleon: Abel Gances Classic Film

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
published by alfred a. knopf, inc.

Copyright 1990 by Kevin Brownlow
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Variety for permission to reprint excerpts from reviews of The Bridge of Sighs (5/28/15), The Blacklist (2/18/16), Birth Control (4/13/17), Big Brother (12/27/23), and The Racket (7/11/28). Reprinted by permission of Variety Inc. Variety is a registered trademark of Variety, Inc. MGM stills Turner Entertainment Co.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brownlow, Kevin.
Behind the mask of innocence : the social problem films of the
silent era / by Kevin Brownlow. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-0-307-82970-2
1. Silent filmsHistory and criticism. 2. Motion picturesUnited StatesHistory. 3. Social problems in motion pictures.
I. Title.
PN 1995.75. B 68 1990

791.430973 DC 20

89-71676

Endpapers: A New York motion picture theatre, 1913. (Kobal Collection)
Frontispiece: Ellis Island re-created in the studio for The Strong Man, directed by Frank Capra, 1926.

v3.1

F OR V IRGINIA AND J ULIA

Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

Lars Ahlander

Edward Allatt

Richard Ariano

Geoffrey Bell

Walter Bernstein

Bob Birchard

Lenny Borger

Q. David Bowers

Eileen Bowser

David Bradley

British Film Institute Information Department

British Library

Peter Cowie

David Crippen, Edison Institute, Ford Museum

Bob Cushman

Ray Daum

Gustav Deak

Samson De Brier

Angela Doyle

William Drew

Herv Dumont

Harold Dunham

Edison National Historic Site

Bernard Eisenschitz

William Ellington

William K. Everson

Leatrice Gilbert Fountain

George Geltzer

Bob Geoghegan

David Gill

Bob Gitt

Peter and Anne Gower

Kevin Green

Dr. Fritz Gttinger

Michael Henshaw

Steven Higgins

Derek Hill

Historical Health Film Collection, University of Michigan

Frank Holland

Jim Hoberman

J. B. Kaufman

David Kenten

Paul Killiam

Linda Kowall

Annette Kuhn

Jay Leyda

Lilly Library, University of Indiana

Lars Lindstrom

Jack Lodge

Bruce Long

Gloria Loomis

Patrick Loughney

Arthur Lubin

Sue McConachy

Gerald McKee

Richard Maltby

Anna-Maija Marttinen

William T. Murphy

Charles Musser

Herbert Nusbaum

Steve Oney

James Patterson

James Pepper

Martin Pernick

David Platt

George Pratt

Susan Ralston

Adam Reilly

Ira Resnick

David Robinson

Steven Ross

John Rylands Library, Manchester University

Mr. and Mrs. Donald Salinger

Markku Salmi

David Samuelson

Edith Schwartz

Daniel Selznick

David Shepard

Martin Short

Charles Silver

Joel Silver

Scott Simon

Jeff Smith

Martin Sopocy

Paul Spehr

Patrick Stanbury

Laura Starrett

Thames Television

Lawrence Copley Thaw, Jr.

David Thaxton

Frank Thompson

Yuri Tsivian

Charles Turner

George Turner

United States Library, University of London

Mia Vander Els Alexander Walker

Marc Wanamaker

Charles Wenden

Wichita State University, Special Collections Department

William Wilson

Michael Yocum

Kyril Zinovieff

Albin Zwiazek

and special gratitude to Gloria Loomis, who rescued the manuscript from a snowdrift of rejection slips, and to Susan Ralston, for her epic job of editing.

K. B.

The silent era is celebrated for its innocence. The charming picture it presents of America in the early years of the century has led people to assume that life was quieter then, gentler and more civilized. But the silent era recorded another America. It revealed the corruption of city politics, the scandal of white slave rackets, the exploitation of immigrants. Gangsters, procurers, and loan sharks flashed across the same screen as Mary Pickford, but their images have mostly been destroyed, leaving us with an unbalanced portrait of an era.

This book is an attempt to set the record straight. I believe that one day, those films which give us an accurate impression of how people lived will be regarded as precious as the most imaginative flights of fiction.

Our view of the silent era is conditioned by the minuscule number of films in circulationfilms which have selected themselves by virtue of their availability. This book will show the astonishing range of subjects dealt with in that period. While few of these films made history, all of themif only for a few momentsrecorded it.

Lois Weber exposes corruption in American politics with The Hypocrites, 1915. The grafting politician is paid off by the gangster, the cop, the saloonkeeper, the madam, and the drug dealer. (The madam is Jane Darwell, of Grapes of Wrath fame.) (National Film Archive)

The early films were made to a pattern which had proved its commercial value on the popular stage. Give the audience someone to identify with, bring in heart interest, a pretty girl or an appealing child, and wind up with a happy ending. Into this you can mix whatever theme you want. Banal it may sound, but some remarkable films were made with this formula.

Some smothered their subject matter with glutinous sentimentality. They were old-fashioned in the worst sense. A critic of 1913 described them as exhibiting a feeble-minded subservience for what may have served some past generation but which has no bearing on this one. Other films adopted plain stories and a straightforward approach, which became the trademark for American films. Their very directness appealed to audiences, but often disturbed those in authority. Strong themes unimpaired by symbolism or sentimentality brought down upon the industry the wrath of clergy, reformers, and politicians alike.