You know one of the things FATHER GEEK likes best about his role here at
AICN’s Geek Headquarters is the ability to discover, and/or rediscover true jewels of the
silver screen past and extant, and present those findings to you our loyal readers. Well,
such a gem caught my eye Tuesday night at the old Alamo Drafthouse. As part of an on
going series showcasing female screenwriters of the late 20’s and 1930’s the Austin Film
Society presented Frances Marion’s 1928 masterpiece THE WIND.
Now Father Geek was very familar with Ms. Marion’s work. She won much
deserved Academy Awards in 1929 for THE BIG HOUSE and in 1931 for THE CHAMP,
and she was nominated again in 32 for THE PRIZEFIGHTER AND THE LADY. She
would have been doubtlessly honored by them much more, but the great bulk of her 150
produced screenplays were for films made before the Academy existed. Films like 1916’s
CAMILLE, 17’s REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM, 25’s STELLA DALLAS,
1926’s SCARLET LETTER and SON OF THE SHEIK. Her early sound era triumphs
included 1930’s ANNA CHRISTIE, 33’s DINNER AT EIGHT, and 37’s CAMILLE, but
some how THE WIND had slipped through the cracks in ol’ Father Geek’s education,
blown into that forgotten pile of celluloid in the ash cans that rest in the dark corners of
our collective film consciousness. Exiled to the wind swept isle of lost souls that is the fate
of most silent cinema. To be buried there in the sands of time till some old Ben Gunn digs
it up and presents the treasure to his young master. So it was that hearing of the AFS’
screening with a live music accompaniment at the Alamo Father Geek and son headed
downtown to literally be blown away.
THE WIND was based on the controversal novel of the same name by Texas writer/scholar Dorothy Scarborough. It dealt with the tragic life led by many women on the Texas frontier of the 1870’s and 80’s. It’s tale has no real good guys, the honorable cowboy myth is stripped bare by the sand blasting winds. There are no idealic green valleys, only dust, and grit, and grime that cover everything and everybody in it’s world. Life was hard, dirty, and unpleasant with little, or no rewards; and the women that didn’t die young often went crazy with grief, fear, and loneliness. Frances Marion’s script captures every angst filled bit of the original chiller. The Texas town of Sweetwater near where the tale is based burned the books publicly when it was first published. The tragedy of early pioneer life in the area had way more pathos than the locals wanted to face. It took several printings of the shocker and considerable pressure by the powerful Marion to get a studio (MGM) to turn it into an actuate motion picture version of the novel in 1928.
MGM sought out a director who could turn Marion’s words into living, breathing images on America’s motion picture screen. They chose the man Charles Chaplin called, “the greatest director in the world.” A Swedish Writer/Director/Actor who came to this country with Ernst Lubitsch and Erich von Stroheim, a man all too familar with the isolation, desolation, and terrifying winds of his country’s vast northern ice deserts, they picked Victor Seastrom. Unlike his filmmaking countrymen Seastrom did not stay long in Hollywood, his best known American works are probably 1926’s SCARLET LETTER and 28’s THE WIND, two indisputable masterworks. However, he had a successful career that stretched from the teens well into the late 1950’s. If he is known at all to modern audiences in this country it is probably in his role as Professor Berg in Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 masterpiece WILD STRAWBERRIES.
Marion handpicked Lillian Gish to star in THE WIND. Gish had been a top tier performer since 1912 and would continue to act in film until 1987’s WHALES OF AUGUST. In 75 years before the cameras she would provide us with many dozens of memorable characters, but none better done than her virgin Virginian battling the men and the elements on a 1800’s dustbowl ranch 15 miles from the Sweetwater, Texas railhead. She was in BIRTH OF A NATION and INTOLERANCE, she was momentous in 1920’s WAY DOWN EAST and 22’s ORPHANS OF THE STORM, and in the sound era she gave great performances in 46’s DUEL IN THE SUN and 55’s NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, but when she guns down that crud who rapes her, burying him in the sand a few yards from her wind swept cabin’s door; when she watches through her broken blanket plugged window as the wind digs him up again; when she is forced by the place and times she lived in to marry another man, a lout who disgusts her; when you bare witness to these and other tragedies that are her life in this film you will agree with Father Geek that THE WIND is probably Gish’s greatest starring role. A dramatic tour de force that no present day actress has managed to pulloff successfully.
Alot is made of today’s special effects and computer graphics, and don’t get me wrong I love them and live for them as much as anybody, but somehow, for some reason they seldom really truely work for me. Father Geek just doesn’t get a real feeling of fear for the characters in say TWISTER, or VOLCANO, or TITANIC. They’re pretty effects, I appreciate that, I really do, but something is missing, they just don’t usually feel right. Well, going to see a 1928 movie that I had never heard of was the last place I expected to see it done right. No surround sound, no stereo at all, shit no sound at all. No color 70mm digitally tweeked images, hell no color at all, the picture was square for god’s sake. But Harry and I were treated to a splendidly staged climactic desert dust storm as well as one very real looking cyclone that strikes during the town’s hoedown. Using the most primitive of methods these early technicians managed to do what the 3 films above never could do for me or Harry. They got us involved, they made us fear for the safety of Ms. Gish, they made us believe in THE WIND and that geeks was one hell-of-a-ride for our 35 cents admission.
