- Directed by King Vidor.
- Adapted by Vidor from the novel by Joseph Hergesheimer, with titles by Tom Miranda.
- Photography by John W. Boyle, sets by Cedric Gibbons, costumes by Sophie Wachner.
- From the outset, Boyle’s photography is beautiful – the shots are wonderfully composed, many with solitary focus: one object or one person surrounded visually by either space or a non-interest-pulling landscape. Given the themes of aloneness & solitude at this story’s core – this both makes a lot of sense & contributes rather mightily to the film’s tone, from the jump.
- The tale is this: one day, John Woolfolk (Frank Mayo) & his young wife are out horse-carting down a path in the forest, when a stray, crumpled sheet of white paper blows across the road in a creepy, paper-ish way that spooks both of the horses & sends them sprinting chaotically down the road; as they tear around a forest corner, Mrs. Woolfolk is thrown from the cart & is killed, instantly.
Booooo! So sad!
- Well, John Woolfolk (rather understandably) becomes somewhat of an emotional recluse, not really wanting to foster any sort of further close attachment to people/women – lest they are randomly extinguished by stray bits of paper & forest corners, leaving him to suffer alone forever from the pain of their death-absence.
And like…I get it, man. You do you!
(It should be noted that John still has a BFF sailing (boating?) companion named Paul (Halvard, played by Ford Sterling) with whom he seems to spend quite a bit of time – so, fortunately, I don’t think John warrants classification as dangerous levels of isolated & perspective-less…)
- UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE.
*Cough.* Stopesville. *Cough.*
- Litchfield Stope (Nigel De Brulier) is a Civil War veteran who was permanently damaged by his war experience – living out the decades since in constant fear of anyone & everyone – choosing to reside on a secluded island off the coast of Georgia with his sweet granddaughter Millie (Virginia Valli) & (…well, this dude doesn’t really live with them, so much as around them, but…) a mentally unstable Wilderness Man named Nicholas (Charles A. Post).
- The opening (main-narrative) sequence, with Stope & Nicholas independently peering out of the heavily vegetated island landscape at Woolfolk’s approach, via boat, is exquisitely handled – as is the nighttime (evening time?) sequence that follows, in which Woolfolk ventures ashore to sample the native wild oranges (for the record, the fragrance that wafts in from the island is “the languorous perfume of oleanders and orange blossoms”)(how’s that for a scent image?!) & (hopefully) procure a refill of his water barrel. The tinting here – an indigo blue – is absolutely gorgeous. (That shot of the moonlit boat? Gasp. Magnificent!)
- Anyhow – Millie turns out to be more socially adept than predicted, & is like, ‘Sure, handsome Boat Man, you can have some water!’
…Unfortunately, Nicholas turns out to be way more of an aggressively heathenistic asshole than predicted – and not only crushes BoatPal Paul’s water vessel in one powerful boot stomp – but also threatens poor Water-Questing Paul with a knife.
- Semi-relatedly – these days, I don’t think MovieWorld is scared enough of alligators, & probably our films suffer from it. PETER PAN, SPARROWS (1926), this…man, there’s nothing like a good Threat o’ Gators scene.
Why have these gone by the wayside? I think this is a mistake!!!
- Yo. WidowMan John. After your pal is knife-threatened & barrel-stomped by a large, unhinged Forest Heathen – maybe don’t venture back onto the island to confront this individual ALONE? Like…if ever there was a situation that called for the Buddy System, this is IT, you dopes!
- Oof. I absolutely love this bit of dialogue from Millie to/about John:
“You remind me of the cast-iron dog that used to stand on our lawn. I talked to it by the hour, but it just rusted away – cold & indifferent to the last.”
What an image!
- I find the performances of Valli & Mayo to be fantastic – the spirited wonder with which Valli/Millie explores John’s boat, followed by the elated sense of freedom brought on by her first-ever sail – then Valli’s portrayal of Millie’s quick, reflexive switch to being fearfully overwhelmed – is excellent; Mayo’s unflinching commitment to John’s emotionally shut down, “cast-iron”-ness is just as impressive.
In the boat cabin scene, in which Millie explains her inherited, isolation-based terror – I was anticipating a reactionary break in Mayo’s rigidness, regardless of how faithful/unfaithful such a break would be to the narrative…because that’s just how these ‘Damsel in Emotional Distress’ moments go, in most silents/early films – the man generally can’t help but soften, and (in sentiment) come to the lady’s aid (in most cases, producing an ‘At last! They are in love!’ moment) – but here – that doesn’t happen. Mayo remains solidly self-contained & emotionless – and it’s delightfully unexpected & well-played.
- The instant physical tension Valli applies Millie’s reactions, every time she unpreparedly spots Nicholas does an inexpressibly perfect job at demonstrating that type of fear, & that kind of abusively threatening relationship. My goodness. She makes us feel it with her – and that is applause-worthy as hell.
“Please be nice to me, Millie,” Nicholas says as he’s manhandling her up the stairs, late at night, in sight of her bedroom. “Something terrible will happen if you’re not.”
…
Goddamn it, DON’T LEAVE THIS ISLAND, Cast-Iron John!!! Please!
- It should be said that Charles Post does a remarkable job at portraying Nicholas’s instability – and – despite the character’s repeated, blatantly evil actions – suggests that with the proper care (& a lot of focused, professional help) – the dude might be able to live a more controlled, non-violent existence.
Alas, however! This is the Georgian Misfit Island of Isolation – and mental health professionals are nowhere in sight.
- Nooooo! IceMan John decides to sail away.
- Oh. My. God. The scene that finds John seated at the boat’s steering wheel, journeying through the night? The editing – and Mayo’s acting – is…spellbinding. The imagined, dreamlike cut-ins of Millie’s presence – accompanied by Mayo/John’s reactions to them/her – interspersed with the cart-accident aftermath flashback and a live cut-over to Millie, unsleepingly distance-gazing in her bed – is A++ stuff. Wow.
- For some reason, this film certainly pulled out all of its prop-animal stops, didn’t it? In John’s scene o’ return (yes! I know! It happens, hooray!), in which he & Millie go into the tattered shack-building to escape the homicidally jealous eyes of Nicholas – a raccoon, crane, rat, & tarantula all appear.
(This is in addition to the 2 alligators, dog, secondary large spider, chickens, & murder horses that have already made appearances. Whatever this film’s animal budget was – it seems to have been (again, inexplicably) well-spent!)
- Boo! No! Don’t take Grandfather with you to Escapesville! I know y’all are trying to be a couple of decents & prevent any fatal harm befalling him – but…Bro-Pappy ain’t done shit for you, Millie. He appears to spend much of his time enabling the hell out of this guy who he ROUTINELY WITNESSES physically assaulting & verbally threatening you – – and to me, that does not make for a soul worth saving.
- Aw, crap. BroPappy’s gonna blow their getaway, isn’t he?
Stop flipping through your scrapbook, Junior, and keep an eye on the fucking door!!!
- (Also – hasn’t anyone on this island and/or in this family heard of DOOR LOCKS? Maybe you shoulda spent less time reading about Hawaii, Millie, and a bit more about the art of door bolt installation. Jesus!)
- Animal species count: 11. We have just been shown an owl, atop a tree.
- Okay, fine – RIP BroPappy, you died a hero. (As promised, Nicholas promptly & fatally whacks him, after discovering the Stopes trying to flee.)
- Look at you go, Millie!!! What a Boatstress you’ve turned out to be!
- (The house-set, multi-story, stair-rail-breaking fist fight between Homicidal Nicholas & Returned Hero John is very intensely & impressively staged – and my lord – the pair of dog-eye lights emerging through the nighttime blackness to DEATH MAUL Evil Nicholas on the pier are phenomenal, both in concept & execution.)
- “Life is so dreadfully in the dark. There are maps to guide us to strange places, but none for souls.”
- AND THAT IS HOW RUFFKINS BECAME KING OF ANIMAL ISLAND.
(…For clarity’s sake, I should note that nowhere in the film does the name “Ruffkins” appear.)
(Also – in case you think dear Ruffkins was an impulsive crazypants paws – he was not; Nicholas historically abused him, too, & earlier we saw footage of him (Nicholas) hurling the busted wooden planks from the Boat Bros’ water barrel at Ruffkins, while Ruffkins was chained up & unable to take shelter and/or retaliate. SO – Ruffkins’s Charge was a full-on instance of Justified Revenge™.)
- I very much enjoyed this film – and because I often criticize these films’ scores – I want to make sure to comment on how wonderfully effective Vivek Maddala’s score to this one was.
- Highly recommended. An excellent movie, in every possible aspect.
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