The First Degree (1923)

• Directed by Edward Sedgwick.

• Scenario by George Randolph Chester, from the story “The Summons” by George Pattullo.

• Silent.

• First thing’s first – this is a miracle film, you guys. It was considered lost for 97 years before a copy of it was found in the Chicago Film Archives, misfiled (as TCM’s Jacqueline Stewart relates) with some Illinois agricultural documentary film reels from perhaps around the same time.

Isn’t that amazing?!

• Second item of business, directly related to the first: according to the film’s intro, the length of the film at the time of its release was 4,395 feet, while the existing print is only 3,860 feet. Its length still amounts to 5 reels – but altogether, roughly 9 minutes from the original version are missing (which, J. Stew is sure to tell us, might not just be the result of time-sustained damage…but also could have been the work of local censors, at the time of the film’s release).

• Opening title card:

“The Grand Jury of Lincoln County was concerned with only minor matters….sheep-stealing and the like….on this crisp autumn day.”

• Frank Mayo is Sam Purdy, a hardworking, well-respected sheep farmer who’s been in these parts for a year & a half. On “this crisp autumn day,” he’s been summoned to the courthouse to help – or so the Jury Dudes hope – sort out some ownership issues with a particular group of sheep.

• Sam doesn’t know this, however, & according to the gentleman who telephoned him to request his presence at the courthouse, Sam “seems to have forgotten about the sheep entirely.”

“Gentlemen,” Sam announces, with mournful gravity, as he walks through the jury room’s door. “I am going to tell you all about it…..I killed him!”

• And just like that…

WE HAVE OURSELVES A MOVIE!

• I am in immediate love with the ‘Sam’s Arrival at the Courthouse’ scene. Mayo – who all but blew me away with his performance in WILD ORANGES (1924) – acts the character’s reluctant, emotional preoccupation exquisitely – and the two cuts to the rooftop Justice Statue, from his viewpoint, are both clever & well-timed. (There is no editing credit on this film, so I guess, by default, we’ll just rest that with Mr. Sedgwick.)

Also of note…I can already tell that Quasar Wut-Wut – the modern-day composer commissioned by CFA to score this print – gets it. The tone set in this arrival scene is spot-on.

• Um…also, y’all?

Farm-clothed Frank Mayo is fiiiine.

• Cough. MOVING RIGHT ALONG – Sam helpfully instructs us, pre-journey to Flashback Land – that the guy he killed was his half-brother Will (Philo McCullough) – and that the story also involves the love of Sam’s life, Mary (Sylvia Breamer), who, as Sam so attractively puts it, “was….she is….the one woman for me.”

(Woof.)

• Y’all, Half-Brother Will is a rotten-ass scoundrel & I hate him. We’ve only known him for like…10 minutes – and he’s already demanded Mary’s affections with an intensely off-putting, unsolicited possessiveness…and attempted to rob his own bank, which he then successfully frames (actually Robbery-Thwarting) Brother Sam for.

• Our pal Sam is a bit of an overachiever – while in prison (for a whole fucking year, while Shithead Will the Smirker roamed free as a goddamn lark), he studied law, and – once released & relocated – managed to get himself elected County Prosecutor, by a 90% margin.

• Update: Frank Mayo in a lawyer suit is also fine as hell.

• This film is…magnificently shot & cut. The organization of the flashback storytelling (we consistently keep going between present reality & the narrative of Sam’s past) is excellent – and within that – the shot compositions and variety of wide & close-in angles/images used are extremely well-handled.

The cinematographer on this film was Benjamin H. Kline, who – according to IMDb – wound up with a total of 380 cinematography credits over the course of his career – a career that spanned all the way into the 1970s & television (both series & made-for-TV movies).

(If mathematically, you’re questioning this longevity – it might be helpful to know that he shot this film at the age of 29, and worked well into his 70s, before eventually passing away at age 79.)

(Incredible.)

• Goddamn it, Smirky Will! Before Sam’s County Prosecutor election results can be finalized & he can take office – Miscreant Will appears on the scene to inform town officials of Sam’s “ex-convict” status, whereby Sam is promptly & aggressively run out of town, having to (once again!) start fresh elsewhere, leaving darling Mary behind.

“I told you nobody’d get you but me, didn’t I?” Evil Will says to Mary, quite lecherously, after this occurs.

Booooooo!

• Frank Mayo could flat-out act. The scene during the rainstorm where he (unknowingly) awaits Goddamn Brother Will’s arrival at his cabin to fuck with Sam’s life some more? Mayo plays the anticipation brilliantly; his naturalness is perfect.

• The shadowed, rain-soaked fight scene that follows is staggeringly impressive, from a directorial, editorial, & cinematographical standpoint. With the broken window, barking dog, intermittent water gusts, & flashes of lightning?

It is absolutely masterful, y’all – you have to see it.

• Anyway, three cheers for Will the Shithead Ruiner winding up dead! (Admittedly, Sam is less enthusiastic about this result, but – Will was a bad dude, & he sort of definitely had it coming.)

• “Hour after hour I sat there alone, wondering how you’d found out so quick,” Sam tells the Jury Men, in real time. “But mostly I was thinking of Mary because – oh God, gentlemen – Mary’s coming today.”

“That’s all, gentlemen…and I’m sorry I’ve wasted your time – because I can’t expect you to believe me….any more than the others.”

• YESSSSS!!!!!

Mr. District Attorney (played quite well by Harry Carter, I might add) comes through!!!

“Reckon the best thing you can do is forget it, Sam – same as we’re going to do.”

Yesssss!!!

• Holy. Shit.

Our BFF the DA is like, ‘So – bro – we actually do have some sheep-thefting business to attend to. Mind if we, like, you know, do that?’

The Bailiff (George A. Williams) brings in a guy for Sam to ID as the potential Stealer of Sheep –

…and it’s motherfucking Will.

!?!?!?!?

He didn’t die in that rainy forest-ditch, after all!!!

Brother Sam isn’t actually a murderer!!!

• “And to the charge of sheep-stealing,” the DA concludes, “we are adding that of blackmail – you’ll have a long time to think things over, brother Will.”

Fuck. YES.

• This was fantastic, you guys. Stellarly acted (Frank Mayo is a badass), stellarly crafted…the whole deal.

Please, major U.S. cities – check your Agricultural Archives & find us more great things!