Old Heidelberg (1915)

John Emerson: Old Heidelberg (1915). Digital ID: TH-41476. Source: Billy Rose Theatre Collection photograph file / Productions / Old Heidelberg (Cinema 1915) (http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=201). Repository: The New York Public Library. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Billy Rose Theatre Division. See more information about http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?TH-41476 and others at http://digitalgallery.nypl.org. Persistent URL: http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?TH-41476 . Rights Info: No known copyright restrictions; may be subject to third party rights (for more information, http://www.nypl.org/node/8314). Date 14 December 2008, 22:29:31. Source https://www.flickr.com/photos/nypl/3110052628/ . Author: New York Public Library. Permission (Reusing this file): At the time of upload, the image license was automatically confirmed using the Flickr API. For more information see Flickr API detail. Flickr sets: Cinema 1915. Flickr tags: New York Public Library dc:identifier http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?TH-41476 xmlns:dc http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/ silent film. There is a whole set of rare Old Heidelberg (1915) photos in Wikimedia Commons. Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

OLD HEIDELBERG (Fine Arts Film Co., US 1915)
    Dir.: John Emerson; supv.: D. W. Griffith; cast: Wallace Reid, Dorothy Gish, Erich von Stroheim; 35 mm, 4223 ft, 62’ (18 fps), BFI / National Film and Television Archive.
    English intertitles.
    Grand piano: Antonio Coppola.
    Viewed at Teatro Zancanaro, Sacile, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): The Griffith Project 8, 15 Oct 2004.

J. B. Kaufman [DWG Project # 519]: "Along with other cinematic milestones, the year 1915 was a major turning point in the career of Wallace Reid. Formerly one of the second string of actors in Griffith’s stock company at Majestic, Reid made a brief but memorable appearance as a blacksmith in The Birth of a Nation which proved to be his breakthrough. Although Griffith seemed to have little use for the young actor in his own films, Reid continued to prosper with the company, enjoying progressively larger roles until, by the end of the year, he stood on the brink of stardom. One of his featured roles, that of Philip Ray in Enoch Arden, can be seen elsewhere in this program; by the time of Old Heidelberg he was playing the leading role of Prince Karl, torn between the demands of love and duty and sadly bowing to the inevitable. By the end of 1915 Reid had been lured away from Griffith’s company by Cecil B. DeMille, and his all-too-short reign as a popular star lay directly ahead."

"For an actor who represented such an unknown quantity in Griffith’s eyes, Old Heidelberg was an ideal vehicle; the story was already so well known that it had a pre-sold popular appeal. This film version was, in fact, only one link in a long chain of adaptations. Wilhelm Meyer-Förster’s romance Karl Heinrich had first been published in 1902 as a novel, and at least three stage adaptations had quickly followed. The most successful of these was revived in New York in 1910, and this quite likely led to Majestic’s 1915 film version. In 1924 the story took a lighter turn when it was adapted as Sigmund Romberg’s operetta The Student Prince. This was followed in turn by another film version in 1927, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer, and the story continued to resurface on stage and screen in later years."

"The top screen billing in Old Heidelberg actually goes to Dorothy Gish, who was herself well on the way to screen stardom. Though she has little to do, her performance as Katie (Kathie in the original story) displays her natural charm, and was and is a delight to all except, apparently, the critic “Jolo.”, who complained in Variety (8 October 1915, p. 21) that she “doesn’t suggest anything Teutonic, thereby failing to preserve the otherwise strongly created atmosphere of German student life”. Other reviewers were far more complimentary. Another notable member of the cast is young Harold Goodwin, who plays the Prince at age 12. In later years Goodwin would virtually grow up onscreen, appearing in the silent films of Mary Pickford and Buster Keaton among many others, and continuing his acting career in dozens of sound films in succeeding decades."

"In retrospect, perhaps the most interesting casting choice in the film is that of Erich von Stroheim, who appears as valet and chief killjoy Lutz, and who also assisted director John Emerson behind the camera. Richard Koszarski has written on Stroheim’s connection with Old Heidelberg, providing valuable insights on his working relationship with Emerson, and speculating on the extent of his involvement in the finished film. (Koszarski’s comments are reprinted in Griffithiana 71, pp. 56 –60.) Traces of Old Heidelberg can be seen in several of Stroheim’s own later films, while, conversely, Koszarski makes a case for Stroheim’s creative contribution to this film. The royal edict “that each crippled soldier be given a hand-organ” is offered as one touch that suggests the Stroheim influence."

"Of course there are other influences at work here, not least that of Griffith himself. The title “Love’s marriage”, followed by an idyllic shot of the lovers by a stream, seems a striking example of Griffith’s hand at work. And, as the Variety reviewer commented, “No Griffith feature would be complete without a battle-scene” (reviewers frequently wrote about these Griffith-supervised program pictures as if Griffith himself had directed them). In the original version of Old Heidelberg, the end of Karl’s idyll was brought about by the simple necessity of royal obligation; here his return to Karlburg is prompted by an impending war, and the film suddenly takes off in a new direction as Reid finds himself in the midst of an anti-war lecture. The inclusion of a war was of course motivated by World War I, which was already raging in Europe when this film was produced. The anti-war stance may have reflected the United States’ current neutrality policy, but it seems to come directly from Griffith, who had presented glorious scenes of the Civil War in The Birth of a Nation but took pains to link them to a strong anti-war statement, and was preparing an even stronger one in his current production of Intolerance. (Interestingly, the passage in question in Old Heidelberg – in which Reid is conducted through scenes illustrating the horrors of war – suggests Thomas Ince’s Civilization, which would be released months later, far more strongly than any other Griffith film or Meyer-Förster’s original story.)"

"Continuing this thread, Kevin Brownlow pointed out in a personal conversation that some of the differences between the (vastly different) 1915 and 1927 film versions of Old Heidelberg are prompted by the intervening changes in world history. The Locarno Treaty of 1925 had admitted Germany to the League of Nations, and MGM’s 1927 film version, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, was designed to reflect a new and more positive attitude between nations. Wallace Reid’s 1915 duel was not repeated by Ramon Novarro in 1927, nor was there any mention of war, mythical or real."

"Released on the second Triangle program in November 1915, Old Heidelberg drew a generally favorable reaction from critics, but was overshadowed by Ince’s contribution to the program: the Civil War drama The Coward, with Frank Keenan and Charles Ray." – J. B. Kaufman [DWG Project # 519]

AA: + Very likeable. Revisited the first 20 minutes.