Over the Hill (2019 digital transfer by Library of Congress)

Over the Hill. James Dunn (Johnny Shelby), Sally Eilers (Isabel Potter).

Äiti / Berättelsen om mor.
    Director: Henry King. Year: 1931. Country: USA. Sog.: dalle poesie "Over the Hill to the Poorhouse" e "Over the Hill from the Poorhouse" (1873) di Will Carleton. Scen.: Tom Barry, Jules Furthman. F.: John F. Seitz. M.: Frank E. Hull. Scgf.: Robert M. Haas. Mus.: George Lipschultz.
    Int.: Mae Marsh (Ma Shelby), James Dunn (Johnny Shelby), Sally Eilers (Isabel Potter), Edward Crandall (Thomas Shelby), Claire Maynard (Phyllis Shelby), Olin Howland (Isaac), Joan Peers (Susan).
    Prod.: Fox Film Corporation. DCP. D.: 93’. Bn.
    Helsinki premiere: Bio-Bio, 30 October 1932, distributed by O.Y. Fox Film A.B., 2660 m, film control 17503.
    Copy from Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.
    Digitised in 2019 by Library of Congress from a 16 mm print held by Niles Essanay Museum
    Soul and Craft: A Portrait of Henry King.
    Viewed at Cinema Jolly, Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato, with e-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti Londra, 25 June 2019.

Ehsan Khoshbakht (Il Cinema Ritrovato): "This ‘honour thy mother’ story – of which a silent version, Over the Hill to the Poorhouse (1920), was also made – presages both Stahl’s Imitation of Life and McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow. Mae Marsh plays a saintly mother of four children, living with a jobless husband whose bootlegging activities bring tragedy to the family. The characters’ motivations and actions resemble biblical stories; there is a Cain and Abel dynamic at work, while the role of the prophet of misery, Job, is given to the mother."

"Unlike, say, Mamoulian and Lubitsch, King is seldom mentioned in discussions of those directors who freed the early American talking pictures from the chains of sound-recording, reclaiming the mobile camera. He was never constrained by the technology at all. Rather, in an act of experimentation, he made films with continual camera movements, achieving the most astounding results in Over the Hill, whose opening shots rank as some of King’s most mythic images of country life. There are many memorable scenes in which camera movement and sound brilliantly complement each other. The sounds of the mother’s sewing machine transition to the raucous sound of the prison workshop, where the image follows this sonic suggestion and superimposes the shots of the house and the prison, marking the breakdown of the guilt-ridden father. The carol Silent Night (heard over a shot of a church window) is mixed with the sound of sleigh-bells while the camera economically pans from the church to the frozen window of the family house, using a dissolve to enter the house through the window."

"In this Depression-era glorification of American values (the importance of family, community, being down to earth), it is paradoxically America itself that plagues those values with vanity, loss of identity and division. The characters live in an illusory world, which King acknowledges but never tears apart. After all, it’s that lie that makes Americana." Ehsan Khoshbakht

AA: After the transition to sound, Fox Film Corporation assigned Henry King sound remakes of silent success films. Lightnin' and Over the Hill were the first, to be followed by Way Down East, Ramona and Seventh Heaven.

Seen today, Over the Hill mostly impresses by the eloquent and understated performance by Mae Marsh in the leading role. (The title of the film in Finland and some other countries was simply "Mother"). Mae Marsh had been great already as a D. W. Griffith star since his Ramona (1910), their collaboration culminating in the modern story of Intolerance. She excels in her first sound role in Over the Hill. In her late career she was a fondly welcomed presence in the John Ford stock company.

Over the Hill, the 1920 silent film and Henry King's sound adaptation, are among the early entries in a distinguished lineage including Make Way for Tomorrow by Leo McCarey and Tokyo Story by Yasujiro Ozu. Parents who have sacrificed everything for their children are not welcome to stay with them when they grow up. This is classic melodrama material, and let's not forget that King had directed the first and the best film adaptation of Stella Dallas. King's Over the Hill was also generally considered superior to the silent success version of 11 years ago.

A hallmark of Fox Film Corporation in the last years of the silent film had been a mastery of the mobile camera, introduced by Murnau, and immediately appropriated by Borzage, Ford, Hawks and Walsh, at least for a while. In this early sound film Henry King uses the mobile camera freely, seemingly uninhibited by the cumbersome sound technology.

Mae Marsh in the leading role is marvellous, but none of the other performances reach her level.

There is a wealth of realistic detail of family life. King displays affection but also realism in his account of children's pranks, including their casual cruelty. But he also relishes moments of family happiness. Melodrama is a Troyan horse. This is a saga of a mother's unfaltering hope. There is, however, an ubiquitous awareness of infinite sadness and disappointment.

Library of Congress has done an incredible job in producing this brilliant DCP from a 16 mm print.

HISTORY FROM AFI CATALOG ONLINE

The poem "Over the Hill to the Poorhouse" first appeared in Harper's Weekly , 17 Jul 1871. Included in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Theater Arts Library is an adaptation with dialogue by Percy Hutchison of the silent film Fox earlier produced based on the same source; it is not known if any of this material was used in the final film. The earlier film, entitled Over the Hill to the Poorhouse , was produced by Fox in 1920; it was directed by Harry Millarde and starred Mary Carr and John Walker (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20 ; F1.3322). Var , noting that the silent film "was a furore in 1920, starting slowly and growing into a country-wide sensation," commented that the sound version was "an infinitely better piece of work." NYT cited the sound version as "an impressive example of the strides made in a decade in motion picture techniques." FD called Mae Marsh's portrayal "one of the outstanding performances of the year."

SYNOPSIS FROM AFI CATALOG ONLINE

In their farm house in a New York village, Ma Shelby prepares breakfast for her four children, Isaac, Tommy, Johnny and Susan, and then awakens them. The racket the boys make as they play and fight awakens their father, who spanks the eldest, Isaac. When a visitor chides Pa for not working, Ma sticks up for her husband, saying that he has a weak back and that he is waiting for a promised government job.

At school, the teacher finds a drawing on the blackboard of Isaac kissing her. Isaac, who is "sweet" on the teacher, blames Johnny, who does not tattle on Tommy, the real culprit, and at home, Johnny receives a whipping from his father, which Ma, in tears, finally stops. Outside, Johnny's friend, Isabelle Potter, comforts him.

Ma works late into the night sewing and ironing, and worries about a delinquent grocery bill.

Years later, on Christmas Eve, Johnny, who now supports his parents, announces that he and Isabelle have finally become engaged. Susan and her husband, Ben Adams, a butcher, visit from New York City and bring Thomas, whose wife Phyllis has remained in the city. Isaac, now somewhat of a religious fanatic, and his wife Minnie are the last to arrive.

After dinner, Pa meets two men for whom he has agreed to help transport some stolen liquor in a car that belongs to the paint company for which Johnny works. After Johnny walks Isabelle home, he hears gunshots and then sees his father drive past; Pa's cohorts have fired at some officers to create a diversion. When the car gets stuck in the snow, Johnny sends Pa home, saying that it would kill Ma if he were caught.

The next morning, when Isaac brings his parents the news that Johnny is in jail and that an officer has been shot, Ma becomes hysterical and faints. Johnny, who is sentenced to three years imprisonment, urges Isabelle not to wait for him. After an upsetting dream, Pa plans to tell Ma the truth, but he dies before he can.

Sometime later, Ma dreams that her family is still in the house. She is then startled to see Johnny, and he explains he has been released early for good behavior. Because he is ostracized in the small town, Johnny takes a job in Seattle and promises to send for Isabelle and Ma. Before he leaves, he arranges to mail Isaac money every month for Ma.

After Isaac convinces Ma that it is best to close up the farm house, she goes to live with Thomas and Phyllis. Although Thomas invites her to stay as long as she likes, Phyllis, who is involved in an affair, objects. When Ma goes up to the roof where Phyllis is sunbathing with her lover to call her to the telephone, Phyllis berates her for snooping.

After Phyllis gives her husband an ultimatum to choose between her or Ma, Ma goes to Susan and Ben, but Ben objects to her presence.

Isaac, after receiving word that Johnny's engineering party is lost on an expedition to the North Pole, keeps the check sent for Ma for himself. Ma next comes to stay with Isaac, but because of Minnie's nagging, Ma goes to the poor farm, at Isaac's suggestion.

When Johnny returns and learns that Ma is in the poorhouse and that Isaac did not give her the money he sent, Johnny fights him. He drags Isaac toward the poorhouse, as a crowd of townsfolk, who dislike Isaac, cheer. Isabelle finally stops Johnny by saying that it would break his mother's heart if she saw them, and Johnny sobs about his mother as Isabelle comforts him.

At the poorhouse, Johnny asks a scrub woman about his mother before he realizes that she is Ma. He kicks her bucket away and carries her out, as she half sobs and half laughs. Soon, Johnny, Isabelle and Ma have fixed up the old house for Johnny and Isabelle's upcoming wedding. Although Johnny balks at inviting Isaac, Isabelle stops him from saying anything. Ma asks, "Isn't life wonderful?" as Johnny hugs them both.