Anticipating Henry King in Bologna

Henry King directs Twelve O'Clock High, starring Gregory Peck. Photo: Il Cinema Ritrovato.

Ehsan Khoshbakht:
Soul and Craft: A Portrait of Henry King

"Henry King’s world can be likened to the basement of Paradise, if ever there was one. His films are often idyllic, yet they are set in a less comfortable corner of Paradise, one which falls short of perfection, and even accommodates darkness. The lower aspects of a higher plane fascinated King, and that’s where the real stories unfold. Telling graceful tales of Americana in an almost Chekhovian style became King’s signature. If small town USA was taken for Paradise, King’s gaze was directed at the fall of this idealised world, at what happens when a dream ends. The dreamers become drifters and King remained faithful to the actors who portrayed them. Tyrone Power, King’s own discovery, appeared in 11 films directed by his mentor; Gregory Peck in six."

"King was religious, or became so when he converted to Catholicism during the making of Romola (1924) in Italy. Yet his films show a disdain for self-righteous bigotry and institutionalised religion. Nonetheless, many of his characters are like biblical figures – archetypal, determined, larger than life. The two worlds – spiritual and material – co-exist in his films, and the dialectic between the two, often manifesting in the form of a clash between head and heart, or duty and humanity, remained central until his very last film, made in 1962."

"King lived long (96 years) and lived well. He made close to 120 films, starting in 1915. He even acted in some between 1913 and 1917. He became a star director during the silent years and started his own film company, Inspiration Pictures. When sound arrived, King remained loyal to Fox, where he made the majority of his films, including many of those in this retrospective. He both borrowed from the studio system and standardised it, establishing a new grammar. Throughout his career, he retained control over editing his films, guaranteeing that the final work would match his early vision of the story. (In an unparalleled collaboration, Barbara McLean edited twenty-nine of the films.) Not surprisingly, the end of his career coincided with the demise of the studio system."

"This celebration of King is a celebration of cinema in all its forms and shapes, and the way the collective and personal meet and give birth to something that preserves the characteristics of both. Considering the sheer number of films he made and the scarcity of some, take this programme as a first glance into a profound world. King once said: “the director’s whole soul goes through the camera and there must be a little poetry in his soul to be able to express things”. Hopefully, these eleven titles reveal some of the poetry in King’s soul, and also his brilliant craftsmanship." Ehsan Khoshbakht (Il Cinema Ritrovato)

AA: Bologna's Henry King retrospective was the third sustained opportunity for me to get a grip of the great director's oeuvre. It is a mighty task to make sense of Henry King as a director. Internet Movie Database lists 116 films in which he is credited as the director. I had admired for a long time films such as The Gunfighter, Twelve O'Clock High and Tol'able David. Jesse James I had seen on home video but not truly understood its calibre.

PORDENONE 1995

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto mounted a silent Henry King retrospective in the Centenary of the Cinema year. I focused most on the main theme of the festival, the unique early non-fiction retrospective, not neglecting China, Before Israel and Fleischer Brothers. For me, Henry King came fifth, but nevertheless:

I saw:
A Perilous Ride (1913) X
The Medal of Honor (1913) X
Who Pays? 1: The Price of Fame (1915) *
Who Pays? 2: Toll and Tyranny (1915) *
The Crooked Road (1916) X
Little Mary Sunshine (1916) **
The Climber (1918) X interestingly naturalistic
Tol'able David (1921) *** George Eastman House 35 mm print
Stella Dallas (1925) *** David Shepard 16 mm print
The Woman Disputed (1928) **
The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) ***½ Cineteca del Friuli 16 mm print
14.10.1995  Ridotto del Verdi: Ricordo di Henry King - David Shepard, David Gill

I missed:
Told at Twilight (1917) 16 mm
Hearts or Diamonds? (1918) 16 mm
The Devil's Bait (1917) midnight screening
Six Feet Four (1919) 16 mm
Romola (1925) late screening of a long film
The Sporting Chance (1919) 16 mm
The Seventh Day (1921)
The White Sister (1923) midnight screening of a long film
14.10.1995  Ridotto del Verdi: Ricordo di Henry King - Kevin Brownlow, David Shepard, Frank Thompson

Together with Peter von Bagh we edited a Henry King dossier for the Filmihullu magazine (“Ihmisen tunteen tasolle nostettu kamera. Henry King ja mykät elokuvat” [”Camera Elevated to the Level of Human Emotion. Henry King and the Silent Cinema”], Peter von Bagh & Antti Alanen, Filmihullu 2 / 1996). Peter valued highly The White Sister and Romola which I missed because they were late screenings of very long films. His favourites also included The Woman Disputed whose distinction I failed to see in Pordenone. Perhaps I was not in the proper wavelength.

For me, Tol'able David, Stella Dallas and The Winning of Barbara Worth were the masterpieces of the retrospective. I paid attention to the fact that all three had strong screenplays: by Edmund Goulding in the first case, and by Frances Marion in the other two.

TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS

Ten years later I tried to view as completely as possible the Twentieth Century Classics dvd series. The visual quality of the transfers was excellent, but because there were dozens of titles, I indulged in binge watching and may have overlooked qualities. Henry King was never a flamboyant director, and his best films deserve full focus and concentration. During this project I saw in 2006:

- In Old Chicago (Chicago palaa, 1936)
- A Yank in the R.A.F. (Meidän lentäjien kesken, 1941)
- The Song of Bernadette (Bernadetten laulu, 1943)
- Twelve O'Clock High (Ilmojen kotkat, 1949) revisited, I had seen our 35 mm print before.
- The Bravados (Bravados, 1958)

I saw The Bravados for the first time in these dvd binge sessions and recognized it as a quality Western but did not fully understand its grandeur in these circumstances.

It was, however, rewarding to study these 20th Century Fox series in extenso because the viewings helped make sense of the "genius of the system" within a single studio. The stock companies of actors and talents. The genres, the stars, the directors. The continuities and the discontinuities from the mid-1930s till the 1960s. The special commitment to war themes. The affection for country life, not least in Westerns. This was not a studio of sophistication like Paramount, or glamour like MGM. The female stars had often a girl-next-door appeal. The male star could be Tyrone Power but often also an ordinary Joe. Great directors thrived at Fox: Ford, Walsh, and Borzage already with William Fox, not forgetting Murnau. Henry King moved to William Fox in the early sound period and after 20th Century Fox was established he worked for it exclusively.

ANTICIPATING BOLOGNA

I had read a bit about Henry King while preparing the 1996 Filmihullu dossier and writing about him for my 2006 encyclopedia of film-makers, paying special attention to the Pordenone book by David Shepard and Ted Perry (the interviewers) and Frank Thompson (editor): Henry King: Director: From Silents to 'Scope. Los Angeles: Directors' Guild of America / Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 1995.

Titles I was especially looking forward to included State Fair and Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie. On my "most wanted" list are still also She Goes to War, Alexander's Ragtime Band and I'd Climb the Highest Mountain. And The White Sister and Romola, both starring Lillian Gish, both shot in Italy.

Henry King is not a director a cinephile is likely to fall for in the early stages of his passion. Rather he is a master whose grandeur becomes evident only after one has "seen it all". That seemed to happen to Peter von Bagh whose appreciation of Henry King kept growing until the end. This coincided with his own change of style. Known as the man of superlatives von Bagh made an abrupt turn around the year 2006 and started to avoid hyperbole.

To coincide with the Bologna retrospective, MUBI Notebook published Peter von Bagh's final Henry King essay, called "Henry King: Beyond the American Dream", on 17 June 2019, in a translation specially prepared for the occasion.