 |
| D. W. Griffith: The Fatal Hour (US 1908). Photomontage and caption from: Peter Gutmann: D. W. Griffith and the Dawn of Film Art, Part 2: The Power of Editing. http://www.classicalnotes.net/griffith/part2.html .© 2010 Peter Gutmann. {Portions of this article were published in Classic Images No. 81} |
US © 1908 Prod: American Mutoscope & Biograph Company.
Dir: D. W. Griffith. Story: ?. Photog: Arthur Marvin. Cast: Linda Arvidson, Harry Solter, George Gebhardt, D. W. Griffith, Anthony O’Sullivan.
Filmed: 21.7, 27.7.1908 (NY Studio; Fort Lee, New Jersey). Rel: 18.8.1908. Copy: DCP (4K), 14'48" (from paper print, 832 ft, 15 fps); titles: ENG.
Source: Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus, Culpeper, VA.
Film Preservation Society (FPS) / Tracey Goessel / digital scan 2017. Given the absence of original intertitles, new ones have been written by the FPS. 2024 edition.
43rd Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone: Early Cinema - The Biograph Project.
Grand piano: Stephen Horne.
Viewed at Teatro Verdi with e-subtitles in Italian, 7 Oct 2024.
There is no credit information in the film itself, just the title card with the year of copyright and the name and the address of the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, like in The Adventures of Dollie.
Tracey Goessel (GCM/FPS The Biograph Project 2024): "Here is the first time we see the Bond/Batman trope: the villain has our hero(ine) tied up while some complicated killing device is rigged up, then leaves the scene, providing just enough time for a rescue or escape. In this instance, it is a gun set to fire when the clock reaches the top of the hour."
"Seeing the sequence is much like watching a sculptor at the very start of making a piece. Griffith does not show the deadly device in close-up, and while he cuts back and forth three times between the writhing heroine and the rescuers, the shots do not progressively shorten in length. Still, he is getting the rudiments of the idea: he moved the camera closer to the protagonist in the shots that were intercut with the rescuers’ ride. He then pulled it out for her liberation, to better provide the view of all the characters. Chase + suspense = entertainment. This is the first time he uses this simple formula, but it is very far from the last."
AA: The Fatal Hour has the distinction of introducing a female action hero, a woman detective (Florence Auer in one of her first films). She outwits Hendricks, a key organizer of the white slave ring, and exposes their hideaway.
The theme of violence and abuse of women is remarkably powerful. White slavery was the expression of the day for organized crime betraying, hijacking and coercing women for prostitution. The violence of the criminals against the kidnapped woman (Linda Arvidson) and the female detective is memorably brutal.
The movie is disgraced by racist Yellow Peril prejudice, verbalized uglily in the Biograph Bulletin copied below.
Griffith pursues what was to become his trademark: a parallel montage approach in a race to the rescue thriller story. A week earlier he had taken important steps in The Greaser's Gauntlet. In The Fatal Hour the innovation turns fundamental. The term for parallel editing is at this stage "alternate scenes".
The motif of the countdown is used effectively. The revolver is to be fired at the woman detective in 20 minutes. The hands of the clock move inexorably as the police races to save her. Tracey Goessel in her program note above suggest that this be the first appearance of this now familiar suspense situation.
In France, Éclair released the first episode (1ère série: Le Guêt-apens) of the world's first action hero serial, Nick Carter, le roi des détectives, on 8 September 1908.
Biograph released this prototype thriller three weeks earlier. These were formative weeks in the development of mainstream cinema - in terms of action, crime and suspense.
...
I saw The Fatal Hour in GCM's The Griffith Project (DWG 38), mattino 14 October 1997 at Ridotto del Verdi on 16 mm /15 fps/ 13 min without intertitles and Neil Brand at the piano.
Moving Picture World synopsis based on the Biograph Bulletin No. 162, August 18 1908: "A STIRRING INCIDENT OF THE CHINESE WHITE-SLAVE TRAFFIC. Much has been printed by the daily press on this subject, but never has it been more vividly depicted than in this Biograph production."
"Pong Lee, a Mephistophelian, saffron-skinned varlet, has for some time carried on this atrocious female white slave traffic, in which sinister business he was assisted by a stygian whelp, by name Hendricks."
"Pong writes Hendricks that he has need for five young girls, and so Hendricks sets out to secure them. Visiting a rural district, he has no trouble, by his glib, affable manner, in gaining the confidence of several young and pretty girls. Pong is on hand with a closed carriage to bag the prey."
"One of the girls, as she is seized, emits a yell that alarms the neighborhood and brings to the scene several policemen and a couple of detectives, who have long been on the lookout for these caitiffs. The Chinese get away with the carriage, however, and Hendricks by subterfuge throws the police on the wrong scent."
"One of the detectives is a woman, and possessed of shrewd powers of deduction, hence does not swallow the bald story of the villain, and exercises her natural acumen with success. She shadows Hendricks, and by means of a flirtation inveigles him to a restaurant, where she succeeds in doping his drink."
"He falls asleep and she secures the letter written by Pong, which discloses the hiding place of the Chinaman. This she immediately telephones to the police, and while so doing Hendricks awakes and starts off to warn his friends."
"He arrives at the old deserted house ahead of the police, but escape is impossible, so the police rescue the girls, but fail to secure Pong and Hendricks, who afterwards seize the girl detective, and taking her to the house, tie her to a post and arrange a large pistol on the face of a clock in such a way that when the hands point to twelve the gun is fired and the girl will receive the charge."
"Twenty minutes are allowed for them to get away, for the hands are now indicating 11:40. Certain death seems to be her fate, and would have been had not an accident disclosed her plight. Hendricks after leaving the place is thrown by a street car, and this serves to discover his identity, so he is captured and a wild ride is made to the house in which the poor girl is incarcerated."
"This incident is shown in alternate scenes. There is the helpless girl, with the clock ticking its way towards her destruction, and out on the road is the carriage, tearing along at breakneck speed to the rescue, arriving just in time to get her safely out of range of the pistol as it goes off. In conclusion we can promise this to be an exceedingly thrilling film, of more than ordinary interest."—Moving Picture World synopsis based on the Biograph Bulletin No. 162, August 18 1908
No comments:
Post a Comment