Judith of Bethulia,
1914, is a silent drama film starring
Blanche Sweet,
Henry B. Walthall,
Mae Marsh, Lilian &
Dorothy Gish,
Lionel Barrymore, produced and directed by
D. W. Griffith. The movie was the first feature-length film made by pioneering film company
Biograph, although the second that Biograph released. Shortly after its completion and a disagreement Griffith had with Biograph executives on making more future feature-length films, Griffith left Biograph, and took the entire stock company with him. Biograph delayed the picture's release until 1914, after Griffith's departure, so that it would not have to pay him in a profit-sharing agreement they had.
From the
Apocrypha story, a poetical tragedy by
Thomas Bailey Aldrich and the theatrical version,
Holofernes (played by
Henry Walthall) leads his
Assyrian army against the walled
Judean city of
Bethulia. The
Assyrians decide, after failing to penetrate the wall, to parch the
Judeans into submission. Their watering place is located outside the wall. Consequently, widow
Judith (played by Blanche Sweet) is inspired to save her Judeans. A saintly woman sacrifices her dignity in order to release the
Jewish people from oppression by the Assyrian army. She ingratiates herself within the affections of
King Holofernes, whom she gets drunk one night and decapitates -- after which the invaders disperse. This was
D.W. Griffith's first feature-length film, and it has the constituents of later Griffith spectacles: poetic and theatrical traditions, romance, battle scenes and costly costume and set design. The film caused controversy with its inclusion of an orgy scene.
Blanche Sweet (then 18) stars as Judith and is very pretty but the acting style (it is 1914 after all) is still crude with waving arms and long dramatic poses. Henry B. Walthall is the head of the Assyrian army, Mae Marsh and
Robert Harron play the young lovers,
Lillian Gish is a young mother, Dorothy Gish is a young cripple,
Kate Bruce is the loyal maid,
Harry Carey is the traitor. The extras (in heavy makeup) include Lionel Barrymore,
Antonio Moreno,
Elmo Lincoln (the first
Tarzan) and
Mary Gish (mother of the stars).
With JUDITH as Griffith's first feature length effort, he turns away from the commercial needs of the
Biograph Company, the management of which desires to maintain its policy of making only one and two reelers, and his expenditure of $36000 is double the amount budgeted, reflecting his expanded use of sets and extras and providing the requisite exercise in preparation for his next major work: BIRTH OF A NATION, made as a free agent.
Eighteen year old Blanche Sweet's performance is striking as she utilizes all of her wide range of expressivity, uncommon in one so young, to mirror the emotions of a woman who is physically attracted to a man, Henry Walthall as Holofernes, toward whom her only possible final act will be his death by her hand, as depicted in many a well-known painting. The supporting cast serves the sparsely titled production well, with emotional performances from Mae Marsh and Robert Harron as endangered lovers, and among the many bit players who animate the work may be seen Lionel Barrymore, Harry Carey, Antonio Moreno and
Lillian and Dorothy Gish as victims of the invaders. This version is the four reeler rather than the one of six reels released later and is Griffith's answer to the full-length epics which were being imported from
Europe.
Blanche Sweet -
Judith
Henry B.
Walthall - Holofernes
Mae Marsh -
Naomi
Robert Harron -
Nathan
Lillian Gish - The young mother
Dorothy Gish - The crippled beggar
Kate Bruce - Judith's maid
J. Jiquel Lanoe -
Eunuch Attendant
Harry Carey -
Assyrian Traitor
W. Chrystie Miller - Bethulian
Gertrude Robinson
Charles Hill Mailes - Bethulian
Soldier
Edward Dillon
Gertrude Bambrick -
Lead Assyrian
Dancer
Lionel Barrymore -
Extra
Clara T. Bracy - Bethulian
Kathleen Butler - Bethulian
William J. Butler - Bethulian
Christy Cabanne
William A. Carroll - Assyrian Soldier (as
William Carroll)
Frank Evans - Bethulian Soldier
Mary Gish
Harry Hyde - Bethulian Soldier/Assyrian Soldier
Thomas Jefferson
Jennie Lee - Bethulian
Adolph
Lestina - Bethulian
Elmo Lincoln
Antonio Moreno - Extra
Marshall Neilan
Frank Opperman - Bethulian
Alfred Paget - Bethulian/Assyrian Soldier
W. C. Robinson - Bethulian Soldier
Kate Toncray - One of Judith's
Servants
Directed by D. W. Griffith
Written by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
D. W. Griffith
Frank E. Woods
Cinematography
G. W. Bitzer
Editing by
James Smith
Studio Biograph Company
Resources: wikipedia.org, archive.org
New soundtrack and dubbing: Cinemateca
Music:
Kevin Mac Leod (incompetch.com) licensed under
Creative Commons licence:
Attribution 3.0 Unported (
CC BY 3.0).
- published: 10 Sep 2013
- views: 5899