Tweet "Mother and the Law"

My post deals with how "Mother and the Law" morphed into "Intolerance" and some of the reaction.
http://ladailymirror.com/2012/07/09/mar ... tolerance/

Interesting article on back story of "Intolerance." I found that info box attached to your clip of a 1915 movie article very interesting. A matter of fact summary of a telegram the Chamber of Commerce gave the newspaper describing the arrangements being made for the Seventh Regiment to leave Nogales, Mexico by train to Los Angeles, where the troops will set down in Exposition Park. Oh, wait a second, in 1915 there was a police action going on in Mexico to catch Pancho Villa and the United States just sent troops across the border into Mexico. No big deal.

THE MOTHER AND THE LAW was culled from INTOLERANCE and released in 1919 as a stand-alone film starring Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, and Miriam Cooper. The Babylonian arc was also released in 1919 as a stand-along film, THE FALL OF BABYLON. The latter film changed the ending where Constance Talmadge dies a hero.

[Christopher Jacobs]

THE MOTHER AND THE LAW was culled from INTOLERANCE and released in 1919 as a stand-alone film starring Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, and Miriam Cooper. The Babylonian arc was also released in 1919 as a stand-along film, THE FALL OF BABYLON. The latter film changed the ending where Constance Talmadge dies a hero.

And all three films are apparently planned for Blu-ray release later this year as a set from the Cohen Film Collection (formerly the Rohauer Collection). THE MOTHER AND THE LAW is one of my favorite Griffith films, and its subject material combined with its production dates make it an ideal companion for THE CHILDREN OF EVE (1915) and THE HOODLUM (1919), both already on Blu-ray. Internal evidence (e.g. car license plates, slower camera cranking speeds) indicates that it started shooting sometime in 1914, with scenes added through 1916 when INTOLERANCE was released and again in 1919 for its individual release. It will also be nice to watch again in light of the information uncovered in William Drew's new Griffith book, as a number of scenes (especially those involving Miriam Cooper's character "The Friendless One") take on an eerie new significance and potential subtext!

There's a Euro DVD of Intolerance I finally found that allows you to run each arc as a separate and continuous story but the films have little "stalls" where it transitions from one segment to another. Not terribly annoying but probably fixable in a DVD release. Would these new releases be using that format or do they have the actual 1919 re-releases?

I'm not sure the "happy" ending on the Babylonian story is a good idea.

[Christopher Jacobs]

There's a Euro DVD of Intolerance I finally found that allows you to run each arc as a separate and continuous story but the films have little "stalls" where it transitions from one segment to another. Not terribly annoying but probably fixable in a DVD release. Would these new releases be using that format or do they have the actual 1919 re-releases?

I'm not sure the "happy" ending on the Babylonian story is a good idea.

I got the impression they'll be separate versions. I used to have the old Blackhawk release of THE MOTHER AND THE LAW on Super 8, which includes substantially more plot and character development than the modern story within INTOLERANCE. However, the only separate FALL OF BABYLON films I've seen appear to have been compiled by the 16mm distributors from INTOLERANCE. I don't know whether this new Blu-ray edition has access to an actual 1919 version of THE FALL OF BABYLON or some other compilation of Babylon scenes extracted from INTOLERANCE rather than separately edited (I'm hoping it's the 1919 release, which I've never seen).

Would these new releases be using that format or do they have the actual 1919 re-releases?

I got the impression they'll be separate versions. I used to have the old Blackhawk release of THE MOTHER AND THE LAW on Super 8, which includes substantially more plot and character development than the modern story within INTOLERANCE. However, the only separate FALL OF BABYLON films I've seen appear to have been compiled by the 16mm distributors from INTOLERANCE. I don't know whether this new Blu-ray edition has access to an actual 1919 version of THE FALL OF BABYLON or some other compilation of Babylon scenes extracted from INTOLERANCE rather than separately edited (I'm hoping it's the 1919 release, which I've never seen).

The Mother and the Law is the separate 1919 release, and we've been asked to contribute a score. I can't tell you more about The Fall of Babylon, as I don't know myself; but if I find out, I'll let folks know.

Good news, Rodney. As I remember, the 1919 release had a few things added back in from the original pre-Intolerance filming to flesh out the story.

Russell Merritt's excellent essay on the history of INTOLERANCE can be found here:

www.zzproductions.fr/pdf/griffith's-intolerance-by_russel_merrith.pdf

Excellent article. Thanks for posting.I had always thought that the 1919 releases ofThe Mother and the Law and The Fall of Babylon were little run-ups just to make a quick buck. But apparently they were seen as major film releases. Also fascinating is that they were essentially literally cut from the master negative of Intolerance and then spliced back in after they exhausted all box-office potential.

There were a few bizarre typos in the article (maybe it was scanned from an original source?) but a thorough and thoroughly fascinating article.