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by R Michael Pyle » Sun Jan 18, 2015 11:18 am
I watched "Less than the Dust" (1916), starring Mary Pickford, David Powell, Mario Majeroni, Mary Alden, and many others. Strangely, this is a very satisfying outing of Pickford's, and it is a most unsatisfying outing, too! Let me begin with the DVD. It is offered by Alpha, and it has problems. The images of most of the first half of the film are never crystal clear, sharp, nor are they bad enough to complain bitterly about. The essence of the film comes through splendidly. About less than two-thirds of the way through, one scene is repeated right after it has already been shown just prior. Such inattention to detail I find incredibly distracting! I wonder how such a thing could be allowed to happen. Then, with the second part of the film, the section that occurs in England, the ending this particular DVD contains is obviously short by at least a reel. Not that continuity is not understood, but we don't see the supposed marriage as is stated in synopsae that are available. The film was originally shot in 7 reels. In nearly all the extant versions in all the museums and film houses, only reels 1-6 exist, and not all of them complete. However, there is a version in the Mary Pickford Film Institute for Film Education collection which is listed without the number of reels extant, and which one would be led to believe is the 7 reel original release. It would be nice if a release could be made of this print, if only to allow the public which buys DVDs to have a complete print! I found the Alpha print ending to be frustratingly cut off! It must miss at least 10-12 minutes, by my estimation.
It's interesting to look up the history of this film and its relevance to the Mary Pickford film collection. It was released 6 November 1916, and it was Artcraft's first film release, also the first release of Mary Pickford Film Productions. According to Pickford, a lot about the film was botched due to Famous Players-Lasky, the film didn't make much money, and overall was not the success it might have been. Pickford considered it one of her failures, a slap in the face from her public, and, according to biographer Eileen Whitfield, "...perhaps she [Pickford] disliked the movie for its own sake; it comes to life only in the final scenes, and today critics rate it among her worst." I certainly did NOT think it was a failure by any stretch of the imagination. Interestingly, too, the only review of the film on the IMDb is by a viewer who caught the film at CINEFEST 2009, and his review is also rather positive. Frankly, I don't think it's a "small" Pickford film, but a rather good one really - although the cutting possibly has butchered a film that was quite too long for audiences back in 1916, though one should say that remembering Griffith released "Intolerance" the same year, and it was a memorial to length!
"Less than the Dust" probably is best summarized by its synopsis in the American Film Institute's guide:
"Radha, a young Hindu woman, becomes best friends with Captain Raymond Townsend during his service in India, but he soon goes back to England to tend to the estate of an uncle who has just died. Then, Ramlan, the sword maker who raised Radha, is arrested for taking part in an anti-British uprising, and before he goes to jail, he decides to tell Radha the true story of her birth: her real father, Captain Brooke, died of a drug overdose, and her destitute mother then entrusted her to Ramlan. After learning about her background, Radha goes to England to claim her rightful inheritance from the estate of her late grandfather, who is also Raymond's uncle. Raymond is delighted to discover that his Hindu friend is really a white woman, and after dividing the estate with Radha, he brings the fortune back together by marrying her." Although this is definitely the gist of the film, it certainly does not follow this chronology. Cutting, editing, and length of scenes makes this reading appear too straightforward for how the film actually proceeds.
This is one of several "racial" films that Mary Pickford made. By today's standards, this film will not be seen as politically correct. It's not as bad as "The Birth of a Nation", but it even copies some of that film's motifs. For example, the scene of the British Lancer's unit arriving to save the day at the British garrison is filmed exactly like the year before's "The Birth of Nation" Ku Klux Klan's arriving to save the day. Exactly! It was obviously an influence! What is also striking about this film is how Mary's Radha is a sort of Tarzan/Greystoke character, with very, very similar backgrounds. Greystoke's father had been killed by a tribesman while his mother died of natural causes, and, as a result, he becomes Tarzan, raised by natives in his surroundings. Radha's father, a British army officer, becomes a hopeless hashish addict, and eventually dies in a hashish den. Her mother, destitute, gives up the baby to Ramlan, a low caste Indian sword maker who loves her and raises her as a daughter. Eventually she discovers she's white and goes back to the inheritance she deserves. That according to what was sacrosanct in 1916. I think Pickford and her writers had exactly this paradigm in mind. What becomes unbearable to the modern viewer is such nasty things as a comment made by a suiter to Townsend who happens by Mary Pickford in one scene: she says, "I can't bear these native children; their clothes are so dirty." It raised my eyebrows when I was viewing, but it must have been a common thought among whites in America or Britain in 1916. The anti-Indian sentiment, supposedly felt by the imperialistic British Empire in those days is conveyed magnificently in the film; although that magnificence is maddening to modern sensibility! That's the problem of the film for a modern, especially young, viewer. The film also contains some fascinating anti-Muslim content. Hindi versus Muslim. The same problems occurring today are shown tit for tat in the film! When you throw in the Christian white material, this film is anti- everything except regal rich British white: translate, in America here manifest destiny is a truth for 1916! It grates horrifically on most modern sensibilities, and it should. Nevertheless, the history here is palpable. Anti-Muslim by the Indians (we never really hear any anti-Christian sentiment, although the implication is probable); anti-Hindi by the British; anti-British by the Indians.
Mary herself carries off the film supremely. Her gifts of drama, pathos, and especially comedy are all realized well here. Her comedy scenes, too many to site, are truly memorable in the Pickford way. Almost child-like, she gives her body and her character a going over at just the right places. She truly knew how to stir an audience. David Powell plays her male foil in this picture. He's quite good, although the part is perfunctory. Better even than his part, the part of Ramlan, the sword maker who plays Mary's substitute father (called 'foster-father' on one of the early title cards), is played by Mario Majeroni, born in Italy, died in New York City, and who may get a tad of a resurrection this year when William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes", made the same year as this one, gets a new lease on life, after having been re-discovered last year. Majeroni played the part of James Larrabee in the Holmes film.
Overall, I'd say that the scenery of India came off especially well in "Less than the Dust". It is actually memorable. The British scenes are nice, but perfunctory for the type of scenes they are. I would agree that the final scene is probably a memorable one for this film, but, again, my print is missing that scene! I thought the early scenes setting the stage were excellent, though a bit long, and the developing plot a tad tangled. This probably botched the film for Mary Pickford. Nevertheless, the film is definitely worth a re-visit, and I hope soon that a complete print is released. I'll be first in line!
I thought it was mildly amusing at first, then kind of funny later, then hilarious and stunningly inventive at the end. Could've done without the blackface schtick, of course, but I guess it comes with the territory sometimes...I'll take it over The Bachelor any day.
