New-York tribune., 1919-07-27
CHRONICLE AND COMMENT OF THE STAGE
Griffith the Wizard
Who Conjures History

it is right to find Bluebeard's wives in
the closet or to lose the crystal Slip
per. If in accurate scholarship we run
a little short in susceptibility to that
dramatic satisfaction which fits into
imagination like the right key in the
lock, we are ready to stick out for it
that we are lavishly equipped; and
here the key that let's US into some
thing we had scarcely even realized as
lest until we felt it profoundly recov-
cred, the childs goo. faith and clear
ness about the past. Here we again
really envisage the fact that nation
was greatly employed in great express
sion, that those old jabbering foreign
ers belonged to a city which did some
thing besides fall. 1t is one of those
lessons in humility which refresh and
free instead of weighing down the
spirit; to be able to look at our own
civilization and say: "Really, after all,
there were others!'
Power to Visualize History Griffith's
Some one points out to us that much
may be due to the only ideal medium
for great spectacles. 1t is true that
! historical perspective is one of the
hardest things to get upon the speak
ing stage. In fact, we remember its
arriving there in but two productions
and in both of these, apparently, by
divine influence these being "Thc
Darling of the Gods" and "The Daugh-
ter of Heaven" But dare We've who
were still so screen blind when
"Cabira' was produced as to hcar
long afterward with astonishment that
it represented the siege of Carthage,
having always contentedly supposed it
to deal with the last days of Pompcii!
dare we affirm that even the screen
generally lacks this telescope lens to
see life by? But it is always in Grit
tith's pocket. Through his domain
powerful tide, at once dividing and
connecting cnochs, flows naturally, like
breathing. "The Birth of Nation"
rode it like ship and "The Fall of
Babylon rests on it as in the breast
Of Time. Rarely, even in novels, do
we see so kept this double balance:
torever-never-ne -never-forever.
Reality Shabby Beside Screen
Perhaps it is only a part of the in
tenslty of vision, which in its turn is
one aspect of that titanic energy we
have spoken Of and which gives the
picture its freedom and fury of move
ment, its eXactness and richness Of
detail out of its own unhagging zest.
The size and the minutise of the whole
thing loom on you SO large, function
/ ing SO variously and continuously at
every point, that there is something
appalling in the thought of it's being
carried about in the brain of one man.
we find ourselves as ready as not to say
that the man who could make that
myriad mammoth could make a world
But if that is not preeminencc
enough we can give nothing more. We
cannot, for instance, too violently re.
pudiate as helpful in the historic or
any other perspective that horrid liz
tie prologue of album views of New
York. Their meanness and badness.
however, were nothing to the Jar of
having the picture interrupted by cheap
modern duets sung upon the stage by
persons costumed so as to represent
the figures on the screen. The noun
tam maids young lover leans to kiss
her; the picture is shut off; the ini-
tation corporeal presences come en-
and sing Ppm merry little mountain
maid, and Ger the hills l rove" or
words to that effect; then the screen
again, and the lover takes his kiss!
Or, again, to let the programme speak
for itself:
The high priests conspire with Cvrua
to overthrow Belshazzar.
Duet,
, "Love, Love, Love-"
The hordes of Cyrus descend unon
Babylon.
Because "The Fall Of Babylon" wa.
once cut to pieces by the other stories
OF "lntolerance," must it always be
served to US in shreds? No, we must
, think this is one of Grffith's satires.
q showing US the difference between the
@ beauty and reality of the screen and
the falseness and fatness, the in
g credible. half-baked unconvincingness
4 OF reality! (These outcrics are not
f aimed at the intermission; we like in
termissions in pictures. Nor at Kyra's
O admirable and appropriate dances. But
If it had been thought necessary to
+ dress up kyra like the High Priest!)
0 Perfect Lyric Not in This Epic
+ The story will serve because it is
e simple and graceful and there is Just
s enough of it. But it has no memorable