page_title: The Silent Command
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: The Silent Command / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a magazine advertisement for the 1923 film The Silent Command, originally published in Moving Picture World, showing the endorsements from Pershing and Roosevelt that were part of this film's cooperative production with the United States Navy.
context_page_description: The Silent Command is a 1923 American silent drama film directed by J. Gordon Edwards featuring Bela Lugosi as a foreign saboteur in his American film debut. The film, written by Anthony Paul Kelly and Rufus King, also stars Edmund Lowe, Alma Tell, and Martha Mansfield. The film depicts the story of Benedict Hisston, who is part of a plot to destroy the Panama Canal. Initially unable to obtain necessarily intelligence from Richard Decatur, a captain in the United States Navy, he enlists the aid of femme fatale Peg Williams. Decatur pretends to be seduced into the conspiracy, costing him his career and estranging him from his wife, but he ultimately betrays the saboteurs in Panama and stops their plan. He returns home to the Navy and his wife, and to popular acclaim for his heroics.
  The film was produced in cooperation with the Navy and was intended as a propaganda film to encourage support for a larger navy. The Silent Command was shown at the opening of several Fox Theatres locations and was sometimes marketed in conjunction with naval recruitment efforts. It received generally positive reviews from contemporary film critics, although modern appraisals consider the film mediocre.
context_section_description: Rufus King, later known for his detective novels, wrote the original story for The Silent Command, which was adapted into a screenplay by Anthony Paul Kelly. It was intended as a propaganda film to encourage popular support for expansion of the United States Navy and was made with the Navy's cooperation and support. Fox Film's publicity promoter, Wells Hawks, may have been responsible for this arrangement, as he had previously worked in a publicity role for the Navy. Quotes praising the film were provided by several prominent members of the military for use in advertising, including General John J. Pershing and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Years later, in a publicity interview for The Return of Chandu, Bela Lugosi commented on the irony of being a propagandist for naval expansion when his native country, landlocked Hungary, "has no navy nor needs any!"
  In December 1922, Lugosi had starred in a Greenwich Village play, The Red Poppy. The play performed poorly, but Lugosi, in the role of a thuggish Spaniard, received critical praise. He was cast as Hisston in The Silent Command based on the strength of that performance. Extreme close-ups of Lugosi's eyes were used throughout the film to reinforce perception of this character as evil. Film historian Gary Rhodes traced the origin of this technique, intended to suggest the evil eye or hypnosis, to characters in Weimar cinema inspired by Svengali. Lugosi had played one such character, Professor Mors, in the 1919 German film Sklaven fremdes Willens; Edwards himself had portrayed Svengali in a run of Trilby on the St. Louis stage.
  The Silent Command was released in at least two editions. As shown at its New York premiere, it was an eight-reel film with a 91-minute run time. However, the version screened earlier in Chicago had been 18 minutes shorter, which reduced the film to seven reels; this cut was used for most subsequent releases. H.T. Hodge claimed to have shown a nine-reel version at the Palace Theatre in Abilene, Texas. Additionally, some prints were released as part-color films with tinted scenes.
  The Silent Command was also released internationally, including Australia and Cuba in 1924, and was retitled His Country for distribution in France.
caption: This magazine advertisement for The Silent Command includes endorsements of the film by General John J. Pershing and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr..
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