Edwin S. Porter and the Formation of Famous Players
While still at Rex, Porter was also pursuing other plans. In July 1912 he, Daniel Frohman, and Adolph Zukor acquired the American rights to Queen Elizabeth , a three-reel feature starring Sarah Bernhardt, and marketed it through their newly formed Famous Players Film Company. At a time when the Amer-
ican film industry was still seeking the mantle of respectability, Bernhardt's name generated laudatory coverage in newspapers that customarily mentioned moving pictures only if the editors wanted to condemn them.[27]Queen Elizabeth played to standing room only on the Loew circuit and in other theaters.[28] As Porter became more involved with Famous Players, he spent less time at Rex. Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber assumed greater responsibility, including the direction of many Rex films, until they left in September. That October Porter sold his shares in Universal for a substantial sum.[29]
By the fall of 1912 Famous Players was moving to film plays with top American theatrical stars. Bernhardt set the example, Daniel Frohman provided ties to the theatrical world, Porter the expertise in film production, and Zukor the business acumen and much of the financing. Late that year, after hastily converting an old armory on West Twenty-sixth Street into a picture studio, Porter shot The Count of Monte Cristo with James O'Neill. Again he pursued a collaborative approach, working with Joseph A. Golden, who had written scenarios and produced films at Biograph, Centaur, and Nestor.[30] When the Selig company preemptively released a competing feature based on the same story, Famous Players sued and delayed distribution of its picture for almost a year.[31] In any case, this remarkable record of late-nineteenth-century theatrical technique may not have been dynamic enough to launch the company's new line of original productions. O'Neill's acting style and the sets were incompatible with popular conceptions of realism and had become old-fashioned, even in the theater. When finally released late in 1913, The Count of Monte Cristo received little attention even in the trade press. Not surprisingly, the Porter-Golden collaboration was not repeated.
The first Famous Players production to be distributed, The Prisoner of Zenda , featured matinee idol James Hackett in a film version of his well-known theatrical vehicle. Production began in December 1912 and encountered initial difficulties. As Adolph Zukor recalled, Porter gave the actors little direction beyond the marks that they had to hit in order to remain within camera range. After Hackett saw his performance on screen, he assumed a more active interest in shaping the project. The initial shooting was redone as "he began to help Porter map out the action."[32] And so a collaborative relationship once again emerged. The results were considered electrifying, and as one reviewer remarked, "We owe much of the excellence of this production to the harmonious working of masters on the speaking and silent stage."[33]
The Prisoner of Zenda , released in February 1913, was "more the visualization of the novel on which the play was based than a reproduction in moving pictures of the play itself." Four acts were transformed into over a hundred scenes. Location scenes and interiors were integrated in a way that gained applause from members of the theatrical profession who attended a preview. They found the film "unexpectedly successful," although some critics considered Por-
ter's camera to be too distant from the actors.[34] A modern viewing of the film likewise shows Porter and Hackett in full control of their mise-en-scène. Moving Picture World remarked, "With this four-act [i.e., four-reel] film the producers have leaped to the pinnacle of moving picture fame at one gigantic bound."[35] A large-scale marketing campaign began, with Edwin's youngest brother, E. M. Porter, the chief representative in Pittsburgh.[36]
The Prisoner of Zenda enabled Famous Players to acquire the services of such leading actors as Minnie Maddern Fiske and Lillie Langtry. Benjamin (B. P.) Schulberg, who had been put on the payroll back in late 1912, headed publicity and script editing—jobs he had performed effectively for Porter at Rex.[37] J. Searle Dawley left the Edison organization in the summer of 1913 and became Porter's collaborator. Actors and production personnel who had worked with Dawley and/or Porter soon found their way to the Famous Players' studio—including actors John Steppling and John Gordon, writer Jim Cogan, and set designer Richard Murphy. Laura Sawyer, who had become an Edison star, joined her old colleagues in August.[38] However, the most important individual attracted by the new company was Mary Pickford.
Porter directed Pickford's first feature, A Good Little Devil , which was shown to admiring exhibitors in early July. It was based on David Belasco's theatrical production of that name and had Pickford as one of the leads. Moving Picture World's praise was somewhat qualified. "That [the play] is one of Mr. Belasco's big successes is, alone, enough to make people want to see [the
film]. We think it as good, almost, as any fairy picture could be and, in the past, fairy pictures have been very popular, especially with children and their mothers."[39] In his memoirs, Zukor more forthrightly explained his reasons for postponing the film's release for nine months. Belasco had offered to help with the direction of the film, and Famous Players eagerly accepted. Publicity surrounding Belasco's involvement, particularly his agreement to appear in the film, heightened still further the company's already considerable prestige. Belasco's supervisory role backfired, however, for he limited the filmmakers' ability to adapt the play to motion pictures. Nonetheless, Zukor achieved one additional goal with A Good Little Devil : he signed Pickford to a one-year contract.
Porter had directed three films for Famous Players, and in two cases the results were somewhat problematic. Dawley joined Porter in directing the company's fourth effort, Tess of the D'Urbervilles , which featured Madame Fiske in an adaptation of her stage vehicle of that name. The risks were particularly high since Fiske had the right to destroy the negative if it did not meet with her satisfaction. The film, however, delighted her, in part because Porter's soft photography (and lack of close-ups) shed years off the middle-aged actress's appearance. The picture relied more closely on the book than the play, gener-
ating a large number of scenes. Tess of the D'Urbervilles was called "a revelation" and "glorious surprise," and Dawley was labeled "a master of photoplay arrangement."[40]
Porter and Dawley then directed Mary Pickford in In the Bishop's Carriage . Although purportedly based on the play of that name, it was, in fact, adapted by B. P. Schulberg from the original novel. Pickford plays a young thief who turns from a criminal life to become a successful stage actress. Although a former accomplice comes back to haunt her, she ultimately escapes his threatening grasp. Upon its debut, the film was promptly declared "a winner" and proved to be a highly successful showcase for Pickford's talents.[41] Porter and Dawley went on to co-direct Mary Pickford's next film, Caprice . "Mr. Porter has directed the whole with an admirable attention to detail and an artist's eye for beautiful scenes," the New York Telegraph later announced.[42] Pickford's acting and the blend of romance with comedy likewise received strong endorsements. Afterwards Porter remained in charge of the key Pickford unit, while his protégé was assigned to his own production group. Dawley was soon directing such pictures as Chelsea 7750, a detective thriller starring Laura Sawyer (Dawley also wrote the scenario).
Although Famous Players had been producing a feature film a month, these were stockpiled—as had been done at Rex. The company finally began to market its films systematically in September 1913, announcing that it would release three pictures at regular intervals each month, or "30 Famous Features" (most were four to six reels or 60 to 90 minutes each) per year—an unprecedented number and a return to the regular release schedule that Porter had disliked.[43] Beginning with Tess of the D'Urbervilles (September 1st) and In the Bishop's Carriage (September 10th),[44] Famous Players Film Company became the first film producer in the world to regularly release full-length feature films. Famous Players effectively launched a new era of motion picture practice.
Porter took Pickford to California for several months of filming in November 1913.[45] There they made at least two films under makeshift conditions. In the first, Hearts Adrift (released February 10, 1914), the Pickford character was cast away on a desert island. Although some critics praised the picture for its star's performance and for its dramatic photography, Variety contended that Famous Players had "slipped some cogs in this feature and the movie followers will no doubt pick flaws right and left."[46]Tess of the Storm Country (1914), one of Pickford's most successful films, came next. Variety declared: "Little Mary comes into her own and her work in this five-part movie production so far o'ershadows her work in the other films there's no comparison."[47]Moving Picture World told the trade that the picture "possesses the qualities that make for success."[48] Despite widespread accolades and a box-office bonanza (the film was so successful that Pickford would later remake it), Tess of the Storm Country shows a director who had not fully adopted contemporary American techniques of storytelling. The camera always remains at a distance and fails to make effective use of Pickford's enchanting and expressive face.
Tess of the Storm Country demonstrates the extent to which Porter and the film industry had moved away from a homosocial way of working and thinking. It was based on a novel by a woman (Grace Miller White), starred a woman, and appealed in large part to female spectators. This is obviously not the entire story (the scenario was by B. P. Schulberg, the direction Porter's), but production companies had developed a heterosocial mode of work that was strongly inflected by the influx of personnel from the theater. Within the industry women asserted a powerful presence in the years immediately prior to gaining the vote. Adolph Zukor found Mary Pickford and her mother astute both financially and in the subtleties of building the actress's career. "America's Sweetheart," moreover, was active behind the camera as well as in front of it. As the president of Famous Players later recalled: "Mary had her hand in everything, writing scripts, arguing with directors, making suggestions to other players. But everyone knew she did it for the benefit of the picture, and her ideas were helpful."[49] Pickford had assumed such a role in the past—at Independent Motion Picture Company she wrote and starred in The Dream (1911), directed by Thomas Ince.
Correspondingly, Porter had provided Lois Weber with similar opportunities. Although he was hardly a convert to feminism, working with women on an equal basis did not prove difficult for him. It would not be inappropriate to see Pickford as filling the void left by Porter's more formal collaborators, particularly on these two West Coast films.
After Porter and Pickford returned to New York, the filmmaker took Frederick Thomson as his co-director for The Spitfire (released June 20th)—a non-Pickford feature. Although the results were "certainly worthy of a place in any theater," Thomson was supplanted by Hugh Ford, an "international theatrical authority," who had joined Famous Players late in 1913.[50] These two worked together for the remainder of Porter's Famous Players career. Their first film, Such a Little Queen , was also Porter's last with Pickford; some of the picture's early scenes may have been shot during their California sojourn. This film likewise received wide acclaim. The co-directors continued to direct "in collaboration" on The Crucible , starring Marguerite Clark.[51]
Encouraged by its many successes, the Famous Players Film Company planned to make a series of dramas in Europe. Porter and Ford began this project by filming The Eternal City (1914), an eight-reel adaptation of Hall Caine's epic novel. Heavily inspired by the success of such Italian epics as Quo Vadis and Cabiria , they shot in the Vatican gardens, the Roman Forum, and the Coliseum. World War I soon curtailed their activities, and they finished their production in New York City. Opening at the Lyceum Theatre on December 27, 1914, the film's presentation was handled by S. F. Rothapfel, a showman whose lavish presentations matched the film's ambitions. The Dramatic Mirror called it "the finest dramatic work thus far made here or elsewhere" and noted its unparalleled use of spectacle—this just one month before The Birth of a Nation opened in New York.[52]Variety was almost as enthusiastic. During the course of 1915, another nine Porter/Ford productions were released to generally enthusiastic reviews.
Shortly before his directing career ended, Porter reminisced,
Looking back upon the past eighteen years in motion pictures—back to the day when no one knew what a motion picture was—and realizing the wonderful strides the industry has taken since then, I am more than impressed. I am thrilled. Artistically and mechanically the motion picture has forged its way forward until today it is recognized as the greatest amusement factor in the world and the greatest educational force in the history of civilization.[53]
Yet Porter's feelings must have been more mixed than he could publicly acknowledge. As feature films of four or more reels became the dominant product of the industry, pressures to standardize production intensified, and large staffs were even more stratified than they had been at the Edison Company. At Famous Players, the veteran filmmaker was considered something of an oddity.
His insistence on photographing productions was proving embarrassing to Adolph Zukor, who increasingly questioned his abilities. "Porter was, I have always felt, more of an artistic mechanic than a dramatic artist," the mogul later remarked.[54] Porter's predicament replayed his Edison experience; the falling out of favor he had suffered with the standardization of one-reel production recurred with features. His final break with Zukor came after the burning of the Famous Players studio at 213 West Twenty-sixth Street on September 11, 1915. Porter remained to supervise the hastened completion of a new studio in northern Manhattan and then left for South America after selling his one-quarter share in Famous Players for $800,000—an immense sum at the time.[55] Independent, small-scale feature production was too risky to attempt on his own. Perhaps because he lacked satisfactory alternatives, Porter retired from filmmaking.