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8. The Warrens of Virginia
- The University Press of Kentucky
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8 Th~ Warr~ns of Virginia Produced by the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company for Paramount release. Director: Cecil B. DeMille. Scenario: William C. deMille, from his own play. Photography: Alvin Wyckoff. Art director: Wilfred Buckland Picture started: December 5, 1914. Picture completed: January 9, 19 I5. Length: 4,178 feet (five reels). Cost: $28,359.59. Released: February 15, 1915. Gross: $85,769.96 Cast: James Neill (General Warren), Mabel Van Buren (his wife), Blanche Sweet (Agatha Warren), Page Peters (her brother), House Peters (Ned Burton), Marjorie Daw (Betty Warren), Gerald Ward (Bob Warren), and Mildred Harris Cecil B. DeMille had a long association with The Warrens oJVirginia before he brought it to the screen. He played a leading role in David Belasco's 1907 Broadway production of his brother William's original play, which was loosely based on their grandfather's exploits in the Civil War. Even though Belasco had produced the play, The Warrens oJ Virginia was not part of the ten-play Lasky-Belasco agreement. The Lasky Feature Play Company carried the play on its books as an asset at the time The Squaw Man was in production, but whether Lasky paid for the rights or William deMille offered them to the company as an in-kind investment is not known. In his 1939 autobiography, Hollywood Saga, William belittled his movie adventure, claiming that when offered a 25 percent interest in the Lasky Company he flatly turned down the proposition because he didn't feel he could invest good money in one of his brother's harebrained schemes. Later, when he realized the error of his ways, William condescended to come to Hollywood for three months to lend his talents to the "flickers." But in 1939 William deMille was out of the picture business, and his Broadway triumphs were long forgotten. His autobiography was an attempt to justify his life's work. It cannot be determined whether or not he was actually offered an interest in the Lasky Company, but when he finally came to the movies he certainly hoped 37 38 / Cedi B. DeMille's Hollywood his career would last longer than three months. On September 17, 1914, he wrote to his brother: Dear c.: ... by the time this reaches you, I will be on the train bound for Hollywood. I suppose Sam [Goldfish] and Jesse [Lasky] have written you that they have arranged for me to join your forces. I am coming, prepared to jump right in and if I fit stay a year or two.... I expect to leave New York on Tuesday the 22d, on the Santa Fe limited, which should bring me to Hollywood, I think, on Saturday evening. Best wishes and love from us all, Billyl On his first day in Hollywood, William deMille was pressed into service as a bit-actor in The Rose ofthe Rancho, but he quickly settled down to writing and was put to work adapting Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson's Cameo Kirby for Oscar Apfel to direct. After he'd proven his ability in the screen trade, William set about converting The Warrens ofVirginia into scenario form. In 1910, with the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil War approaching, the movies became fascinated with tales of what was still known in the North as the War of the Rebellion and in the South as the War between the States. Hundreds of Civil War films poured out of the studios, from the somber The House with Closed Shutters (Biograph, 1910) to the raucous Cohen Saves the Flag (Keystone, 1913), but the cycle reached its peak with such films as The Birth ofa Nation (Epoch Producing Corp., 1915) and The Coward (Triangle-KayBee, 1915). The Warrens of Virginia was the Lasky Feature Play Company's contribution to the cycle, and no expense was spared in bringing it to the screen. The cost was nearly double that of any previous Lasky production -in part because the film required a large number of extras and period costumes. But for all the extra money that went into the picture, little attempt was made to enlarge the action of the stage play. In The Birth of a Nation D.W. Griffith took a bold cinematic approach to Thomas Dixon's stage script for The Clansman. The battle of [3.237.186.170] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:47 GMT) The Warrens of Virginia / 39 Petersburg and the ride of the Klan were played for spectacle, and the action...