Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood

9. The Unafraid

9 Th~ Unafraid Produced by the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company for Paramount release. Director: Cecil B. DeMille. Scenario by Cecil B. DeMille, from the novel by Eleanor M. Ingram. Art director: Wilfred Buckland. Photography: Alvin Wyckoff Picture started: January 19, 1915. Picture finished: February 12, 1915. Length: 4,008 feet (four reels). Cost: $14,226.50. Released: April I, 1915. Gross: $63,944.02 Cast: Rita Jolivet (Delight Warren), House Peters (Stefan Balsic), Page Peters (Michael Balsic), Billy Elmer Uack McCarty), Larry Peyton (Danilo Lesendra), Theodore Roberts (secret agent ofthe "Dual Empire"), Marjorie Daw (Irenya), Raymond Hatton (valet), Gertrude Kellar (Countess Novna), James Neill (Delight Warren's uncle), Jane Darwell (her aunt), and Allan Garcia Uoseph) Committed to making thirty feature films a year for Paramount, the Lasky Company gave Director-General DeMille the responsibility for supervising the entire output of the studio. To say that DeMille took his responsibilities seriously would be an understatement. In 1915 he wrote scripts for eighteen of the thirty Lasky pictures and directed no fewer than thirteen of them himself, as well as parts of several others. With the Great War raging in Europe, American audiences took an interest in Serbia and other exotic, little-known principalities of eastern Europe. Part of the attraction of Eleanor Ingram's 1913 novel The Unafraid was its setting-the rugged, mountainous Montenegro, which would soon be absorbed into the state of Yugoslavia.The story revolves around an Austro-Hungarian plot to subvert and annex the principality of Montenegro. Because the United States was still neutral in 1915, Austria -Hungary is referred to euphemistically throughout the film as "The Dual Empire." Playboy prince Michael Balsic (Page Peters) is bribed by an agent of the Dual Empire (Theodore Roberts) to start a revolution in Montenegro. Michael's brother Stefan (House Peters) suspects his brother's treachery , but there is little he can do to stop it. In Paris, Michael squanders the money he was paid. His life threatened by the Dual Empire, Michael 41 42 / Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood determines to marry Delight Warren (Rita Jolivet), a rich American heiress , with the intention of using her money to cover his losses. To thwart his brother, Stefan kidnaps Delight and forces her to marry him. In the time-honored tradition of the romantic novel, her initial revulsion turns to love when she is made to realize Michael's evil intentions. The central conflict in The Unafraid-two brothers (or, in other stories , best friends), one not entirely good, the other not completely evil, and both vying for the same woman-was a theme that appealed to DeMille, and he used it often in films such as The Ten Commandments (1923), Union Pacific (1939), North West Mounted Police (1940), and Reap the Wild Wind (1942). Wilfred Buckland's art direction in The Unafraid shows a growing sophistication, although many indications remain of the great economy with which the Lasky features ofthe period were made. After the kidnapping , for example, Delight Warren and her captor ride to a church where the forced marriage will take place. The coach pulls up and stops on a dirt road in medium shot. Delight and Stefan step out. Next, DeMille cuts to inside the sanctuary where the priest will perform the ceremony. The exterior of the church is never shown, saving the building of an expensive but relatively unimportant set. This sort of economy is lost on modem audiences who have come to expect obligatory establishing shots. Although the Lasky Company continued to walk a precarious financial tightwire, the studio showed signs of growing prosperity as the Hollywood facilities underwent almost continuous capital improvement. Sometime before the production of The Rose ofthe Rancho, a long row ofwood-frame dressing rooms was erected, followed by rapid expansion and improvement of stage facilities. By the time The Unafraid went before the camera in January 1915, the Lasky studio had a large new glass-covered stage that allowed for both better lighting control and filming during bad weather. As early as February 1914, Cecil B. DeMille bought Harry Revier's interest in the Bums and Revier studio and his interest in the ground lease for $2,250. Shortly thereafter, L.L. Bums also exited the picture and DeMille enteredinto athree-yearlease agreement with Jacob Stem, owner of the property, that apparently superseded the sublease with Bums and Revier.! Across town, FrankGarbutt soughtto shore up his faltering Bosworth, Inc., by creating the Oliver Morosco Photoplay Company. Like...