Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood

26. The Little American

26 The Little American An Artcraft Picture. Produced by the Mary Pickford Film Corporation. Director : Cecil B. DeMille. Original story and scenario by jeanie Macpherson. Art director: Wilfred Buckland. Photography: Alvin Wyckoff. Assistant directors: Charles Whittaker, Walter N. Sherer, and Cullen B. "Hezie" Tate Picture started: April 13, 1917. Picture completed: May 22, 1917. Length: 5,926 feet (six reels). Cost: $166,949.16 (includes Mary Pickford's salary of $86,666.66 charged to the picture). Released: july 1917. Gross: $446,236.88 Cast: Mary Pickford (Angela More), james Neill (Senator More), Ben Alexander (Bobby More), Guy Oliver (Frederick von Austreim), Edythe Chapman (his American wife), jack Holt (Karl von Austreim, their son), Raymond Hatton (Count jules de Destin), Hobart Bosworth (German colonel), Lillian Leighton (Angela's great aunt), Lila Lee (French maid), Horace B. Carpenter, Ramon Samaniegos [Novarro], and George Field (wounded French soldiers), Walter Long (a German captain), De Witt jennings, and Robert Gordon Ina nation ofimmigrants, popular sentiment was divided as World War I raged on the European continent. Americans were outraged by reported German atrocities in Belgium and by the sinking ofthe Lusitaniabut the issues were not clear-cut. Reports of atrocities were often exaggerated, and suspicion lingered (later confirmed) that the passenger ship Lusitania was also carrying munitions bound for Britain. A substantial segmentofthe population was hostile toward Britain, butmost Americans looked on the war as a family squabble between blood-related monarchs and felt the world would be better off if monarchy were abolished as an institution among men. As a neutral nation, the United States reserved its right to trade in nonmilitary goods with all the belligerents. The Germans, however, felt it was in their military interest to stem the flow of all supplies to Britain. Earlier in the war, the United States protested Great Britain's interference with American shipping in the British blockade of Germany; but when Germany launched a campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare against any and all ships bound for Britain, President Woodrow Wilson felt compelled to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Germany 107 108 / C~cil B. D~Mill~'s Hollywood on April 2, 1917. When Congress passed the formal declaration on April 6, 1917, The Little American was ready to go before the cameras. Rushed into release within six weeks of its completion, The Little American was one of the first films to deal seriously with American involvement in the conflict. Jeanie Macpherson's story is a strange blend offlag-waving, sadism, and divine intervention. Although clearly part of the "hate the Hun" cycle that became common for war films, The Little American retains a pre-war sense of American neutrality that later films ignore, and it presents afair (ifexaggerated) sense ofthe American psyche on the eve of the nation's entry into the "War to End All Wars." Angela More is an American girl who is courted by Jules de Destin, a Frenchman, and Karl von Austreim, a German American. Both men are friends, but Angela's romantic interest centers on the German. On the eve of the European war, her great aunt, who lives in France, summons Angela for a visit. War breaks out, and Angela's French and German suitors return to Europe to enlist. Angela receives her aunt's letter and sails for France on the Veritania. En route, the ship is torpedoed and sinks. Angela is rescued and makes it to France, but on arriving at her aunt's chateau she finds that her relative has passed away and the German army is advancing on the village. Angela attempts to leave, but the retreating French army asks to tum the chateau into a hospital, and she remains to care for the wounded. She also agrees to the French setting up a reconnaissance post at the house. Later, the Germans commandeer the chateau as a field headquarters, announcing their intention by firing a volley of rounds into the house. On her first encounter with the German army, Angela resolutely, if naively, stands her ground, holding a small American flag and proclaiming her neutrality in subtitles like "Gentlemen, you are breaking into the home of an American citizen. I must ask you to leave." During the occupation of the chateau, the Germans chase Angela into a darkened room. She is nearly raped by von Austreim, who, thinking she went down with the Veritania, does not recognize her in the dark. When the lights go on he realizes his mistake and...