THE VIRGINIAN (1914)

After co-directing THE SQUAW MAN/’14 (with Oscar Apfel), Cecil B. DeMille took his first solo directing credit (‘Picturized by’) on this follow-up Western also starring Dustin Farnum. A quick learning curve is noticeable; better pacing, quicker scenes, more edits & shot variety, parallel story & character development ( Cowboys out West/Piano teacher in The East), and real grandeur in capturing & dramatically using the scenic beauty of the land. Check out the camera placement when the train carrying the little lady comes to town. As perfect a composition as you could find. Credit to Alvin Wyckoff, DeMille’s new cinematographer who’d work with him thru the early ‘20s, the only period where C. B.’s filmmaking didn’t look behind-the-times. Owen Wister’s oft-filmed story (the one where the hero tells the bad guy ‘When you say that, smile’) has a cow-punching lead with a tragicomic best pal who hangs for cattle rustling, before it goes on to find love with an Eastern lady come West to be schoolmarm. Just about everything you could want from the form even if DeMille’s 1914 presentation has its limits. (The available Passport-DVD edition is no more than watchable.) And in addition to the film’s obvious historical interest, it’s generally well-cast with the unfortunate exception of leading man Dustin Farnum, a stagy actor who played to the gallery, and physically what was once called ‘a fine figure of a man,’ meaning big, none too pretty & running to fat.

DOUBLE-BILL: Victor Fleming’s Early Talkie 1929 version, with Gary Cooper, Walter Huston & Richard Arlen is memorable, if on the stately side. The hanging sequence unforgettable. And, of course, there’s Buster Keaton’s great moment in GO WEST/’25 with Buster on the receiving end of the famous order to ‘Smile when you say that!’ Quite the conundrum!