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The Greatest Entertainers from The Ed Sullivan Show
Intolerance
Silent film director D.W. Griffith's biggest, most ambitious
spectacle uses stories from different times and places to illustrate
humanity’s intolerance of religious differences throughout the ages.
The most visually impressive of these chronicles is the fall of
Babylon, for which Griffith built the largest sets in Hollywood and
filled them with thousands of extras; there's also Christ's crucifixion
and the massacre of the Heugenots in 15th century France. The most
emotionally involving tale is the "modern" one, about a poor girl (Mae
Marsh) whose life is repeatedly ruined by the zealotry of social
reformers. The image of a mother (Lillian Gish) rocking her child in a
cradle ("the uniter of the here and hereafter") links the stories. At
one point, angels reach down from heaven to stop soldiers in midbattle,
making it clear that Griffith intended this follow-up to THE BIRTH OF A
NATION as a message of global peace and love (and an answer to his
critics’ accusations of racism). For a nation poised to enter World War
I, this was perhaps the wrong message, and INTOLERANCE opened to mixed
reviews and poor attendance. It is now rightly recognized as a unique
work of cinematic art.
The Sheik
This classic silent film stars silver
screen legend Rudolph Valentino. Despite her countrymen's warning
against travelling into the desert alone, Lady Diana rides out onto the
sandy plain with only one guide to protect her. Miles into the desert,
she's captured by Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan. Bewitched by her beauty, the
Sheik keeps the British aristocrat locked away in a love nest hoping to
make her his concubine. He tries to win her affections, but Lady Diana
protects her virtue. When a distinguished Frenchman who befriended the
Sheik in Paris comes to visit, Diana realizes her captor's not the
uncivilized brute she mistook him for. Suddenly a tragic accident
leaves Sheik Hassan seriously wounded. Will this tragedy help Diana
recognize her true feelings for him? This is the picture that cemented
Valentino's superstar status |
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