Ocean Waif (1917)

The mid-1910s was a virtual golden age for women directors, with over a dozen women working behind the camera. Alice Guy-Blaché was coming to the end of her 20+ years as a film pioneer while Ruth Ann Baldwin was at the beginning of her all-too-brief career as writer/director. THE OCEAN WAIF and 49-17 are both feminist parodies hidden under a veneer of propriety, featuring pure young women who are menaced by evil men and saved by good ones. Alice Guy-Blaché (French, 1873-1968), the world s first woman film director, made films for Gaumont in Paris (1896-1907), then had her own studio, the Solax Company, in Fort Lee, New Jersey (1910-1914). After Solax ceased production, she became a director for hire and went to work for The International Film Service, owned by William Randolph Hearst. The plot of THE OCEAN WAIF adheres closely to the Hearst agenda: a romantic story, plenty of pathos but no brutality, a likeable hero and an innocent young woman, and a suspenseful plot with a dramatic and happy ending ( the Mary Pickford school of narrative ). Guy-Blaché s parody of the Pygmalion-type love story gives equal screen time to each lover s point of view, but also skewers conventional class tropes. Doris Kenyon stars in the title role of an abused young woman who finds safety and eventually love in the arms of a famous novelist. Ruth Ann Baldwin was a journalist who joined Universal as a screenwriter in 1913. She wrote for the serial The Black Box in 1915, did a stint as an editor, and was tapped by the studio to direct. 49-17 is a charming and suspenseful western parody about a millionaire who hires a Wild West theatrical troupe to relive his past as a miner forty niner. Every sacred western cow is turned on its ear: the patriarchal representative of the law, the Young Man, the Gambler, the saloon brawl, and the Woman. Jean Hersholt gives a powerful performance early in his notable career as the taciturn desperado. Despite the success of 49-17, Baldwin s career as director was over by 1920. Product Description

A nice `Early Women Filmmakers' Double

This DVD is one of three in a series honoring the first ladies of filmmaking, and showcases two quite different films from the mid 1910s. "The Ocean Waif" has been carefully restored so that we can enjoy a light-hearted romance directed by the world's first female director, Alice Guy-Blaché, who began her distinguished career in France at the very start of moving pictures, namely 1896, before later going to the US where she directed this particular film. Although a few scenes show some deterioration and small sections of film footage are missing here and there, the story is still easy enough to follow. It is a standard `feel good' story of this period, about an unlucky orphan girl running away from her abusive foster father and finding happiness with her true love in the end, but not before some dramas in the plot with a few twists, and a dose of comedy to balance things out. It is sweet and charming, and a lovely representation of this genre from the mid 1910s.

Equally as enjoyable, and in better condition, is the second film on this DVD, "49-17", referring to the date 1849, but set in the year it was filmed, 1917. Another competent lady, Ruth Ann Baldwin, wrote the screenplay and directed this pseudo Wild West action adventure with all the elements of a great story: an unsolved mystery, interesting characters who make up the '49 Wild West troupe to recreate the past and entertain a millionaire, the suspicious gambler - impressively played by Jean Hersholt early in his career - a romance and a few twists at the end to reveal what's behind it all. It is well-balanced and a pleasure to watch, and its unusual story and overall good quality makes it a particularly fine example of silent films from this period. Both films have standard piano accompaniment, and the picture quality for the most part is also good, but above all, it is a nice tribute to the women who contributed to the development of the early film industry.
May 20, 2008

A Tantalizing Tidbit From Alice Guy-Blache'.

Alice Guy-Blache' (1873-1968) was not only the world's first woman film director but quite possibly the first film director period. Her work As Alice Guy for Gaumont predates Georges Melies by several months although her earliest film LA FEE AUX CHOUX/THE CABBAGE FAIRY (1896) no longer survives. After coming to America in 1907 with her husband Herbert Blache', she starts up her own studio in 1910 and opens her major studio called Solax in Fort Lee N.J. in 1912. Among the people who work for her is a young actress/writer named Lois Weber who would also develop into a major director (see HYPOCRITES also in this FIRST LADIES series from Kino).
THE OCEAN WAIF survives as a fragment of the original. It is aproximately 41 minutes long and suffers from nitrate decomposition in many places. However the skill of Alice Guy-Blache' still shines through in the restrained performances from the actors (remember this is 1916) and the strong visual composition of the shots. Sadly this is her only feature film to survive and it's incomplete. There are still several of her short films but for someone so important to film history, it's a sad legacy and a sad comment on how the films of independent producer-directors were treated. As an example of that, the other film on the disc Ruth Ann Baldwin's 49-17 which was made for Universal in 1917, survives in virtually pristine condition. It has the added attraction of an early film appearance from the great Danish born actor and later humanitarian Jean Hersholt.
Thanks are due to producer Jessica Rosner, Kino International, and pianist Jon Mirsalis for putting together and then releasing this FIRST LADIES: EARLY AMERICAN FILMMAKERS series first on VHS in 2000 and now on DVD in 2008. They look as good as they possibly can on DVD and are indispensible to students of film, people interested in women pioneers, and of course silent film afficionados. Rounding out the series is Dorothy Davenport Reid's THE RED KIMONA. To find out more about Alice Guy-Blache' check out Alison McMahan's thorough biography of her, ALICE GUY-BLACHE': LOST VISIONARY OF THE CINEMA April 22, 2008

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