DVD Review: The Champion-The Story of America’s First Film Town
During cinema’s early days at the turn of the 20th century, two locations were most noted for moving picture production. One, of course, was Hollywood, California. The other was Fort Lee, New Jersey. And while Hollywood film production continues to this day, the films made in Fort Lee have become history.
“The Champion” is a new DVD set from Milestone Video that contains a fascinating historical documentary on the films made in Fort Lee, as well as several films crossing various genres. The result is one of the most important DVD releases, one that is significant as history, for the aesthetic content of its selected films, and the informative documentaries that help broaden one’s understanding and appreciation of early cinema.
Much of the documentary is shot on location of the Champion Film Studio, which is the first studio made for producing films. Not only do we see what is left of the studio (before it was demolished completely in 2013), we are offered clips from films produced there back in the early part of the 20th century. This includes when Champion branched off into the Victor Film Company, built around the stardom of Florence Lawrence, who was allowed full creative control for her productions. That any of these films still survive over 100 years later is remarkable, and quite beneficial for the further study and understanding of film history.
The expansion of the studios in Fort Lee attracted such early moguls as Carl Laemmle and Samuel Goldwyn. It was where some of the early Keystone comedies were shot by Mack Sennett, featuring the likes of Mabel Normand and Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle. Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Rudolph Valentino all shot films in Fort Lee. African American producer Oscar Micheaux shot “Symbol of the Unconquered” there.
Everything from weather to labor costs resulted in Fort Lee losing its thriving filmmaking community to the gentler climate of California.
Along with the leading documentary, the first disc of this two-disc set offers the 1935 footage shot by historian Theodore Huff on the early studios in Fort Lee and their eventual demise. A documentary in and of itself, providing intertitles to the silent footage, it offers an already historical perspective to the period. This is followed by a series of important films:
The Indian Land Grab (1910)
Carefully designed costumes and location filmmaking present as much authenticity as cinema would allow at the time. The actions, rather than the intertitles, explain the narrative, which takes a more balanced approach at the white man’s taking over the Native American land. It does feature a white girl attracted to an Indian man, and a kiss between them, that would be considered controversial even decades later. The footage restored for this DVD is amazing as to its visual quality.
A Daughter of Dixie (1911)
The 50th anniversary of the Civil War resulted in a spate of Civil War themed dramas, and this is one of the best from that period. Impressively staged battle scenes, as well as a classic conflict between a confederate girl and her love of a union soldier are the highlights. When the woman hides her boyfriend and he is discovered by her brother, a confederate soldier, she holds a gun on her brother, allowing her lover to escape.
Not Like Other Girls (1912)
The first film produced by Florence Lawrence's own studio, Victor. Florence was given full creative control, and the movie deals with her as a spunky tomboy who chooses to not fit into the subservient stereotype of women at the time (they weren’t allowed to vote for another eight years). She plays pranks on her boyfriend (Owen Moore) including taking his car and tipping over his canoe on the lake, in order to show some level of defiance. Lawrence was an established star when she made this movie, and her bold character was well received by both male and female audiences at the time. While there are serious dramatic moments (the death of the father, the possible imprisonment of the male lead) there is also a lightness that augments the more serious scenes. For a film this early, the creative approach is pretty remarkable, and tells us we should know much more about Ms. Lawrence’s contribution to film history.
Flo’s Discipline (1912)
Florence Lawrence and Owen Moore are reunited in this fun comedy about a boys school where the students are noisy and undisciplined, with teacher Owen a total pushover who lets
them raise hell. Florence takes over, fires Owen, and starts disciplining the boys. She’s pretty rough. When she cancels recess, they sneak out and run past her, waving their caps defiantly. She sprays them with a garden hose then locks them in an ice house to freeze! What is interesting about this very early comedy is that Lawrence plays a character that again defies the female stereotype of the period and shows strength and dominance. That it was her creative vision further tells us that we should know more about her work. The print quality on his movie in the DVD set is absolutely incredible.
Marked Cards (1913)
Tough drama of early cinema has a young banker longing to get married, but he doesn’t have the money to do so. He gets involved in a card game, and loses what little he has. He steals from the bank to get the money. Discovering the card game was crooked, the man puts the gambler into a room with large playing cards, some of which are electrified. The gambler ends up dead. A cinematically clever act of revenge, indeed. The nuanced performance of Gladden James in the lead role is impressive.
The aforementioned are all found on Disc One of the two disc set. Already a wealth of information and historically significant entertainment, it is followed by Disc Two which features the following:
The Danger Game (1918)
This is a careful 61 minute reconstruction of Samuel Goldwyn’s production that was shot in Fort Lee, supervised by Fort Lee Film Commission's Richard Koszarski and Rutgers University student Glenn Edridge, accessing all existing footage. Billed as a romantic comedy, the film features Madge Kennedy and Tom Moore (brother of Owen Moore). The story of a rich girl’s interest in experiencing a different life (which causes her to commit random crimes) is an interesting concept for the period and it is commendable that the film has been restored as good as current materials allow.
A Grocery Clerk’s Romance (1912)
This Fort Lee film is a Keystone comedy that is from the wonderful CineMuseum collection. The amazing pictoral clarity allows for us to better appreciate a lot of character nuance that was lost when viewing the unrestored prints of these same movies. This is especially evident with comedian Ford Sterling, whose bombastic approach became somewhat out of vogue when Chaplin came along and redefined how screen comedy was presented. But Sterling’s performances had their own areas of subtlety, and his performance in “A Grocery Clerk’s Romance” is a good example. he plot has a lazy husband (James C. Morton) sitting around while his wife slaves over a washboard. Ford comes along and argues with the husband, who leaves the premises. Ford, who is smitten with the wife, has arranged for thugs to kidnap the husband, tie him up, and blow him up with bombs.
Meanwhile, Ford endears himself to the wife by helping her with the chores. One of the children sees his father tied up with a bomb about to go off, so he runs for help. Ford feigns concern and gathers some neighbors to rescue the husband, timing it right so that the explosion will have gone off by the time they get there. The bomb does go off, but the husband manages to escape ahead of time. He runs back just in time to interrupt the quickie marriage ceremony of his wife and Ford. A film like “A Grocery Clerk’s Romance” was a comic variation on melodrama, with a man as the victim, with no hero to save him (he had to save himself). Sennett would explore comic variations on melodrama often as he continued to produce films.
Robin Hood (1912)
Éclair studios was the first permanent studio in Fort Lee and in 1912 they made the first screen version of the Robin Hood story. This was a longer film, that took greater advantage of the cinematic process than other films from this early period, including camera setups, a succession of shots, subtler and more nuanced close-ups for the performances, period effects, even a color tinted picture. The action sequences are also impressive for this early in cinema’s infancy. Some of the footage discovered and restored is breathtaking.
It is difficult to articulate the level of importance this DVD set has. It is an absolute must for all libraries, research centers, and anyone with even a marginal interest in motion picture history. It is filled with important footage, enlightening information, and fascinating cinematic achievement from a period that is too often overlooked, even by some alleged film buffs.
The Champion-A Story of America’s First Film Town is available for purchase here.