The attack on the Apostle of Virginia

Movie
German title	The attack on the Apostle of Virginia
Original title	Tol'able David
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1921
length	99 minutes
Rod
Director	Henry King
script	Edmund Goulding , ; Henry King
production	Henry King for ; Inspiration Pictures and First National
camera	Henry Cronjager
cut	W. Duncan Mansfield
occupation
	Richard Barthelmess : David Kinemon; Gladys Hulette : Esther Hatburn; Walter P. Lewis : Iscah Hatburn; Ernest Torrence : Luke Hatburn; Ralph Yearsley : Saul Hatburn; Forrest Robinson : Grandfather Hatburn; Laurence Eddinger : Mr. John Gault; Marion Abbott : Mother Kinemon; Edmund Gurney : Father Kinemon; Warner Richmond : Allen Kinemon; Patterson Dial : Rose Kinemon; Henry Hallam : Country Doctor;

Tol'able David .

The attack on the Virginiapost (Original title: Tol'able David ) is an American Western - melodrama directed by Henry King in 1921 with Richard Barthelmess in the lead role. The film was a great success back then and is now considered a classic of silent films . In 2007 the film was listed as "historically, culturally or aesthetically significant" in the National Film Registry .

action

In rural West Virginia , surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains , young David Kinemon grew up as the son of a farming family. During the day he roams with his dog through meadows and forests, as he has no duties yet. Nevertheless, David finally wants to take on an important task and absolutely wants to be seen as a man by his family and friends. He particularly tries to gain a reputation with the beautiful Esther Hatburn, who lives with her grandfather in the house next door. Everyone reminds David that he is a decent boy ( tol'able boy , hence the film title), but not yet a man. In contrast to this are his father, the farmer, and his older brother Allen, who is considered the strongest man in the village and, as the village's stagecoach, bears a great deal of responsibility. David would like to be as brave and important as his brother and also drive the stagecoach.

The tranquil tranquility of the village is disturbed when the three criminal Hatburns - the father Iscah and his sons Luke and Saul - enter the village. They escaped from prison in the neighboring state and are now looking for shelter with their relatives, old grandfather Hatburn and granddaughter Esther. The two are physically weaker and cannot defend themselves against three strong men, which is why they have to let the bandits live with them. Soon Esther is sexually molested by Luke Hatburn, the most brutal of the three. One day the Hatburn criminals shoot David's dog, who is currently absent. David's older brother Allen happened to be passing by in the stagecoach and observed the incident. The Hatburns all promise that he will take revenge for the dog's death, but a heavy stone is thrown from behind by the Hatburns. The doctor notes that Allen, who was previously so strong - who has just had a child with his wife Rose - will remain a cripple for the rest of his life . Ailing father Kinemon seeks revenge, but from the excitement suffers a stroke and dies.

David longs for revenge on the Hatfields, especially since many villagers would otherwise brand him as a weakling. However, his loving mother prevents David from taking revenge and reminds him that he now has to earn the living of the family. The Kinemons have to give up their farm and move to a poorer house in the center of the village. Esther wants to support David in his grief, but he rejects her because she is a Hatfield. Only after a while, Esther and David reconcile at a dance party. Meanwhile, David tries to get the post coachman job with Mr. Gault, the most important man in the village, like his brother before, but he is rejected by Mr. Gault as still too young. At least David gets a job in Mr. Gault's shop. One day, however, the new coachman appears drunk, whereupon David is given his chance to drive the stagecoach. He does his job well, but loses the mailbag on the way back. Luke Hatburn finds the mailbag lying in the street and takes it. David goes to the Hatburns and demands that they hand over the mail.

The three Hatfields refuse and shoot David in the arm. Then there is a shootout in which David can defeat the three actually superior Hatfields. The longer fight between David and the gigantic Luke is compared to the fight between David and Goliath . Meanwhile, Esther Hatfield has escaped from Luke, who wanted to rape her, with the last of her strength to the village and said that David had been killed. David's mother present is upset. The village community comes together and wants to go to the Hatfield house. But there an injured and exhausted, but victorious David rides his stagecoach into the village, the mailbag with him. It is now clear to the village that David is no longer just “tol'able”, but a heroic man. He also wins Esther's heart.

Production history

The film is based on a short story published in a magazine in 1919 by the then well-known author Joseph Hergesheimer (1880–1954). Hollywood's best-known director David Wark Griffith was supposed to direct the film and was already working on the script, but then had other projects. Richard Barthelmess , who had previously become known as the male lead actor in two Griffith films, bought the film rights from his mentor. Instead, Henry King became the director, producer, and screenwriter of the film. Henry King was predestined for the story: he was born as a farmer's son in a village in Virginia in 1886, so he had the same origins as the people in the film. He grew up in a time when there weren't any cars, phones, or electricity. With his origins, King was also able to explain the critically asked question why David was risking his life because of a simple mailbag: “People don't know that in a small town it is a responsibility to drive US mail - the greatest responsibility that was there . ”At that time the post meant the connection between the province and the world.

Leading actor Barthelmess (left), author Hergesheimer (center) and director King (right) during filming

Fittingly, the film was not shot in Hollywood, as was customary at the time, but on the location in Virginia, mainly in the remote village of Blue Grass. The journey of the film crew from New York to Blue Grass, where there were no cars at the time, was sometimes adventurous and took ten hours. When the film crew passed a village, one story said, all the lights went out - the locals mistook the film crew for a group of bandits. Richard Barthelmess judged that in the American hinterland there is "primitiveness as one cannot imagine". Nevertheless, the six-week filming in Blue Grass ran smoothly and the locals welcomed the film shoot as a welcome excitement. Some residents even took on minor roles alongside professional actors or appeared as extras in the crowd scenes.

By shooting on location with the local residents as extras, King gave the film authenticity and atmosphere. In his essay Tol'able David and the American Heritage from the autumn of 1982, film historian Walter E. Copperidge named it as the most important example of Bucolic poetry in film. The film sometimes shows pre-industrial, rural America in an almost documentary way, for example by showing evening and morning prayers in families or the daily waiting for the stagecoach.

Awards

Tol'able David won the Photoplay Award for Best Film of 1921. The film was listed in the National Film Registry in 2007 as "historically, culturally or aesthetically significant" .

reception

Tol'able David was released in US cinemas at the end of 1921, where the film, which was then made with a budget of 86,000 US dollars, became one of the box-office hits. The film was a hit with both critics and audiences. In Germany, the film was first shown in cinemas in May 1924 under the title The attack on the Virginiapost .

Carl Sandburg called the film a "masterpiece" in the Chicago Daily News ; Robert E. Sherwood even wrote in Life magazine: "It is the first movie that reaches real size without relying on any spectacular effect." Photoplay called it "one of the few film tragedies of uncompromising power" that be close to life. Barthelmess reached “tragic heights” with his performance and a bigger actor than Barthelmess had never existed in the film before. The Motion Picture News also loved the film; Henry King got everything out of a simple story and made an exciting film of which "only a few don't feel its power". The characters are interesting and the cast excellent, and the mountains of Virginia in the background bring a perfect atmosphere to the film. The Exhibitors Herald found, “An extremely interesting and well-developed drama drama that deserves the most lavish praise. In directing, subtitles , good acting and clear attention to detail, it stands out as a superb cinema craft. The camera work is excellent throughout and Henry King's direction leaves nothing to be desired. "

Movie poster for Tol'able David (1921)

The reviews were so unanimously positive that Richard Barthelmess became the biggest young star in Hollywood alongside Rudolph Valentino and Henry King also rose to the top ranks of Hollywood directors. Both were later to make other films together.

A number of Kings directing colleagues were also enthusiastic about the film in public. Mary Pickford called Tol'able David one of her favorite films in 1924: “When I first saw this film, I felt like I was not looking at a picture game; but that I actually witnessed the tragedy of a family that I had known all my life ”. Russian director Vsevolod Pudowkin viewed Tol'able David as a masterpiece and took it as an example in his writings of how important an intense and authentic atmosphere is for the film. Pudowkin took the apparently unimportant scene from the film, in which boys and men played marbles with each other on a summer afternoon in the village square, as an example: In this scene, the viewer felt a kind of “it must have been” about the past. Film historian David Robinson wrote in 1968 that many Soviet directors also appreciated the film because of its film editing. In 1963, John Ford chose Tol'able David among his ten favorite films.

A recent criticism of the film comes from the Museum of Modern Art : "King imbued the film with an affection for rural life that is untainted by false sentimentality and which is based on his own observations of American types of people (...)" Tol'able David applies today as a smaller classic of American silent film, even if the film is no longer known to the general public.

In the horror film Scream when the Tingler Comes (1959), a cinema audience sees Tol'able David while the Tingler escapes.

Adaptations

In 1927, the comedy seemed little brother ( The Kid Brother ) with Harold Lloyd in the lead role. The plot of Lloyd's film is based closely on Tol'able David , with The Kid Brother of course emphasizing the comic aspects of the story a lot more. The Kid Brother is considered a major film in itself and is seen half as a tribute and half as a parody of this film. 1930 came talkies - remake Tol'able David directed by John G. Blystone with Richard Cromwell as David in theaters. However, the remake could not build on the success of the original film.

Web links

Commons : Tol'able David - collection of images, videos and audio files

The attack on the Virginiapost in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Extensive essay on the film by Walter Copperidge

Individual evidence

↑ Tol'able David at Turner Classic Movies

^ Newspaper report on the film from 1921

↑ Small essay by Copperidge

↑ Great essay by Copperidge

↑ Small essay on the film

^ Publication dates for Tol'able David at the Internet Movie Database

^ Sandburg, Carl; Arnie Bernstein, The Movies are: Carl Sandburg's Film Reviews and Essays, 1920–1928. Lake Claremont Press, 2000. pp. 101-103. ISBN 978-1-893121-05-8 .