World Famous Comics: Hal Skelly Abraham Lincoln (1931) / The Struggle (1931)
Hal Skelly Abraham Lincoln (1931) / The Struggle (1931)
Starring: Walter Huston, Hal Skelly Directed By: D.W. Griffith Average Rating: Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Original recording remastered Label: KINO INTERNATIONAL Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: November 18, 2008 Running Time: 186 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1930
The silent cinema s renowned pioneer, D.W. Griffith, directed only two sound features: ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1930) and THE STRUGGLE (1931), both collected on this DVD. Returning to the historic era of his greatest success, Griffith paid homage to the sixteenth President in this moving drama starring Walter Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre). Focusing on Lincoln s personal tragedies, as well as his great accomplishments, Griffith s film depicts the American icon with a sensitivity and grace rivaled only by John Ford s Young Mr. Lincoln. A departure from the historical super-productions for which he was known, THE STRUGGLE was an intimate drama of an American everyman who falls victim to the debilitating affliction of alcoholism. No stranger to the destructive influence of drink, Griffith pulls no punches in dramatizing its potential horrors, especially in the terrifying climax when Jimmie, tormented by delirium tremors, attacks his young daughter (Edna Hagan) in the hovel that was once their happy home. ABRAHAM LINCOLN has been mastered in HD from the Museum of Modern Art s 35mm restoration of Griffith s historical epic. THE STRUGGLE was remastered in HD from a 35mm archive print from the Raymond Rohauer Collection.
- Mastered in HD from 35mm archive prints
- Introduction to The Birth of a Nation, featuring Walter Huston and D.W. Griffith on the set of Abraham Lincoln
- Lincoln s assassination: comparison of scenes in Abraham Lincoln and The Birth of a Nation
- Gallery of photos and original pressbook for Abraham Lincoln
ABRAHAM LINCOLN US 1930 B&W 93 Min. Full-frame (1.20:1)
THE STRUGGLE US 1931 B&W 93 Min. Full-frame (1.33:1)
Finally, Griffith's final films on dvd "Abraham Lincoln" was D.W. Griffith's first sound picture and the title says it all. While boring in places, it's still one of the best screen biographies of the first Republican President and shows that Griffith wasn't a spent force. This film has been on several low-budget dvd's for years, but this Kino edition (of course) beats them all. I actually felt as though I were watching "Abraham Lincoln" for the first time viewing this great print. But for as good, even great, as "Abraham Lincoln" is, it's the other film here, 1931's "The Struggle", that makes this an absolute must-buy. "The Struggle" turned out to be Griffith's second and sadly final sound movie and revolves around a generally likable but emotionally weak family man who succumbs to alcoholism. The story is good (reuniting the great director with writer Anita Loos), but it's the personal investment from the director that imbues "The Struggle" with it's greatness. Although a big flop at the time - apparently in the early years of the Great Depression few wanted to see such an unflinching and stark depiction of self-destruction - I consider "The Struggle" one of Griffith's five greatest full-length features (the others being "Intolerance", "Broken Blossoms", "Isn't Life Wonderful" and "The Sorrows Of Satan"). Buy.
His Final Struggles D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" is generally considered the beginning of modern American cinema. Kino has released "Griffith Masterwork 2". This is 1 disc DVD with Griffith's only two sound features: "Abraham Lincoln(1930)" and "The Struggle(1931)". These were his last productions. No. 1 is "Abrham Lincoln( B&W 93 minutes Fullframe (1.20:1)", a highly episodic work, with scenes from Lincoln's life, from his birth to his death. You see his romance with Ann Rutledge, his career as a lawyer, his marriage to Mary Todd, his election to the presidency, the Civil War, and his assassination by John Wilkes Booth. Other sections include Sheridan's ride, and Lincoln preparing to speek at Ford's Theater, which morphs into the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln is portrayed by Walter Huston, a rising star at the time. Huston was new in Hollywood after a career in vaudeville and a short Broadway jaunt. His son was director John Huston. No. 2 is "The Struggle(1931 B&W 93 minutes Full-frame (1.33:1)". "The Struggle" traces the sad, step-by-step decline of Jimmie Wilson, from his first drink, to street-begging, to a battle with the D.T.'s. No major tragedy is ever given as the cause of Jimmie's alcoholic demise. But, he is seen taking a drink when his daughter is hospitalized, and after a friend loses a job. A known drinker himself, Griffith does not, in this film, make a case against Prohibition, which was in force at the time. Rather, he portray's a sunny beer garden full of cheerful middle-class folks quaffing light wine and cold beer. Alcoholism seems not the point, but rather Jimmie's descent. Jimmie finally reaches an hallucinatory point, where he is unable to recognize his own child. Next comes a more standard Griffith device: the locked room, the frightened girl, and the brutal male. It is "Broken Blossoms" all over again. But, make no mistake here. "The Struggle" lacks the pure, unbounding, luminescent poetry of "Broken Blossoms". "The Struggle" was a critical and commercial disaster. "Abraham Lincoln" was mastered in HD from the Museum of Modern Art's 35mm restoration. "The Struggle" was remastered in HD from a 35mm print from the Rohauer Collection. Extras include a comparison of scenes of Lincoln's assassination from "Abraham Lincoln" and "The Birth of a Nation", and a gallery of photos and the original pressbook from "Abraham Lincoln". Finally, you get a 1-reel promo from 1930, a trailer for a new, sound-added version of "The Birth of a Nation", which stars Walter Huston and D.W. Griffith himself. In dinner jackets, they appear, somewhat awkwardly, as fine gentlemen sitting down in a library(the "Lincoln" set) discussing history, truth, and the American Way. Huston presents Griffith with a cavalry sword. Both men draw long, slow drags on cigarettes, and wait for some un-ending pregnant pause. The pace is dreadfully slow. I found it utterly fascinating. D. W. Griffith did not direct again, but he was hired by Hal Roach in 1940 to direct dialogue for "One Million B.C.", starring Victor Mature and Lon Chaney. It is still unclear what effort, if any, Griffith can be credited with. D.W. Griffith was stricken by a cerebral hemorrhage while walking through the lobby of the Nickerbocker Hotel, and died in Hollywood in 1948. Historians have labeled him "the man who invented Hollywood".
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