Hearts of the World

Hearts of the World
Hearts of the World
	Lobby poster
Directed by	D. W. Griffith
Written by	D. W. Griffith (credited as Capt. Victor Marier and M. Gaston de Tolignac)
Produced by	D. W. Griffith
Starring	Lillian Gish ; Dorothy Gish ; Ben Alexander ; Robert Harron
Cinematography	Billy Bitzer ; Alfred Machin ; Hendrik Sartov [ fr ]
Edited by	James Smith ; Rose Smith
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	March 12, 1918;
Running time	117 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)
Budget	$425,000
Box office	$1.5 million

Last updated July 27, 2024

Hearts of the World

Hearts of the World (also known as Love's Struggle) is a 1918 American silent World War I propaganda film written, produced and directed by D. W. Griffith. In an effort to change the American public's neutral stance regarding the war, the British government contacted Griffith due to his stature and reputation for dramatic filmmaking.^[2]^[3]

Plot

Two families live next to one another in a French village on the eve of World War I. The Boy in one of the families falls for the only daughter in the other family. As they make preparations for marriage, World War I breaks out, and, although the Boy is American, he feels he should fight for the country in which he lives.

When the French retreat, the village is shelled. The Boy's father and the Girl's mother and grandfather are killed. The Girl, deranged, wanders aimlessly through the battlefield and comes upon the Boy badly wounded and unconscious. She finds her way back to the village where she is nursed back to health by The Little Disturber who had previously been a rival for the Boy's affections. The Boy is carried off by the Red Cross. Von Strohm, a German officer, lusts after the Girl and attempts to rape her, but she narrowly escapes when he is called away by his commanding officer.

Upon his recovery, the Boy, disguised as a German officer, infiltrates the enemy-occupied village, finds the Girl. The two of them are forced to kill a German sergeant who discovers them. Von Strohm finds the dead sergeant and locates the Boy and Girl who are locked in an upper room at the inn. It is a race against time with the Germans trying to break the door down as the French return to retake the village.

Cast

Lillian Gish as The Girl (Marie Stephenson)
Robert Harron as The Boy (Douglas Gordon Hamilton)
Dorothy Gish as The Little Disturber
Ben Alexander as The Boy's Littlest Brother
Noël Coward as The Man with the Wheelbarrow/A Villager in the Streets
Sir Edward Grey as Himself (uncredited)¹
Anne Harron as A Woman with Daughter (uncredited)
John Harron as A Boy with a Barrel (uncredited)
Mary Harron as A Wounded Girl (uncredited)
Tessie Harron as A Refugee (uncredited)
Lady Lavery as Nurse (uncredited)
Jules Lemontier as A Stretcher Bearer (uncredited)
Adolph Lestina as The Grandfather
David Lloyd George as Himself (uncredited)
Diana Manners as Nurse (uncredited)
René Viviani as Himself (uncredited)¹
Erich von Stroheim as A Hun (uncredited)
Francis Marion as The Boys other brother (uncredited)

* Note 1: Appears in archival footage

Production notes

The British Government gave D.W. Griffith unprecedented access to film in locations that were otherwise forbidden to journalists.^[4] After being presented to George V and Queen Mary, Griffith was introduced to members of London's aristocracy who agreed to appear in the film. Among them were Lady Lavery, Elizabeth Asquith, Diana Manners.^[5] Playwright Noël Coward also appeared as an extra.

Exterior shots were largely filmed throughout England from May to October 1917.^[6] Griffith made two trips to France where he filmed footage of the trenches. In one instance Griffith and his film crew were forced to take cover when their location came under German artillery fire; he escaped unscathed. The film company returned to Los Angeles where British and Canadian troops recreated battle scenes and other interior scenes on a stage at Fine Arts Studio in Los Angeles from November to December 1917.^[6]^[7] The scenes shot in Europe and Los Angeles were edited together with footage from stock newsreels.^[3]

In a scene cut from the movie, actress Colleen Moore appeared as a little girl in her bed who, hearing the war raging beyond her window, was so frightened that she turned the hands of her alarm clock forward, hoping that time would rush forward to the end of the fighting.^[8]

Reception

Lillian Gish, the actress who portrayed "The Girl", later said:^[9]

Hearts of the World enjoyed great success until the Armistice when people lost interest in war films. The film inflamed audiences. Its depiction of German brutality bordered on the absurd. Whenever a German came near me, he beat me or kicked me.

She also noted that:

I don't believe that Mr. Griffith ever forgave himself for making Hearts of the World. "War is the villain," he repeated, "not any particular people."

lobby card Heartsofworld.jpg — lobby card

Some historians have also noted that Hearts of the World and similar films encouraged a "hysterical hatred" of the enemy which complicated the task of the Versailles peacemakers.^[10]

Like many American films of the time, Hearts of the World was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required cuts, in Reel 3, of that part of a bayoneting scene showing closeup of a man's side from which a stream of blood flows, Reel 6, that portion of dancing scene where dancer twirls her skirt and exposes posterior to camera, officer carrying young woman off into other room, six scenes of German officer on floor motioning to young woman to come and lie down beside him, closeup of same German officer reaching up with arms for young woman to come to him, closeup of officer and young woman embracing in bunk, officers forcing young peasant women towards bunks, scene showing young women in bunks with clothing disheveled and hair down and officers walking off and adjusting clothes, and the intertitle "Dungeons of Lust" and scenes of young women lying prostrate following the intertitle.^[11]

Hearts of the World is referenced in L. M. Montgomery's novel set during World War I, Rilla of Ingleside . Rilla recalls in her diary,

The heroine was struggling with a horrible German soldier who was trying to drag her away. I knew she had a knife—I had seen her hide it, to have it in readiness—and I couldn't understand why she didn't produce it and finish the brute. I thought she must have forgotten it, and just at the tensest moment of the scene I lost my head altogether. I just stood right up on my feet in that crowded house and shrieked at the top of my voice—"The knife is in your stocking—the knife is in your stocking!"

Status

A print of the film still exists and is held by the Cohen Media Group. The rights are now held in the public domain.^[12]

Related Research Articles

Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl, often referred to simply as Broken Blossoms, is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. It was distributed by United Artists and premiered on May 13, 1919. It stars Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, and Donald Crisp, and tells the story of young girl, Lucy Burrows, who is abused by her alcoholic prizefighting father, Battling Burrows, and meets Cheng Huan, a kind-hearted Chinese man who falls in love with her. It was the first film distributed by United Artists. It is based on Thomas Burke's short story "The Chink and the Child" from the 1916 collection Limehouse Nights. In 1996, Broken Blossoms was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Lillian Diana Gish was an American actress. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th-greatest female movie star of Classic Hollywood cinema.

The Musketeers of Pig Alley is a 1912 American short drama and a gangster film. It is directed by D. W. Griffith and written by Griffith and Anita Loos. It is also credited for its early use of follow focus, a fundamental tool in cinematography.

Robert Emmett Harron was an American motion picture actor of the early silent film era. Although he acted in over 200 films, he is possibly best recalled for his roles in the D.W. Griffith directed films The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916).

Judith of Bethulia (1914) is an American film starring Blanche Sweet and Henry B. Walthall, and produced and directed by D. W. Griffith, based on the play "Judith and the Holofernes" (1896) by Thomas Bailey Aldrich, which itself was an adaptation of the Book of Judith. The film was the first feature-length film made by pioneering film company Biograph, although the second that Biograph released.

Carol Dempster was an American film actress of the silent film era. She appeared in films from 1916 to 1926, working with D. W. Griffith extensively.

The New York Hat is a silent short film which was released in 1912, directed by D. W. Griffith from a screenplay by Anita Loos, and starring Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish.

The Battle at Elderbush Gulch is a 1913 American silent Western film directed by D. W. Griffith and featuring Mae Marsh, Lillian Gish, and Alfred Paget.

La Bohème is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by King Vidor, based on the 1896 opera La bohème by Giacomo Puccini. Lillian Gish and John Gilbert star in a tragic romance in which a tubercular seamstress sacrifices her life so that her lover, a bohemian playwright, might pen his masterpiece. Gish, at the height of her influence with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, asserted significant control over the production, determining the story, director, cast, cinematography, and costume design. In February 2020, the film was shown at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, as part of a retrospective dedicated to King Vidor's career.

The House of Darkness is a 1913 American short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith.

<i>The Battle of the Sexes</i> (1914 film) 1914 film

The Battle of the Sexes is a 1914 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith for the Majestic Motion Picture Company. No complete print of the film is known to exist; however, a fragment has survived. Griffith remade the film as The Battle of the Sexes in 1928 as a comedy-drama and this latter version is available on DVD.

<i>The Great Love</i> (1918 film) 1918 film

The Great Love is a 1918 American silent war drama film directed and written by D. W. Griffith who, along with scenario writer Stanner E.V. Taylor, is credited as "Captain Victor Marier". The film stars George Fawcett and Lillian Gish. Set during World War I, exterior scenes were shot on location in England. The Great Love is now considered to be a lost film.

<i>The Greatest Thing in Life</i> 1918 film

The Greatest Thing in Life is a 1918 American silent drama film about World War I, directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, and David Butler. The film is now considered lost as no prints are known to exist.

<i>A Romance of Happy Valley</i> 1919 film

A Romance of Happy Valley is a 1919 American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. Believed lost for almost 50 years, a print was discovered in 1965 in the State Film Archives of the Soviet Union, which donated it to the Museum of Modern Art.

True Heart Susie is a 1919 American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. A print of the film survives in the film archive of the British Film Institute. The film has seen several VHS releases as well as a DVD issue.

The Greatest Question is a 1919 American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith. Based upon a novel by William Hale, the film has a plot involving spiritualism.

The Scarlet Letter is a 1926 American silent drama film based on the 1850 novel of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne and directed by Swedish filmmaker Victor Sjöström. Prints of the film survive in the MGM/United Artists film archives and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The film is now considered the best film adaptation of Hawthorne's novel.

The Escape is a 1914 American silent drama film written and directed by D. W. Griffith and starred Donald Crisp. The film is based on the play of the same name by Paul Armstrong who also wrote the screenplay. It is now considered lost. The master negative of the production was destroyed in the disastrous 1914 Lubin vault fire in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Biograph Girl is a musical with a book by Warner Brown, lyrics by Brown and David Heneker, and music by Heneker. Its plot focuses on the silent film era and five pioneers of American cinema - actresses Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, directors D. W. Griffith and Mack Sennett, and Paramount Pictures founder Adolph Zukor.

The Yaqui Cur is a 1913 American silent Western black and white film directed by D. W. Griffith, written by Stanner E.V. Taylor and starring Robert Harron, Kate Bruce, Walter Miller, Charles Hill Mailes and Victoria Forde. Griffith directed seven films with more than one reel, including The Yaqui Cur and The Little Tease (1913).

References

1 2 "Griffith's 20 Year Record". Variety. September 5, 1928. p. 12. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
↑ Shearer, Benjamin F. (2007). Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime, Volume 2. Vol. 2. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 362. ISBN 978-0-313-33422-1.
1 2 Keil, Charlie; Singer, Ben (2009). American Cinema of the 1910s: Themes and Variations . Rutgers University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-813-54445-8.
↑ Slide, Anthony, ed. (2012). D. W. Griffith: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-617-03298-1.
↑ London Melvyn Stokes University College (2007). D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation : A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time. Oxford University Press. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-198-04436-9.
1 2 Cherchi Usai, Paolo; Bowser, Eileen (2005). Cherchi Usai, Paolo (ed.). The Griffith Project: Films produced in 1916-18. British Film Institute. p. 157. ISBN 1-844-57097-5.
↑ Piette, Adam; Rawlinson, Mark (2012). The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-century British and American War Literature. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-0-748-63874-1.
↑ Moore, Colleen (1968). Silent Star . Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company. pp. 64–65. Retrieved July 26, 2024– via Internet Archive.
↑ What others said about "Hearts of the World" (from the 'Silents Are Golden' silent movies website. Retrieved August 16, 2007)
↑ Willmott, H. P. (2003). First World War. Dorling Kindersley. p. 263. ISBN 1-405-30029-9.
↑ "Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors". Exhibitors Herald. 6 (21). New York City: Exhibitors Herald Company: 31. May 18, 1918.
↑ "Hearts of the World". silentera.com. April 21, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2014.

External links

Hearts of the World at IMDb
Hearts of the World at AllMovie
Hearts of the World is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[var-1] 1 2 "Griffith's 20 Year Record". Variety. September 5, 1928. p. 12. Retrieved March 21, 2023.

[shearer-2] Shearer, Benjamin F. (2007). Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime, Volume 2. Vol. 2. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 362. ISBN 978-0-313-33422-1.

[keil-3] 1 2 Keil, Charlie; Singer, Ben (2009). American Cinema of the 1910s: Themes and Variations . Rutgers University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-813-54445-8.

[4] Slide, Anthony, ed. (2012). D. W. Griffith: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-617-03298-1.

[london-5] London Melvyn Stokes University College (2007). D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation : A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time. Oxford University Press. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-198-04436-9.

[cherchi-6] 1 2 Cherchi Usai, Paolo; Bowser, Eileen (2005). Cherchi Usai, Paolo (ed.). The Griffith Project: Films produced in 1916-18. British Film Institute. p. 157. ISBN 1-844-57097-5.

[7] Piette, Adam; Rawlinson, Mark (2012). The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-century British and American War Literature. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-0-748-63874-1.

[8] Moore, Colleen (1968). Silent Star . Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company. pp. 64–65. Retrieved July 26, 2024– via Internet Archive.

[9] What others said about "Hearts of the World" (from the 'Silents Are Golden' silent movies website. Retrieved August 16, 2007)

[10] Willmott, H. P. (2003). First World War. Dorling Kindersley. p. 263. ISBN 1-405-30029-9.

[11] "Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors". Exhibitors Herald. 6 (21). New York City: Exhibitors Herald Company: 31. May 18, 1918.

[12] "Hearts of the World". silentera.com. April 21, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2014.

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v t e Films directed by D. W. Griffith
1908	The Adventures of Dollie The Fight for Freedom The Tavern Keeper's Daughter The Black Viper The Red Man and the Child Deceived Slumming Party The Bandit's Waterloo A Calamitous Elopement The Greaser's Gauntlet The Man and the Woman The Fatal Hour For Love of Gold Balked at the Altar For a Wife's Honor Betrayed by a Handprint Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court The Girl and the Outlaw Behind the Scenes The Red Girl The Heart of O'Yama Where the Breakers Roar A Smoked Husband The Stolen Jewels The Devil The Zulu's Heart Father Gets in the Game Ingomar, the Barbarian The Vaquero's Vow The Planter's Wife Romance of a Jewess The Call of the Wild Concealing a Burglar After Many Years The Pirate's Gold The Taming of the Shrew The Guerrilla The Song of the Shirt The Ingrate A Woman's Way The Clubman and the Tramp Money Mad The Valet's Wife The Feud and the Turkey The Reckoning The Test of Friendship An Awful Moment The Christmas Burglars Mr. Jones at the Ball The Helping Hand
1909	One Touch of Nature The Maniac Cook Mrs. Jones Entertains The Honor of Thieves Love Finds a Way The Sacrifice A Rural Elopement Those Boys! The Criminal Hypnotist The Fascinating Mrs. Francis Mr. Jones Has a Card Party Those Awful Hats The Welcome Burglar The Cord of Life The Girls and Daddy The Brahma Diamond Edgar Allen Poe A Wreath in Time Tragic Love The Curtain Pole His Ward's Love The Joneses Have Amateur Theatricals The Hindoo Dagger The Politician's Love Story The Golden Louis At the Altar The Prussian Spy His Wife's Mother A Fool's Revenge The Wooden Leg The Roue's Heart The Salvation Army Lass The Lure of the Gown I Did It The Voice of the Violin The Deception And a Little Child Shall Lead Them A Burglar's Mistake The Medicine Bottle Jones and His New Neighbors A Drunkard's Reformation Trying to Get Arrested The Road to the Heart A Rude Hostess Schneider's Anti-Noise Crusade A Sound Sleeper Lady Helen's Escapade Lucky Jim Jones and the Lady Book Agent Resurrection Two Memories Eloping with Auntie The Cricket on the Hearth The Violin Maker of Cremona A New Trick The Lonely Villa The Son's Return Her First Biscuits The Country Doctor The Cardinal's Conspiracy Tender Hearts The Friend of the Family The Renunciation The Mended Lute The Sealed Room The Little Darling The Hessian Renegades Comata, the Sioux Getting Even In Old Kentucky Leather Stocking Pippa Passes or The Song of Conscience Fools of Fate His Lost Love The Gibson Goddess Nursing a Viper The Death Disc: A Story of the Cromwellian Period Through the Breakers The Red Man's View A Corner in Wheat A Trap for Santa Claus In Little Italy To Save Her Soul The Day After Choosing a Husband Bill Sharkey's Last Game
1910	The Rocky Road The Woman from Mellon's The Englishman and the Girl In Old California Faithful The Two Brothers As It Is In Life A Romance of the Western Hills The Unchanging Sea Ramona In the Season of Buds A Child of the Ghetto In the Border States What the Daisy Said A Flash of Light An Arcadian Maid The House with Closed Shutters Wilful Peggy The Modern Prodigal A Mohawk's Way The Oath and the Man Rose O'Salem-Town The Fugitive Winning Back His Love
1911	The Two Paths The Italian Barber His Trust His Trust Fulfilled Fate's Turning Heart Beats of Long Ago What Shall We Do with Our Old? Fisher Folks His Daughter The Lily of the Tenements A Decree of Destiny Was He a Coward? The Lonedale Operator The Spanish Gypsy The Broken Cross How She Triumphed The New Dress The Crooked Road The White Rose of the Wilds The Smile of a Child Enoch Arden: Part I Enoch Arden: Part II The Primal Call Fighting Blood The Indian Brothers A Country Cupid The Last Drop of Water Out from the Shadow The Blind Princess and the Poet Swords and Hearts The Stuff Heroes Are Made Of Her Awakening The Making of a Man The Adventures of Billy The Long Road Love in the Hills The Battle Through Darkened Vales The Miser's Heart A Woman Scorned The Voice of the Child
1912	The Eternal Mother The Old Bookkeeper For His Son The Transformation of Mike A Sister's Love Under Burning Skies The Sunbeam A String of Pearls The Girl and Her Trust The Root of Evil The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch The Punishment The Female of the Species Just Like a Woman One Is Business, the Other Crime The Lesser Evil A Beast at Bay An Outcast Among Outcasts Home Folks A Temporary Truce The Spirit Awakened Man's Lust for Gold Man's Genesis The Sands of Dee The Narrow Road The Inner Circle A Change of Spirit An Unseen Enemy Blind Love The Massacre Two Daughters of Eve Friends So Near, yet So Far A Feud in the Kentucky Hills The Chief's Blanket In the Aisles of the Wild The One She Loved The Painted Lady The Musketeers of Pig Alley Heredity Gold and Glitter My Baby The Informer Brutality The New York Hat My Hero The Burglar's Dilemma A Cry for Help The God Within
1913	Three Friends The Telephone Girl and the Lady An Adventure in the Autumn Woods The Tender Hearted Boy A Misappropriated Turkey Brothers Oil and Water A Chance Deception Love in an Apartment Hotel Broken Ways A Girl's Stratagem The Unwelcome Guest Near to Earth Fate A Welcome Intruder The Sheriff's Baby The Hero of Little Italy The Little Tease A Misunderstood Boy The Left-Handed Man The Lady and the Mouse If We Only Knew The Wanderer The Stolen Loaf The House of Darkness The Yaqui Cur Just Gold The Ranchero's Revenge A Timely Interception Death's Marathon The Mothering Heart The Sorrowful Shore The Enemy's Baby The Mistake Two Men of the Desert (lost) Madonna of the Storm The Battle at Elderbush Gulch The Conscience of Hassan Bey
1914–1931	Judith of Bethulia (1914) Battle of the Sexes (1914, lost) Brute Force (1914) Home, Sweet Home (1914) The Escape (1914, lost) The Avenging Conscience: or "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (1914) The Birth of a Nation (1915) Intolerance (1916) Hearts of the World (1918) The Great Love (1918, lost) Lillian Gish in a Liberty Loan Appeal (1918, lost) The Greatest Thing in Life (1918, lost) A Romance of Happy Valley (1919) The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919) Broken Blossoms (1919) True Heart Susie (1919) Scarlet Days (1919) The Greatest Question (1919) The Idol Dancer (1920) Remodeling Her Husband (1920, lost) The Love Flower (1920) Way Down East (1920) Dream Street (1921) Orphans of the Storm (1921) One Exciting Night (1922) The White Rose (1923) America (1924) Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) Sally of the Sawdust (1925) That Royle Girl (1925, lost) The Sorrows of Satan (1926) Drums of Love (1928) The Battle of the Sexes (1928) Lady of the Pavements (1929) Abraham Lincoln (1930) The Struggle (1931)