I put off watching SALLY OF THE SAWDUST for years. Comedy was never Griffith's best genre and the 1920s were not his best decade. However, it turned out to be better than I expected, though that might be more because of WC Fields than anything else. He's funny, though decidedly lacking the misanthropic edge he had in his great 1930s work (the man warmly hugs a child in an early scene so you know you're not dealing with pure Fields here). The story is a 1920s take on Dickens' style melodrama: an eccentric con-man tries to reunite his adopted daughter with her rich relatives. The plot is stretched out, but there are charming episodes throughout and I was never bored.
Carol Dempster is quite mixed. I tend to find her unremarkable in most of her work and she only tended to shine in less glamorous/winsome roles (see ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL for a genuinely great performance from her). Here, she veers between outright badness and inspired in what might be the most uneven performance of her short career. It often does not feel like she's playing a character so much as employing several facial tics repetitively in front of the camera: she winks, she coos, she does little dancing motions. It's supposed to come off as peppy but it often grates. Her emotional scenes are disastrous, complete with shameless mugging. However, Dempster excels in the physical scenes, like when she escapes a courthouse through a high window or when she's interacting with an elephant. I maintain that Dempster was best at playing active, everyday characters and not the Victorian girl-women Griffith liked to populate his movies with.
SALLY OF THE SAWDUST was one of Griffith's last films and is quite unlike anything else in his filmography. It's definitely worth seeing, though if you've never seen a silent movie before, I would not make this one your first.
Carol Dempster is quite mixed. I tend to find her unremarkable in most of her work and she only tended to shine in less glamorous/winsome roles (see ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL for a genuinely great performance from her). Here, she veers between outright badness and inspired in what might be the most uneven performance of her short career. It often does not feel like she's playing a character so much as employing several facial tics repetitively in front of the camera: she winks, she coos, she does little dancing motions. It's supposed to come off as peppy but it often grates. Her emotional scenes are disastrous, complete with shameless mugging. However, Dempster excels in the physical scenes, like when she escapes a courthouse through a high window or when she's interacting with an elephant. I maintain that Dempster was best at playing active, everyday characters and not the Victorian girl-women Griffith liked to populate his movies with.
SALLY OF THE SAWDUST was one of Griffith's last films and is quite unlike anything else in his filmography. It's definitely worth seeing, though if you've never seen a silent movie before, I would not make this one your first.