User Reviews

A disclaimer that appears at the beginning of this film may strike latter-day viewers as oddly worded. We're told first that we're going to see a tale of love triumphing over adversity, but then a second title card asserts that "the story is laid in Germany only because conditions there were most favorable for showing the triumph of love over hardship." The tone is unmistakably defensive, for director D.W. Griffith must have known that a story set in Berlin and focused on the desperate struggles of its defeated populace might not go over well in the U.S., or the other nations of the former Alliance. Six years after the end of the Great War there was still considerable hostility towards the Germans, which might explain why the characters at the center of Isn't Life Wonderful are presented as Polish refugees who have resettled in Copenick, a suburb of Berlin. Griffith adapted his screenplay from a short story by Geoffrey Moss, an Englishman and veteran who lived in Germany after the war, and was appalled by the suffering he observed among the common people. It is to the credit of both Moss and Griffith that they were able to put aside wartime chauvinism and sympathize with the plight of the former enemy, even if Griffith felt it necessary to blur the nationality of his fictional family. Plenty of Americans, Britons, French, and others were indifferent to severe conditions in Germany at this time, or if anything felt that the Huns had it coming. Griffith couldn't have expected a box office bonanza from this bleak drama nor did he get one, but he was courageous to make the film at this point in history, and it stands today as his best work of the period.

We follow the daily life of an average, beleaguered family (a professor, his wife and mother-in-law, their sons, and an adopted daughter) as they struggle to feed themselves, find work, and survive. Inga, the daughter, is an orphan who is in love with Paul, a veteran who comes home from the war with lungs damaged by mustard gas. In these early scenes the pacing is very slow, and everyone appears to be dazed. This feels dramatically appropriate, but also signals viewers that this film isn't going to be an easy ride, and that we'll need to adjust our expectations accordingly. As we get to know the characters we share in their setbacks and triumphs. Eventually, as Paul and Inga plan to get married and move into a small cottage we want to see their plans succeed, but feel anxious about their prospects. Paul is allotted a piece of land and manages to grow a modest-sized crop of potatoes, and we are given to understand that the couple's future hinges on the income that results. But we also know that food is scarce in Berlin, and that gangs of hungry men have been roaming the countryside attacking profiteers and taking their produce. As Paul and Inga haul their potatoes through the woods in a cart we fear for their safety, and their confrontation with the gang makes for a genuinely suspenseful climax. The film ends on a hopeful note, but the over all picture of post-war German society is grim.

When critics and historians speak of D.W. Griffith's artistic decline in the 1920s they often cite his insistence on featuring Carol Dempster in film after film as a major factor. Dempster, who was apparently the director's paramour at the time, was a rather plain-looking woman who is not especially appealing in most of her appearances, but it must be said she gives a strong performance in Isn't Life Wonderful. Of course, the role didn't call for movie star glamour: Inga is an ordinary woman struggling with the most basic problems. Dempster is particularly good in one of the film's most memorable sequences, a desperate attempt to buy food during the period of the "Great Inflation," stuck in line and watching in growing despair as the price rises beyond her ability to pay before she can get inside to make a purchase.

It's notable that when we first learn of the roving criminal gangs the director makes a point of humanizing them, rather than depicting them as thugs. We see a large, shabbily dressed man promise his wife that he'll bring her food, and later when the gangs are roaming the countryside we note that this man is one of the leaders. They're not animals, they're hungry, unemployed men -- most of whom are veterans. When Inga calls them beasts this man replies that war and years of hell have made them beasts. It's chilling to think of what the future held for Germany, and for men like these, when this film was made in 1924. Griffith filmed a number of scenes on location, an unusual practice at the time, and when he returned to the United States he wrote a letter to an associate in which he said "Germany must be restored or else Europe is lost." Unfortunately, he was dead right about that. Isn't Life Wonderful is a powerful drama that not only examines the ugly aftermath of one cataclysmic war, but unknowingly sets the stage for another that would prove to be even worse.

After "The Great War" (later called "World War I"), unfortunately orphaned Carol Dempster (as Inga) goes to Germany, with an also-on-the-move homeless Polish family. There, she waits for handsome soldier Neil Hamilton (as Paul), childhood sweetheart from her "adopted" family. So, living virtuously must have been difficult for the couple, since they grew up together. Presently, Ms. Dempster and Mr. Hamilton find their changes for happiness averted by devastating post-war conditions…

Absent collaborators G.W. Bitzer, Robert Harron, and Lillian Gish might have given director D.W. Griffith another masterpiece with "Isn't Life Wonderful". His closest film-making partner was, by now, protégée Dempster. One of the problems with Dempster is evident herein - note the scene where she forces herself to "smile" while Mr. Hamilton is bedridden; this acting business is swiped from Ms. Gish's "smile" in "Broken Blossoms" (1919); and, Hamilton is directed to act like Mr. Harron.

This doesn't mean Dempster and Hamilton aren't adequate in the parts - but one of Mr. Griffith's problems was pigeonholing an actress like Dempster into something she was not. Griffith directed a "type" - the old lady, the mother, the virginal heroine, the suitor, etc. Herein, he is obviously directing his cast to act like the "types" co-created with performers like Gish and Harron; and, he incorrectly assumes one performer (Dempster) is able to deliver the same kind of performance as another (Gish).

This thematically beautiful film was said to be Griffith's apology for his ostensibly pro-War and necessarily anti-German "Hearts of the World" (1918, with Harron and Gish). But, Griffith apologists should have looked at "Hearts" more closely, and beat a hasty retreat; because, the turnaround began within that film. Like a war weary world, Griffith foresaw a pacifist mood. He knew how to be both ahead of the curve and behind the times; pulling no punches, "Isn't Life Wonderful" serves up blistering pessimistic optimism.

******* Isn't Life Wonderful (11/23/24) D.W. Griffith ~ Carol Dempster, Neil Hamilton, Lupino Lane, Frank Puglia

Not as mind blowing as "Intolerance", as Epic as "Birth of a nation" or beautiful as "Broken Blossoms", this film still holds up very well in Griffith's catalogue. Some great stuff, and many masterly sequences. Funnily, this was made at a time when Griffith's influence and credibility was waning, but in many ways this film is as influential as any of his others. "Isn't life wonderful" takes social realism to a new heightened level, and had immediate impact on G.W. Pabst when he made "Joyless Streets", which in turn influenced the entire Italian Neo-realist movement! This film confirms Griffith's position as the most important director of them all.

So now Griffith gets the credit for neorealism too? As if American films like Regeneration and European films like The Outlaw and His Wife (not to mention plenty of Griffith's Biograph shorts) hadn't been shooting grim reality for years? Perhaps he did encourage Germans to film their own urban reality, but if so, they soon surpassed this film.

It isn't that this is a bad film by any means. But Griffith can't get past his own Victorianisms to see the people as well as the bleak streets he's putting on screen-- you'd never believe that the young couple in this story fought in the same war that produced A Sun Also Rises, and were part of the culture that was depicted in Cabaret. Even set aside the purplish titles, and his view of postwar Germans is closer to the homespun idealized Americana of Tol'able David than it is to Brecht and Weill. Only in the climactic scene-- when a mob is nearly dissuaded from a crime by Dempster's pleas for worker solidarity, and then shockingly turns back into a mob anyway-- do you feel that Griffith is really seeing the society that, in a few years, would form the mobs of Nuremberg and Kristallnacht.

And stylistically, the film resists coming alive, as so many of Griffith's 1920s films do. The first problem is casting-- how the director who made Pickford, Gish, Bobby Harron, Mae Murray and so many others in the teens could have staked his career at this point on the dim romantic fire between Neil Hamilton and Carol Dempster is one of film history's mysteries. In truth, the much-maligned Miss Dempster does give perhaps her best performance here, but even fully lit she's a 40-watt bulb next to the klieg lights of Gish et al. And Griffith's style, once so hyperactive, willing to shred the continuity of a scene in order to give us the closeups that would make us feel the actor's moment, is too often staid and stagey (except, again, for the entirely admirable climax).

Isn't Life Wonderful is the type of small-scale drama that Griffith excelled at, and this particular one, though a bit too stretched out, still managed to be effective (and affecting). The basic story is of a family of Polish refugees in post-WWI Germany who do their best to survive economic uncertainty. What keeps them going, and is the main theme of the film, is their love for each other. While that might seem trite or cliched on paper, hardly any of it is overplayed. In fact, I see the basic themes in the film still having resonance today, even if the cultural specificity is a little outdated. Of note to me was the simple way that this was photographed, with camera movement reserved for the most dramatically intense moments. I also responded to the score, which was arranged for piano and violin from the original 1924 score. The best part was how different recognizable folk tunes and classical pieces were used as motifs throughout. And while most of the most emotionally impactful moments occurred in the first half, this was overall quite an uplifting drama that represents the best aspect of what Griffith had to offer cinema.

ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL was D.W. Griffith's last independent production before he was forced to sell his Mamaroneck studio to help pay off mounting debts from his Revolutionary War epic America and his bad business practices. Though little known today compared to earlier films like BIRTH OF A NATION or INTOLERANCE, this little film, in my opinion, is Griffith's last great film. It incorporates the best elements of intimate dramas like BROKEN BLOSSOMS with a large scale backdrop like HEARTS OF THE WORLD. In fact it has been said that Griffith made this film to atone for the rabid anti-German sentiments of HEARTS (just as INTOLERANCE was supposedly made to respond to the rabid racial bias of BIRTH OF A NATION). This story of a poor family's trials and tribulations in inflation ravaged post World War I Germany is remarkably grim and is presented realistically. Griffith came under heavy criticism for presenting a sympathetic portrait of a family in Germany (they had to be changed from German to Polish although one character still tears up a picture of the Kaiser) and for shooting the film in Germany itself. His protégé' Carol Dempster gives the performance of her brief career showing what she could have been capable of had Griffith used better judgment as to what he put her in. She plays Inga, a poor girl trying to keep her family's spirits up while trying to realize her own dreams. As the wounded veteran Paul who hopes to marry Inga, Neil Hamilton (who would play Commissioner Gordon on TV's BATMAN 40 years later) gives a sensitive and engaging performance. The film plays like an early neorealist drama and surely had an impact on later filmmakers such as G.W. Pabst, Sergei Eisenstein, and Vittoria De Sica. It is starkly but beautifully photographed and full of social criticism which did not go down well at all with Jazz Age audiences. For modern audiences the film looks like the forerunner that it is and it brings out the best of what Griffith had to say both personally and professionally. Hopefully this will soon be released on DVD to join most of Griffith's other films which despite his fame/infamy are still awaiting major restoration.

D. W. Griffith was a man of contradictions. A pioneering 20th century filmmaker who was at heart a Victorian. A philanderer with a sentimental view of women and marriage. A man who condemned racial prejudice in BROKEN BLOSSOMS after vehemently affirming it in THE BIRTH OF A NATION. These contradictions make him frustrating yet fascinating, both as a biographical subject and as an artist, and perhaps his greatest contradiction-- being the "father of film" yet growing eclipsed the moment Hollywood began its rise as a mega-power-- is embodied in his 1920s work.

It is common among silent film fans to assume Griffith's glory days ended with the 1910s. The early years of the new decade initially seemed promising for him: WAY DOWN EAST and ORPHANS OF THE STORM were both successful, if old-fashioned compared with other hits of the time. After that, Griffith seemed out of step with the roaring twenties, a relic in the industry he helped establish. One would like to say his 1920s efforts are misjudged gems, but many of them are usually flat out terrible (DREAM STREET) or lackluster variations on earlier successes (AMERICA). His dual infatuation with old-school melodramas and the controversial Carol Dempster seemed to cement his artistic decline.

So imagine my surprise when I emerged from a screening of ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL bowled over. A financial flop in its time, ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL has aged incredibly well, even compared to some of Griffith's best work from the decade before. Lacking melodramatic turns, histrionic acting, or any of Griffith's stylistic excesses, ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL boasts a story that could have come from the Italian Neorealists. A Polish family immigrates to Germany after the first world war. Paul, the oldest son, and Inga, a young woman taken in by the family, hope to marry, though they want to be sure their children can grow up without want before walking down the aisle. Paul grows potatoes and Inga collects second-hand furniture to scrape together a solid foundation for the future, but economic hardship and heightened criminal activity prove powerful obstacles to their dreams.

First and foremost, we have to talk about Carol Dempster. Reviled at worst and pitied at best, Dempster seems to have been the victim of Griffith's feminine ideal-- and that ideal was Lillian Gish, who left the director after they made ORPHANS OF THE STORM in 1921. In movies like SCARLET DAYS, DREAM STREET, and AMERICA, Griffith clearly expects Dempster to be Gish 2.0. Unfortunately, Dempster comes off as plain and underwhelming in these parts, like Macbeth in King Duncan's ill-fitting robes. Luckily for Dempster and the audience, ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL allows her to play an ordinary young woman rather than a bosom heaving damsel. Though optimistic and winsome, Inga is no Pollyanna and Dempster does well in making her feel like an authentic person. Watching her here, one gets the sense that she was not the bad actress she is often accused of being, but a competent performer trapped in Gish's shadow.

Just as Dempster is freed of having to be Gish, the plot is freed of having to be another THE BIRTH OF A NATION or BROKEN BLOSSOMS. Gone are the rapacious villains and races to the rescue. Instead, suspense comes from the family not having enough to eat or Paul suffering from the aftereffects of a lungful of mustard gas during the war. In fact, the movie's most intense sequence occurs in a butcher shop line stretching into the street. Inga waits her turn, only to watch with despair as the price of meat keeps increasing on the chalk board outside, reflecting the rapid inflation of postwar Germany. Griffith makes room for beautiful moments too though. The family dinners and communal dancing are touching moments, giving the viewer relief after long stretches of stress and anxiety.

ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL is easily Griffith's last great movie, even better than the more regarded ORPHANS OF THE STORM. Unfortunately, 1920s audiences stayed away from this lovely little film. Maybe the war was still box office poison. Or maybe a slow-moving movie about ordinary people trying not to starve just wasn't want John and Jane Public wanted to see. Regardless, the film did not connect, though Griffith would continue to put out movies until the final failure of THE STRUGGLE killed his career for good in 1931.

Well, after seeing this D. W. Griffith film, it seemed very odd to me that the same director who apparently despised Black people had a very sensitive place in his heart for the German-speaking people following WWI. By the way, if you don't believe me about the "despised Black people" comment, try watching his films BIRTH OF A NATION and HIS TRUST. In both films, the Black actors are in fact Whites wearing makeup. In BIRTH OF A NATION, Blacks are shown as being evil and lazy and out to rape the White women if left unchecked by the wonderful KKK. In HIS TRUST, a Black slave acts like a lapdog in his devotion to his White "betters".

So, despite this awful baggage, it was shocking to see how favorably the former enemy were treated in this film. The main characters are Germans who had lived in land previously part of the old Germany--now part of Poland. They moved back to their ethnic homeland and settled into an impoverished Berlin. This sensitivity towards America's former enemy actually mirrored the change in attitude in general in the US, as people were now reassessing their role in the war and many felt, in hindsight, that we should have just stayed neutral.

The film shows the daily privations of this family as they just try to survive. Starvation and the difficulties of existing, interestingly enough, do NOT destroy or diminish their humanity--though it does do this to some of their fellow countrymen. This abiding faith and goodness in the face of adversity is why the film is entitled "ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL". And, despite Griffith's tendency to often use "schmaltz" and heavy-handed melodrama in his films, this is a pretty restrained and beautiful movie.

There are a lot of essential and distinguished silent film pioneers who contributed greatly to film history with their mastery of cinema art but they do not always appeal to all of the world's silent film fans. It is a question of personal preference that does not deny their important merits, natürlich!!. For example there is a strained relationship between this German count and Herr D. W. Griffith.

But fortunately there is always an exception that proves the rule, a film that plays to the strengths of the director and will even impress a German count who has his own standards.

"Isn't Life Wonderful" is a masterpiece, a film that has the usual Griffith story subjects ( of course there's an orphan) and is impeccably directed.

The film tells the story of a family of Polish refugees in Germany in the hard times of the aftermath of the WWI. It was a struggle to survive and make a living as there was unemployment, hunger, a financial disaster dominated by uncontrollable inflation and terrible social conditions. Herr Griffith depicts these tragedies perfectly. In spite of facing a gloomy future, the couple that stars in the film, Dame Inga ( Dame Carol Dempster in a moving performance ) and Herr Paul ( Neil Hamilton ) try to bear these troublesome times with some optimism, a complicated task in itself given that disease almost kills Herr Paul and one can hardly forget that hunger makes turnips the German national food par excellence. Nevertheless, Inga and Paul face those problems with inner strength and unconditional love.

Herr Griffith handles the story in a realistic way, without moralizing and avoiding the tearful aspects of the story ( an important aspect that this German count appreciates very much ) or demonizing people. After all everyone suffered the social and financial crises in their own way. This is a down to earth film that shows a harsh reality tempered by hope and contains beautiful scenes that broke the heart of a heartless German count. There are outstanding scenes, particularly the one where Inga and Paul are chased through the woods by hungry and unemployed workers, an excellent example of classic Herr Griffith editing.

To make a film about such difficult times and striking the right balance between realism and a larger than life love story that intertwines sadness and hope is a task only a few of the great silent film masters could accomplish and to this German aristocrat, forgetting old rivalries, it must said that Herr D. W. Griffith was one of those.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must avoid the financial crisis of his Teutonic heiresses.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

Director D. W. Griffith was with United Artists since its founding in 1919. However, by 1924, after a year of not producing any blockbusters, his partners decided the film pioneer and their UA studio should part company. The irony of the departure's timing is Griffith directed in what today is considered his last great masterpiece, November 1924's "Isn't Life Wonderful."

As great as the film is, "Isn't Life Wonderful" had a difficult time finding an audience. The public just wasn't interested in seeing a Polish refugee family painfully trying to exist in an economically dysfunctional Germany. The postwar country was experiencing an inflationary monetary system never seen before, with its marks currency escalating literally by the minute. Fatigue, hunger and crime greeted its citizens after its defeat against the Allied countries, especially France, demanding Germany keep up with its reparations for its invasion in 1914. Griffith, reading Geoffrey Moss' account of the German's life in his series of 1923 short stories, decided to produce a movie based on one of them. To make his production appear even more authentic, he took his crew and actors to film in Germany and Austria .

The often-criticized actress Carol Dempster, a favorite of Griffith after Lillian Gish left his fold, has been particularly praised here as showcasing a credible performance as the orphan Inga. Her fictitious character had grown up with the Polish family before their immigration to Germany. Griffith changed the citizenship of the film's central figures from German to Polish, knowing American viewers would be more apt to sympathize with them than the German populace.

The movie's male love interest, Paul (Neil Hamilton), suffering from a mustard attack in the war, has a twinkle in the eye for Inga, even though he's hobbled by the injury. In the one dramatic scene that "Isn't Life Wonderful" is known for, Inga stands patiently in a long queue in front of a butcher's shop after pooling the family's money for some long-desired meat. As the minutes tick by, the store owner repeatedly steps out to the blackboard and changes the escalating price of the meat, so much so that the money Inga has in her hand becomes inadequate. Incidentally, actor Hamilton, who had a long career in over 260 films, is recognizable today as the police commissioner in the 1960's 'Batman" TV series.

It is a wonderful tale about a family struggling after The Great War in Berlin to make ends meet. They are poor and have to live on a diet of turnips and, sometimes, nothing. Carol Dempster is perfect as the suffering young cousin trying to hold the family together and to find happiness and beauty in the worst of circumstances. When the son, Neil Hamilton, returns from the war, he is in bad health and near death. Dempster nurses him back to health and they fall in love. They want to marry.

The family refuses to give them their permission because there is no way they could raise a family or have a home of their own.

Over time, Hamilton works a small patch of ground to grow crops to support the family. Dempster works in a dress shop and takes small refurbished furniture as pay. Hamilton even spends his off hours building a one room shed for them to live in. Finally, the crops start producing and they can feed the family. They gain permission to marry.

But as they are bringing in the crops that they need to survive, hungry and desperate men attack them and take all their food. The bandits have a nice scene where they talk about how the war and starvation has turned them from men into beasts.

But, through it all, Dempster keeps her positive view and sees good in all that happens. Dempster's role could have turned into a "Pollyanna" part, but Dempster does a great job of keeping it real and makes you believe that such a "wonderful" positive person really could exist.

Over the year, this film has grown to be considered one of D. W. Griffith's finest, though it was a box office failure when it was released. Time has changed that opinion and has turned this into a "must see" film in my opinion.

"Isn't Life Wonderful?" is a "wonderful" Classy Classic.

Griffith does a really good job of showing the horrors of war as they relate to the masses and then personalizing it. We are focused mostly on a family that has connections to all the implications of the First World War. Our primary focus is on lovers, the woman in waiting, and the man with scorched lungs from a gas attack. This war was probably the most devastating ever fought because of the dirty conditions and the hand to hand combat. The Germans used poison mustard gas which killed and maimed. And yet this film has a positive message because humans are resilient and manage to move forward no matter how horrible the cost. A more mature D. W. Griffith film.