My main interest in silent films is accompanying them, preferably for a live audience. The combination of film and live music provides a sense of involvement which is missing from modern movies. In the process, I’ve also found them to be a source of history. They show how people thought a century ago. The stories behind the movies are often as instructive as the movies themselves.

The latest one I’ve watched is the 1922 The Toll of the Sea. It was the first successful feature shot in Technicolor, seventeen years before The Wizard of Oz. More important, it was Anna May Wong’s first starring role and one of the few times she got to play a sympathetic part. The plot is a blatant lift of Madama Butterfly; an American in China marries Lotus Flower (played by Wong) but goes back home without her, leaving her to raise their child by herself.

Puccini’s opera was based on the short story “Madame Butterfly” by John Luther Long, which supposedly was inspired by a real event. I’ve read that temporary “Japanese marriages” by American men were common in the 19th century but so far haven’t found any solid information. The movie shifts the story to China, maybe in a Nosferatu-like attempt to avoid copyright issues.

Wong’s career was a struggle. Oriental characters in early movies were usually played by white actors in makeup. She was excluded from romantic roles where she would have been well suited and often had to play villainous “dragon ladies.” Interracial romance on the screen was a taboo in the first half of the twentieth century. In the late twenties she found better opportunities in Europe than in the United States. The article “Anna May Wong’s long journey from Hollywood to the Smithsonian” describes the obstacles she dealt with, as well as her role advocating for China against Japan in the years before World War II.

Here is the movie, with my accompaniment:

Another aspect of racial discrimination can be seen through the “race films” of the era. These were movies made with entirely or mostly black casts for black audiences, because black actors were even more limited than Wong in their opportunities in mainstream movies. Most of them have been lost, but The Flying Ace from Norman Studios, released in 1926, is a well-preserved example that’s worth watching. (I plan to accompany it at the Plaistow Library in February.) The hero is a pilot returning from a successful period of service in World War I. Returning to his job as a railroad detective, he investigates the disappearance of payroll money, and the movie culminates in an airplane chase. The premise is too generous to Woodrow Wilson’s administration; the military was thoroughly segregated and no black pilots flew for the United States in that war. The Flying Ace shows black people as competent, resourceful, and even heroic, though of course the villains are black too.

Another notable film in this category is the 1920 Within Our Gates. According to Wikipedia, it’s the “oldest known surviving film by an African-American director.” Some parts in this film are played by white people, where it fits the story. It deals with the extreme racial hostility in the South and shows a lynching raid. It’s a powerful but poorly structured movie; I think a modern audience would watch it only out of a feeling of obligation.

There are many history lessons to learn from silent movies, even when the stories play loose with the facts or have weaknesses as entertainment.