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The Charge of the Light Brigade (1912 film)
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Wikipedia article
'The Charge of the Light Brigade' is a 1912 American silent historical drama film directed by J. Searle Dawley. Produced by Edison Studios, the film portrays the disastrous yet inspiring military attack in October 1854 by British light cavalry against Russian artillery positions in the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. Director Dawley also wrote the scenario for this production, adapting it in part from the famous 1854 narrative poem about the charge by British poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who completed his poem just six weeks after the actual event.[https://web.archive.org/web/20121016212641/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/25522 "The Charge of the Light Brigade (1912)"], British Film Institute (BFI), London, United Kingdom. Retrieved August 26, 2020. The film's action scenes and landscape footage were shot between late August and early September 1912, while Dawley and his company of players and crew were on location in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In order to produce a sizable and believable recreation of the charge, the director needed a very large number of horsemen. Fortunately for Dawley, the commander of United States Army cavalry at Fort D. A. Russell at Cheyenne agreed to provide "about 800" troopers and "their trained mounts" to the Edison project.[https://archive.org/stream/motography78elec#page/222/mode/2up "'Charge of the Light Brigade'"], 'Motography', September 14, 1912, p. 223. Retrieved via Internet Archive, August 25, 2020.[https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/silentfilms/silentfilms-home.html "American Silent Feature Film: Database From the report 'The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912-1929'"], searchable database that includes nearly 11,000 titles in both complete and partial states. Library of Congress. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
The film was originally released in American cinemas on October 11, 1912, and four years later rereleased under a renewed copyright by Thomas Edison, Inc.[https://archive.org/details/motography152elec/page/1462/mode/2up "Complete Record of Current Films" / 6-14 The Charge of the Light Brigade...Edison 1000"], 'Motography' (Chicago, Illinois), June 24, 1916, p. 1462. Retrieved via Internet Archive, August 25, 2020. An 11-minute print of that 1916 rerelease survives, copies of which can be viewed today on various streaming services.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfKo0dVnuDw "The Charge of the Light Brigade (1912) [1916 re-release version]"], running time 11:11, uploaded by Films by the Year on YouTube (San Bruno, California) on September 13, 2016. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
are presented throughout the film.
Plot
The film opens with two young British cavalry officers, Captain William Morris and Captain Louis Nolan, leaving home and bidding farewell to their wives in the parlor of the Nolans' residence. After the men leave the room, the film cuts to scenes much later in a British encampment in the Crimea, near the small harbor town of Balaklava, where Morris and Nolan are writing letters as fellow troopers assemble the evening before the battle. Scenes then depict cavalry units preparing for action the next day. Lord Raglan, the one-armed commander-in-chief of Britains Crimean forces, is portrayed on horseback issuing orders of engagement as he surveys the terrain and Russian troop positions. The film then depicts Captain Nolan taking Raglan's orders and riding to relay them to George Bingham, the Earl of Lucan, who commands the armys cavalry division. Lucan, also on horseback, is forward in the field and is scanning the enemy as well. When he delivers the orders, Nolan appears to gesture in the general direction of Russian batteries guarding the end of the valley instead of toward Raglan's intended objective, captured British guns positioned elsewhere.
Despite the mix-up in Raglan's orders, Lucan commands his subordinate Lord Cardigan, to lead a full charge of his light brigade into the valley, which is heavily fortified on three sides by lines of Russian cannons. Cardigan and his 673 men dutifully obey the order even though their mission appears to be a near-suicidal task, offering little chance of success.[https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/battles/crimea/charge.htm "Charge of the Light Brigade"], The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Greater London, United Kingdom. Retrieved August 26, 2020. Drawing sabres and lowering their lances, the troopers charge. The film now portrays Captain Nolan rushing to halt the misdirected charge once he realizes the mistake, but he is knocked from his horse by cannon fire and killed. A carnage now ensues with the brigade being mauled by the Russian guns. Scenes simulating dead horses and riders lying on the field are shown, intended to represent the devastating losses suffered by the brigade in the 1854 charge. The attack manages to overrun temporarily a few Russian artillery positions, but achieves no tactical advantage. Ultimately, the attack by the "Noble six hundred" ended with 298 of their number either being killed, wounded or captured, and nearly 400 horses lost.[https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/battles/crimea/popup/casualtybal.htm "Casualty return for the period including Balaklava"], catalogue reference WO 1/369 f. 685 (22-26 October 1854), The National Archives, United Kingdom. Retrieved August 26, 2020.Calthorpe, Somerset John Gough (1857). 'Letters from Headquarters: Or, The Realities of the War in the Crimea, by an Officer on the Staff'. London: John Murray, p. 132. The film closes with the battered survivors of the British brigade returning to their lines and being cheered for their bravery by their fellow soldiers.
Cast
* Richard Neill as Captain Louis Nolan
* Benjamin Wilson as Captain William Morris
* James Gordon as Lord Raglan, commander-in-chief of the British forces
* Charles Sutton as Lord Lucan, commander of the British cavalry division
*Uncredited actor as Lord Cardigan, leader of the charge
*Uncredited actresses as Mrs. Nolan and Mrs. Morris
Production
In order for Edison Studios to produce in 1912 a large, believable recreation of the famous charge, director J. Searle Dawley made arrangements with the commander of Fort D. A. Russell near Cheyenne, Wyoming to have between 750 and 800 of his federal troopers to perform as British cavalry units and as Russian artillery crews and supporting infantry. Fort Russell at that time was among the largest cavalry bases in the United States Army.[https://loc.gov/pictures/item/wy0259 "Fort David A. Russell, Randall Avenue west of First Street, Cheyenne, Laramie County, WY"], Library of Congress (LOC), Washington, D.C. Retrieved August 26, 2020. The rolling, largely barren hillsides on Fort Russell's military reservation proved to be an ideal setting for filming, offering Dawley a terrain that in its general appearance looks very similar to the Crimean landscape where the 1854 cavalry charge occurred.
During the six years that Dawley worked for Edison, between 1907 and 1913, he directed over 200 "one-reelers".[https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8ng4s42/admin/#descgrp-1.2.2 "James Searle Dawley Papers"], Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California. Online Archive of California (OAC). Retrieved August 27, 2020. Most of those film projects were completed in a matter of days at Edison's main studio in the Bronx in New York City; however, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' required considerably more production time due to the logistics of shooting on location in Wyoming, the filming of action scenes with hundreds of mounted troops, and costuming many of those riders with reproductions of British cavalry uniforms and weapons from the 1850s. Reviewers of the film after its release, including reviewers and army veterans in England, complimented "the historical accuracy of the uniforms and accessories".[https://archive.org/stream/cinenewgaz01cine#page/n465/mode/2up "An Appreciation"], 'The Cinema News and Property Gazette' (London), November 1912, p. 19. Retrieved via Internet Archive, August 26, 2020. According to news reports trade publications, the uniforms used in the film "were made to order from authentic military authorities in London."[https://archive.org/stream/movingpicturenew06unse#page/n517/mode/2up "The Charge of the Light Brigade (Oct. 11)"], 'The Moving Picture News', October 5, 1912, p. 27. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
The interior footage in the film's opening scene, which portrays Nolan and Morris bidding farewell to their wives, was likely shot at Edison's New York studio before Dawley and his company of actors and crew traveled cross country to Wyoming, which formed only one part of an "extensive picture making tour" destined for California.[https://archive.org/stream/moviwor13chal#page/n345/mode/2up "Edison Players Go West"], 'The Moving Picture World' (New York, N.Y.), July 27, 1912 p. 342. Retrieved via Internet Archive, July 27, 2020. That opening sequence was then spliced into the Cheyenne footage to create the film's final cut before its release in October 1912. In assembling that final cut, Edison film editors also placed at various points in the footage intertitles or text cards that identify the main characters and present verses from Lord Tennyson's poem.
Filming the charge in Wyoming was not done without injuries. Richard Neill, as Captain Nolan, was one cast member who was hurt. During his character's death scene, he reportedly "fell so realistically" from his horse that he broke his upper arm when he hit the ground.[https://archive.org/stream/motionpicturesto04moti#page/n523/mode/2up "Green Room Jottings"], 'The Motion Picture Story Magazine' (Brooklyn, N.Y.), October 1912, p. 154. Retrieved via Internet Archive, August 28, 2020.[https://archive.org/stream/motionpicturesto05moti#page/n351/mode/2up "Answers to Inquiries"], 'The Motion Picture Story Magazine', March 1913, p. 164. Retrieved via Internet Archive, August 28, 2020. Neill was described at the time in the motion picture industry as a "popular young Edison 'dare-devil'".[https://archive.org/details/clipper60-1913-02/page/n3/mode/2up "Edison Studio Gossip"], 'The New York Clipper' (New York City), February 1, 1913, p. 4. Retrieved via Internet Archive, August 28, 2020. One of several trade references to the accident stated that since no attending physician was present at the filming, the spunky actor "set the bone himself, against the pommel of his saddle". That incident would be remembered in the entertainment media. Later, in 1913, 'The New York Clipper' in a news item about Neill stated, "He will be remembered as the cavalry officer who 'broke his arm while being killed' in 'The Charge of the Light Brigade.'"
Release and reception
The motion picture was officially released in the United States on October 11, 1912 and was generally well received across the country by both reviewers and theatergoers. Two weeks afternoon the film's release, the Midwest correspondent for 'The Moving Picture World' reported it as "a tremendous hit in Chicago theaters", adding "Great applause has greeted its presentation at all houses where it has been shown."McQuade, Jas. S. [https://archive.org/details/movpicwor14movi/page/328/mode/2up "Chicago Letter / Chicago Film Brevities"], 'The Moving Picture World' (New York, N.Y.), October 25, 1912, p. 328. Retrieved via Internet Archive, August 27, 2020. Edisons release even proved to be highly popular in England, where an American attempt to portray British military history on screen would usually be greeted by reviewers with contempt if not dismissed entirely. Edison, in fact, sold no less than 309 reels of the film for distribution in England, and reviews there were quite positive.[https://archive.org/details/motionpicturenew102unse/page/n139/mode/2up "Dyreda Producing Important Pictures"], 'The Motion Picture News' (New York, N.Y.), October 17, 1914, p. 51. Retrieved via Internet Archive, August 27, 2020. In its October 1912 issue, 'The Cinema News and Property Gazette', a popular trade paper published in London, headlines its opinion of Edison's production as a "Triumph", and after seeing a preview, the paper commends the film, especially for its realism:
Elsewhere in Europe and in the British Empire, the American film continued to be well received in the months after its release. The picture by December 1912 was being successfully marketed in Germany under the title 'Der Todesritt bei Balaklava' ("The Death Ride at Balaklava").[https://archive.org/stream/kinematograph-1912-12#page/384/mode/2up "2620 Der Todesritt bei Balaklava Edison"], 'Der Kinematograph' (Dsseldorf, Germany), No. 313, December 25, 1912, p. 383. Retrieved via Internet Archive, August 29, 2020. In Bombay (now Mumbai), 'The Times of India' in its January 25, 1913 issue declares the Edison motion picture "magnificent" and ranks it as "one of the best war-films yet given to the public.""Bombay Amusements: The Yeoman of the Guard", 'The Times of India' (Bombay), January 25, 1913, p. 7. ProQuest Historical Newspapers (Ann Arbor, Michigan); subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library. Perhaps, however, the most gratifying praise received by Edison was a letter written to the company by T. H. Roberts, the founder of the "Balaclava Survivors' Fund" in England, a fund that was established to support the financial needs of the small, dwindling number of veterans of the 1854 charge. Portions of Roberts' letter to the Edison Manufacturing Company are quoted in the November 1912 issue of the London trade journal 'The Cinema News and Property Gazette':
Rerelease, 1916
After renewing the copyright for this production in 1915, Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated rereleased the motion picture in the United States the following year, on June 14. The film during it second run continued to please critics and to resonate with American audiences. Marion Howard, a correspondent for the New York-based trade magazine 'The Moving Picture World' shared with his readers the reaction to the film by a theatergoer in Boston in the weeks after its rerelease:
Surviving copies of the film
A 1916 reprint of the film survives, as well as various modern video copies made from that reprint. While the original 1912 release was produced on 35mm film stock with a running length of 1025 feet or approximately 15 minutes, the surviving 1916 reprint is in a 16mm format with a running time of slightly over 11 minutes. Even allowing for projection-speed variations between the two film stocks, the noted time difference indicates that a portion of the original footage may be missing from the 1916 reprint.Bennett, Carl. [https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/ChargeOfTheLightBrigad1912.html "Charge of the Light Brigade" (1912)], catalog entry of The Progressive Silent Film List, The Silent Era Company. Retrieved August 29, 2020. A digital copy of the 1916 reprint is available on streaming services such as YouTube.
Notes
References
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