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The Road to the Heart

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Wikipedia article




'The Road to the Heart' is a 1909 American short film, a dramedy directed by D. W. Griffith and produced by the Biograph Company of New York City. Starring David Miles, Anita Hendrie and Herbert Yost, the production was filmed in two days in March 1909 at Biograph's studio in Manhattan. It was released in April that year and distributed to theaters on a "split-reel", which was a single film reel that included more than one motion picture. The other picture that accompanied this comedy was the Biograph comedy 'Trying to Get Arrested'.

Plot



Various 1909 film-industry publications provide basic summaries of this photoplay's plot. The trade journal 'The Moving Picture World' is one that describes the storyline in its April 3 issue:

Film reviewer H. A. Downey in 'The Nickelodeon', another widely read trade journal in 1909, provides in its May edition a far more concise summary of Griffith's screenplay than the one found in 'The Moving Picture World'. Downey describes the film as "A verification of the theory that the road to the heart is through the stomach, as set forth in the case of Miguel, who, disapproving of his daughter's marriage, drives her from home, but relents for the sake of a hearty meal."Downey, H. A. [https://archive.org/details/nickelodeon12elec/page/n129/mode/2up?view=theater "Record of April Films/The Road to the Heart"], 'The Nickelodeon', May 1909, p. 144. IA. Retrieved 7 April 2021.

Another summary of this short's plot is in the extensive 1985 publication 'Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress'.Niver, Kemp R. 'Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress', [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435054790779&view=1up&seq=302 "The Road to the Heart"]. Washington, D.C.: Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, 1985, p. 276. HathiTrust Digital Library. Retrieved 7 April 2021. The following was composed by Library of Congress staff after reviewing a paper roll of small photographic prints preserved in the LC's collection. Those prints date from 1909 and were produced directly, frame-by-frame from Biograph's now-lost 35mm master negative of 'The Road to the Heart':

Cast



*David Miles as Miguel, wealthy Mexican 'ranchero'The actor in this role may have actually been James Kirkwood, Sr., not David Miles. Handwritten identifications on a 1909 'Biograph Bulletin' (number 228) credit Kirkwood as the performer portraying Miguel. See [https://archive.org/details/biograph-bulletins-1908-1912/page/n97/mode/2up "The Road to the Heart"], 5 April 1909, 'Biograph Bulletins: 1908-1912'; a compilation of Biograph Studio publications, including bulletin number 228, which includes a film still with handwritten identifications of three of the four actors depicted in scene: "James Kirkwood" (as Miguel), "Anita Hendrie", and "Florence Lawrence". The fourth actor is unidentified, although it is Herbert Yost, who also used at this time the stage name Barry O'Moore. Retrieved 2 September 2021.

*Anita Hendrie as Vinuella, Miguel's wife

*Herbert Yost (also credited Barry O'Moore) as Jos

*Florence Lawrence as Miguel's daughter and Jos's wife

*John R. Cumpson as Chinese man

*Clara T. Bracy as Irish cook

*Mack Sennett as 'vaquero' (cowboy)

*Arthur V. Johnson as 'vaquero' (cowboy)

Production



The screenplay for this short is credited to director Griffith, who shot the picture at Biograph's headquarters and main studio, which in 1909 were located inside a renovated brownstone mansion at 11 East 14th Street in New York City. Filming was completed in just two daysMarch 4 and 5, 1909by Biograph cinematographer Arthur Marvin.

The short's "anonymous" actors

Compiling and verifying cast members in early Biograph productions such as 'The Road to the Heart' is made more difficult by the fact that Biograph, as a matter of company policy, did not begin publicly crediting its performers and identifying them in film-industry publications or in newspapers advertisements until four years after the release of this short. In its April 5, 1913 issue, the Chicago-based trade journal 'Motography' in a news item titled "Biograph Identities Revealed" announces that "at last" Biograph "is ready to make known its players."[https://archive.org/details/motography09elec/page/222/mode/2up?view=theater "Biograph Identities Revealed"], 'Motography' (Chicago), 5 April 1913, p. 222. IA; refer to Kelly R. Brown's 'Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl: America's First Movie Star' (1999) about Biograph's policy of using anonymous or "unnamed" actors. That news item also informs filmgoers that for the price of ten cents they can purchase a poster from Biograph on which the names and respective portraits of 26 of the companys principal actors were featured.

' for the two "split-reel" releases, 1909

The co-stars of this short were among many early Biograph players who performed anonymously and were consistently uncredited in their screen appearances for the studio. Florence Lawrence, in the role of Miguel's daughter in this film, was known in 1909 to theater audiences only as the "Biograph Girl", although within a few years after this comedy's release, she would be widely publicized as one of the top actors in the United States' motion-picture industry.Brown, Kelly R. 'Florence Lawrence, The Biograph Girl: America's First Movie Star'. Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland and Company, 1999, pp. 23-32.

Release and reception



With a film length of 618 feet and an original runtime of between nine and ten minutes, 'The Road to the Heart' was released and distributed by Biograph on a split-reel with the 344-foot comedy 'Trying to Get Arrested'.[https://archive.org/details/moviwor04chal/page/n407/mode/2up?view=theater Advertisement promoting the 1909 Biograph split-reel releases] 'The Road to the Heart' and 'Trying to Get Arrested'; published in the trade journal 'The Moving Picture World' (New York, N.Y.), 3 April 1909, p. 393. IA. Retrieved 7 April 2021. Few impartial reviews or comments about the film can be found in either 1909 trade publications or in city and small-town newspapers that year. Most newspaper descriptions of the short are contained in theater advertisements that circulated throughput various communities in the weeks and months after the film's release.

A Biograph "dramedy"

In both 1909 publications and in more current references, the genre or production designation for 'The Road to the Heart' varies. The production is cited as a drama or a "dramatic" in period release schedules and in Biograph advertisements for the film in trade journals; yet, in theater bills and promotions for the short in available 1909 newspapers, 'The Road to the Heart' is cited at times as a drama but more often as a comedy. The previously cited 1985 reference 'Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress' as well as the online source the Internet Movie Database also categorize the film as a comedy.

, April 1909

In August 1909 the Grand Theater in Brunswick, Georgia promoted the film in the local newspaper as "a very clever farce comedy that is sure to please."[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90052143/1909-08-10/ed-1/seq-7/ "The Grand"], 'The Brunswick News' (Brunswick, Georgia), 10 August 1909, p. 7. Chronicling America, LC. Retrieved 10 April 2021. The Electric Theatre in Conway, Arkansas, categorized'The Road to the Heart' as "comic" in its lineup of motion pictures, along with its split-reel companion comedy 'Trying to Get Arrested', which the theatre erroneously labeled 'He Tries to Be Arrested'.[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85033000/1909-05-20/ed-1/seq-1 "Katie Urshman the Child Wonder Will Sing Tonight at Electric Theatre"], 'The Log Cabin Democrat' (Conway, Arkansas), 20 May 1909, p. 1. 'Chronicling America', LC. Retrieved 10 April 2021. On the other hand, the Jewel Theatre in Astoria, Oregon, like Biograph's promotions in trade publications, advertised the short as a "Dramatic".Jewel Theatre advertisement for "Biograph's Latest Films" (The Road to the Heart and Trying to Get Arrested), 'The Morning Astorian' (Astoria, Oregon), 20 April 1909, p. 5; Chronicling America, LC. Retrieved 10 April 2021. All of these varying descriptions and others have led to general uncertainties about the film's actual genre or type, so much so that the online reference the "Progressive Silent Film List" at 'Silent Era' simply categorizes the short with question marks: "[?]Drama?".[https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/R/RoadToTheHeart1909.html "The Road to the Heart"], profile, "The Progressive Silent Film List", Carl Bennett, 'Silent Era', State of Washington. Retrieved 10 April 2021. Given such uncertainties associated with the presence of both dramatic and comic elements in this short's plot, the production is perhaps best classified as a dramedy.

Preservation status



A visual record of 'The Road to the Heart' does exist. The Library of Congress (LC)) holds a 241-foot roll of paper images printed frame-by-frame directly from the comedy's original 35mm master negative. Submitted by Biograph to the United States government shortly before the film's release, the roll is part of the original documentation required by federal authorities for motion-picture companies to obtain copyright protection for their productions.Niver, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435054790779&view=1up&seq=13&q1 "Preface"], pp. ix-xiii.

While the LC's paper print record is not projectable, such paper copies can be transferred onto modern polyester-based safety film stock for screening. In fact, during the 1950s and early 1960s, Kemp R. Niver and other LC staff restored more than 3,000 early paper rolls of film images from the library's collection and transferred many to safety stock. The UCLA Film and Television Archive, for example, has in its collection such a reproduction, but not one of 'The Road to the Heart'. Instead, the archive has a copy of the first film directed by D. W. Griffith, the short 'Adventures of Dollie'. That projectable reproduction was created from a copy of the LC's paper print of that 1908 film.Silent film reproduction on 35mm safety print of 'Adventures of Dollie' (1908) made from LC paper print, one reel, inventory number M27769, UCLA Film and Television Archive, Los Angeles, California. Retrieved 7 April 2021.

See also



* D. W. Griffith filmography

Notes



References




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