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Better Times (film)
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Wikipedia article
'Better Times' is a 1919 American silent comedy film directed by King Vidor.Baxter 1976, p. 9: ...romantic comedy...
Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 28: ...a rural comedy
[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/B/BetterTimes1919.html Progressive Silent Film List: 'Better Times'] at silentera.com A print survives in the EYE Institut Filmmuseum Nederlands.[http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.3708/default.html The Library of Congress/FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog:'Better Times'] Produced by the Brentwood Corporation, the film stars the then unknown Zasu Pitts in an early screen appearance.Baxter 1976, p. 9: Vidor spotted [Pitts] on a Hollywood streetcar")
The picture is the second of four Christian Science preachment films that represent a brief phase in Vidors output, championing the superiority of self-healing through moral strength, supplemented by the benefits of rural living.(Gustafssson, 2016: The film advocated views associated with Christian Science (not to be confused with Scientology), a then relatively new religious movement that came about towards the end of the 19th century and to which Vidor claimed allegiance.
Durgnat and Simmons, 1988 p. 26
Baxter 1976 p. 9
Plot
As described in a film magazine, the plot of the film is as follows. A western Pennsylvania town has two hotels that have seen better days. Nancy Scroggs (Pitts) is the neglected daughter of Ezra Scroggs (McDonald), who is the chief reason no one visits his hotel, the Lakeview. A gambler and procrastinator, he has succeeded in diverting trade from himself to Si Whittaker (De Vaull), proprietor of the Majestic.
Nancy, finally spurred into action by lines printed on a calendar, takes an ancient automobile used in the hotel's glory days and takes a stand at the train depot. Her one and only passenger is Spike Macauley, champion pinch hitter for a baseball team, who partly for pity and partly for a lark accompanies the girl. Through Spike's advertisement of the culinary department among the summer boarders of the Majestic, the later's guests are soon transferred to Nancy's care. A sudden telegram causes Spike to leave for the city, which leaves Nancy, who believes he has gone to see his sweetheart, sad.
In the days that follow, tragedy hits when Ezra gambles away his life savings and the hotel and then commits suicide. Nancy, using the insurance money from her father, goes to boarding school. While there she writes pretend love letters to herself from a famous ball player whom she only knows as Peter, make believing to have a sweetheart. This leads to a distressing situation, not anticipated by Nancy, when she is entertained at a box party at a ball game with expectations that she will meet her "lover." However, when she looks and sees that Peter (Butler) and Spike are one and the same, and jumps onto the field with joy.
Cast
* ZaSu Pitts as Nancy Scroggs
* David Butler as Peter Van Alstyne
* Jack McDonald as Ezra Scroggs
* William De Vaull as Si Whittaker (as William De Vaulle)
* Hugh Fay as Jack Ransom
* George Hackathorne as Tony
* Julanne Johnston (as Julianne Johnstone)
Footnotes
References
*Baxter, John. 1976. 'King Vidor'. Simon & Schuster, Inc. Monarch Film Studies. LOC Card Number 75-23544.
*Durgnat, Raymond and Simmon, Scott. 1988. 'King Vidor, American.' University of California Press, Berkeley.
*Gustafsson, Fredrik. 2016. K'ing Vidor, An American Romantic' La furia umana. LFU/28 Winter 2016. http://www.lafuriaumana.it/index.php/61-archive/lfu-28/548-fredrik-gustafsson-king-vidor-an-american-romantic Retrieved June 4, 2020.
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