Table Of ContentALLAN DWAN
(A DOSSIER)
ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION
EDITED
BY
DAVID
PHELPS
&
GINA
TELAROLI
APRIL
2014
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS
Allan
Dwan's
Moral
Tales
—
The
Art
of
Metamorphosis
(The
Silent
Period)
8
—
Angels
in
Exile
(The
Sound
Period)
18
Michael
Henry
Wilson
The
Griffith
Tradition
31
John
Dorr
The
Cliff
and
the
Flume
38
Bill
Krohn
The
American
Pastoral
45
Jean-‐Loup
Bourget
Ten
That
Make
A
Work
51
Chris
Fujiwara
Lessons
For
Architects
57
José
Neves
The
Uncertainty
Principle
68
David
Phelps
Inspection
des
Dwan
98
Serge
Bozon
Manhattan
Madness
(1916):
A
Note
on
the
Inter-titles
101
Noah
Teichner
A
Modern
Musketeer
(1917):
Adventures
in
Fairbanks-Sitting
109
R.
Emmet
Sweeney
He
Comes
Up
Smiling
(1918):
“A
Full-Steamed
Comic
Opera”
113
Daniel
Fairfax
and
Louis
Delluc
Manhandled
(1924)
121
Farran
Nehme
Stage
Struck
(1925):
Laws
of
Hospitality
126
Maxime
Renaudin
The
Iron
Mask
(1929):
Gone
The
Silent
Faces
130
Sabrina
Marques
Separate
But
Equal
#1:
Tide
of
Empire
(1929)
/
GT
133
Man
to
Man
(1930):
Oscillations
138
Ted
Fendt
Separate
But
Equal
#2:
Chances
(1931)
/
GT
145
Separate
But
Equal
#3:
Black
Sheep
(1935)
/
GT
150
High
Tension
(1936):
Laws
of
Attraction
155
Maxime
Renaudin
One
Mile
From
Heaven
(1937):
Two
Dwans
in
One
158
Ted
Fendt
Allan
Dwan
&
Shirley
Temple:
The
Man
and
The
Machine
164
Mathieu
Macheret
Separate
But
Equal
#4:
Rebecca
of
Sunnybrook
Farm
(1938)
/
GT
168
Josette
(1938):
Awkward
and
Proud
of
It:
Joan
Davis
173
Michael
Lieberman
Frontier
Marshal
(1939):
Shadows
of
Disorder
182
Filipe
Furtado
Sailor's
Lady
(1940)
186
Cullen
Gallagher
Young
People
(1940):
Welfare
State
189
Zach
Campbell
Trail
of
the
Vigilantes
(1940):
Horse
Sense
196
Maximilian
Le
Cain
Separate
But
Equal
#5:
Rise
and
Shine
(1941)
/
GT
200
Up
in
Mabel’s
Room
(1944)
/
Getting
Gertie’s
Garter
(1945):
Vector
Mobiles
205
Daniel
Kasman
Brewster’s
Millions
(1945)
/
Driftwood
(1947):
On
Excess
214
Carlos
Losilla
Rendezvous
with
Annie
(1946):
The
Home
Front
220
C.
Mason
Wells
Calendar
Girl
(1947):
Outsider
Visions:
Dwan
with
a
Movie
Camera
225
Christopher
Small
Calendar
Girl
(1947)
/
I
Dream
of
Jeannie
(1952):
Classic
/
Anti-Classic
229
Daniel
Kasman
Separate
But
Equal
#6:
The
Inside
Story
(1948)
/
GT
252
Sands
of
Iwo
Jima
(1949):
As
long
as
you
won’t
be
forgotten
257
Marie-‐Pierre
Duhamel
Surrender
(1950)
274
Cullen
Gallagher
Montana
Belle
(1952)
278
Fernando
F.
Croce
Sweethearts
on
Parade
(1953)
280
Dave
Kehr
Woman
They
Almost
Lynched
(1953):
Welcome
to
Poverty
Row
286
Alfonso
Crespo
Silver
Lode
(1954):
L’axiome
à
affirmer
en
fait
de
ballet
290
Andy
Rector
and
Bill
Krohn
Passion
(1954):
Notes
on
Form
and
Space
in
the
American
West
321
Graham
Swindoll
Cattle
Queen
of
Montana
(1954):
Seeing
Daylight
332
Gina
Telaroli
Escape
to
Burma
(1955):
Escape
To
See
403
Arnau
Vilaró
Pearl
of
the
South
Pacific
(1955):
In
The
Beginning
Was
The
Beginning
408
Pablo
García
Canga
Tennessee’s
Partner
(1955):
I
Didn't
Even
Know
His
Name
412
Santiago
Gallego
Slightly
Scarlet
(1956):
Observations
415
Joe
McElhaney
Hold
Back
the
Night
(1956)
419
Cullen
Gallagher
The
River’s
Edge
(1957):
To
Deserve
a
Few
Tears
424
Matthew
Flanagan
Enchanted
Island
(1958)
(Or
The
Taboola
Rasa)
429
David
Phelps
Most
Dangerous
Man
Alive
(1961):
Kiss
Me
Deadly
453
Christoph
Huber
The
Flamethrower
and
the
Flame
457
Daisuke
Akasaka
ALLAN
DWAN'S
MORAL
TALES
Michael
Henry
Wilson
Translated
by
Ted
Fendt
I
The
Art
of
Metamorphosis
(The
Silent
Period)
The
Half-Breed
(1916)
“It
takes
great
audacity
to
dare
to
be
oneself.”
—Eugène
Delacroix,
Journal,
January
15,
1860
A
sleeping
vagabond
dreams
he
is
a
hero
in
the
Far
West,
saving
damsels
in
distress,
pulling
them
free
from
runaway
wagons
and
burning
ranches,
while
meanwhile,
unbeknownst
to
him,
some
street
urchins
are
playing
with
matches
and
setting
his
clothes
on
fire.
This
anti-‐
hero
who
aspires
to
heroic
exploits
is
the
protagonist
of
A
Western
Dreamer
(1911).
In
this
tragi-‐comic
western,
Allan
Dwan’s
first
or
second
short
film,
one
can
already
recognize
the
filmmaker’s
taste
for
parody,
impersonation,
mixing
genres,
surprise
twists—and
most
of
all,
masked
games.
Private
or
proclaimed,
the
dream
of
most
of
his
adventurers
will
be
to
change
their
identity.
Whether
of
leather
or
satin,
iron
or
velvet,
the
mask
has
an
intoxicating
quality:
it
brings
together
pleasure
and
danger,
it
joins
drama
and
comedy
together.
8
An
Irish—hence
romantic—storyteller,
Dwan
loves
characters
that
boldly
move
forward
on
the
chessboard
of
life.
His
sympathies
go
out
to
orphans
or
rootless
individuals
endowed
only
with
their
imaginations,
to
dreamers
who
tend
to
mistake
their
desires
for
reality.
More
often
than
not
they
have
to
cheat,
and
sometimes
end
up
getting
burned.
But
their
fertile
imagination
is
also
what
spurs
them
to
be
enterprising,
to
change
their
world
if
not
the
world
itself.
What
is
important
is
not
to
let
oneself
get
stuck
in
the
role
one's
been
born
into,
but
to
reinvent
oneself,
to
try
on
all
the
masks,
to
give
expression
to
all
the
possibilities
contained
within.
These
many
identities
are
the
dreamer’s
privilege,
the
reason
he
stands
out
in
the
crowd.
And
the
filmmaker
is
always
ready
to
celebrate
his
exploits,
however
prickly
or
poignant,
comic
or
dramatic.
In
the
Sargasso
Sea
The
genre
that
best
lends
itself
to
masked
games
is
probably
the
comedy
of
manners—as
exemplified
by
Dwan’s
collaborations
with
Gloria
Swanson,
his
favorite
actress.
The
main
inspiration
here
is
in
deception—or
rather,
more
specifically,
in
the
schemes
of
a
modest
employee
whose
naivety
exposes
her
to
a
series
of
disappointments.
In
Manhandled
(1924),
Tessie,
a
sales
clerk
in
Manhattan,
thinks
she
can
escape
her
position
by
posing
for
a
sculptor,
then
by
modeling.
She
trades
the
sales
rack
of
a
department
store
basement
for
a
highfaluting
fashion
boutique
where
her
boss
makes
her
pretend
to
be
a
Russian
countess.
In
Stage
Struck
(1925),
Jennie,
a
waitress
in
a
diner
in
Virginia,
fancies
herself
as
the
next
Sarah
Bernhardt.
She
secretly
pursues
acting
courses
by
mail
and
tries
to
imitate
a
popular
actress
by
walking
with
her
nose
in
the
air.
Her
first
show
turns
out
to
be
a
disaster:
she
has
to
put
on
a
hood
and
boxing
gloves
in
order
to
be...
the
comic
foil
to
her
rival.
In
both
films,
the
indignities
undergone
by
the
heroine
culminate
in
Chaplinesque
humiliation
when
she
loses
her
pants
during
a
reception
or
onstage.
Play
the
diva
and
you'll
end
up
the
clown!
In
a
comedy
of
errors
the
costume
plays
a
crucial
role.
More
than
an
accessory,
it
is
a
disguise.
It
denotes
a
posture,
a
pretense,
a
misrepresentation.
The
bravura
sequences
are
the
ones
in
which
the
poser
gets
tangled
in
her
artifice,
the
masks
stop
fooling
anyone,
and
mirrors
begin
to
reflect
the
truth:
Jennie
is
left
to
rehearse
a
tear-‐jerking
melodrama
in
front
of
a
funhouse
mirror
that
makes
her
look
even
more
ridiculous.
Swanson's
posers
act
like
princesses,
but
betray
their
origins
by
chewing
gum
at
a
straight-‐laced
party
and
ordering
pancakes
at
a
princely
banquet.
It
is
up
to
her
male
partner
to
put
an
end
to
these
put-‐ons,
to
remove
the
make-‐up—literally—with
a
rag.
In
the
end,
the
suitor’s
entrepreneurial
spirit
prevails:
Jennie
and
her
love,
a
cook,
open
a
small
business...a
pancake
stand,
which
will
be
off
limit
to
actresses!
In
Manhandled,
Tessie
is
brought
down
to
earth
by
her
fiancée,
a
self-‐
made
Irishman
who
is
about
to
reap
a
fortune
from
a
patent
sold
to
the
auto
industry.
9
Dwan’s
egalitarianism
goes
hand
in
hand
with
his
sense
of
self-‐determination,
a
deep-‐
seated
faith
in
willpower.
In
his
first
feature
film,
David
Harum
(1915),
the
protagonist
is
already
imbued
with
a
variety
of
seemingly
contradictory
identities:
he
is
at
once
a
horse
trader
and
philanthropist,
a
public
figure
and
nonconformist,
a
banker
and
a
local
angel
of
mercy.
A
shape-‐shifting,
unpredictable
figure,
he
is
more
than
just
a
good
neighbor:
he
exhibits
genuine
humanity
and
compassion
towards
those
who
were
born
on
the
wrong
side
of
the
tracks.
A
flashback
reveals
that
his
altruism
goes
back
to
his
childhood:
left
to
fend
for
himself
after
running
away
from
home,
he
built
his
fortune
on
the
penny
given
to
him
by
a
generous
carnie.
Ever
since,
we
find
out,
he
has
spent
his
time
improving
the
lot
of
all
those
around
him,
down
to
the
destitute
old
black
man
whom
he
regales
with
a
cigar
in
the
epilogue.
The
strongest
sequence
comes
as
he
prevents
the
lynching
of
an
innocent
man.
We
see
the
square
fill
with
people
talking
about
taking
justice
into
their
own
hands.
The
community
is
on
the
verge
of
turning
into
a
mob.
Harum
succeeds,
cunningly,
in
defusing
the
violence,
but
tensions
of
that
nature
might
still
seem
surprising
in
the
context
of
such
jovial
Americana.
We’re
not
too
far
from
the
witch-‐hunt
of
Silver
Lode
(1954).
If
there
is
a
“plural”
hero,
one
who
can
manage
multiple
incarnations,
it’s
no
doubt
Douglas
Fairbanks,
with
whom
Dwan
shot
some
eleven
films.
From
the
start,
the
filmmaker
seems
to
have
been
on
the
same
wavelength
as
the
actor—who
was
also
author
and
master
of
their
joint
projects.
As
Dwan
explained
to
Peter
Bogdanovich,
“Stunts
per
se
were
of
no
interest
to
him
or
to
me.
The
only
thing
that
could
possibly
interest
either
of
us
was
a
swift,
graceful
move—the
thing
a
kid
visualizes
in
his
hero.“1
In
sum,
it
was
a
matter
of
combining
panache
and
humor,
comedy
and
adventure—and
so
they
designed
a
character
for
whom
life
would
be
one
big
game.
Every
role
suits
him,
on
the
condition
that
he
gets
to
play
the
lead.
Nothing
can
stop
him.
Mobility—professional,
social,
cultural—is
an
integral
part
of
his
personality,
as
is
his
appetite
for
life.
He
can
wear
overalls
or
a
smoking
jacket,
a
loincloth
or
suit
of
armor,
because
any
persona
might
mutate
into
another:
the
employee
becomes
a
prince;
the
bandit
a
do-‐gooder;
the
young
country
boy
a
modern
musketeer...and
even,
if
necessary,
a
harem
beauty!
The
fable
can
be
contemporary
or
medieval,
can
take
the
form
of
a
western
or
a
swashbuckler,
but
its
moral
remains
the
same:
faith
will
move
mountains.
In
He
Comes
Up
Smiling
(1918),
Jerry
first
appears
to
us
as
at
his
bank
teller's
counter,
a
prisoner
of
his
job.
The
striking
visual
metaphor,
worthy
of
The
Incredible
Shrinking
Man
(Jack
Arnold,
1957),
reduces
Fairbanks
to
the
size
of
a
doll.
He
balances
on
his
trapeze
like
a
canary
in
a
giant
cage.
Fittingly,
it’s
by
chasing
his
boss’s
canary
that
he
frees
himself,
leaves
his
“cage”
and
becomes
a
vagabond.
The
tramp's
wanderings
represent
a
return
to
natural
life
and
the
joy
of
living:
look
at
him
dancing
like
a
fawn
while
mimicking
Tarzan’s
acrobatics.
The
metamorphoses
continue:
chance
leads
him
to
borrow
the
clothes,
and
hence
identity,
of
a
10
Description:His response is to turn the hoax against its perpetrators: he puts a mother's
death, dressed as a trapper when he isn't fishing naked in the river, Sleeping
young Jesse James in Woman They Almost Lynched: the figure of a soon-‐to-‐be
-‐
