Plot Synopsis (continued)
The
cradle scene interrupts the action - superimposed are the words: "Endlessly
rocks the cradle uniter of here and hereafter. Chanter of sorrows
and joys." The Modern Story is resumed:
Dividends of the Jenkins mills failing to meet the
increasing demands of Miss Jenkins' charities, she complains to
her brother, which helps decide him to action.
In his large, mostly bare office, Jenkins tells an
assistant on the phone that wages must be reduced in order to support
his sister's alleged moral crusade and charitable activities: "Order
a ten percent cut in all wages."
Outside the factory gate, a sign orders the cut. Agitated crowds of
workers gather. "A great strike follows." The Boy angrily
argues with another striking worker: "They squeeze the money out
of us and use it to advertise themselves by reforming us." From
a small mound of dirt on a hillside and from the sidewalks outside
the bungalows, the frightened, apprehensive families of the workers
watch the strike and the ensuing conflict. Groups of unemployed men
linger around the factory gate - they are "hungry ones that wait
to take their places." The state militia is ordered to suppress
them - they lie prone of the ground in the middle of the street with
rifles, set up cannons, load and cock their weapons, and are ordered
to fire upon the strikers.
"The militia having used blank cartridges, the
workmen now fear only the company's guards." Factory guards
try to fend off the advance of strikers beyond the factory's fence.
After being notified of the serious threat to his factory, Jenkins
calmly orders: "Clear the property." The company guards
use real ammunition to fire on the strikers, forcing them back. The
Boy's father is shot - "the Loom of Fate weaves death for the
Boy's father."
He kneels over his father's body next to him.
"The exodus after a time of waiting. Forced to
seek employment elsewhere, many victims of the Jenkins' aspirations
go to the great city nearby - the Boy among them." Sadly, the
Boy leaves his bungalow with his suitcase in hand. A young female
neighbor (Miriam Cooper) is "a friendless one - alone - as the
result of the strike...So too, the Dear One - and her father." They
all leave their homes to go to the city. "Fate leads them all
to the same district." Outside a restaurant, the hungry Friendless
One looks at the posted menu, while feeling the loose skirt around
her waist. "The Boy unable to find work - at last -" gravitates
to crime and commits petty theft. He steals the watch and wallet
from the coat of a fallen drunk on the sidewalk. "Adversity
causes the Friendless One to listen to a Musketeer of the slums." A
criminal gang leader known as the Musketeer of the Slums (Walter
Long) commonly preys (with ulterior motives) on social outcasts -
he invites the Friendless One into the restaurant for a meal.
"And again in Babylon." "The
marriage market. Money paid for beautiful women given to homely ones,
as dowers, so that all may have husbands and be happy." In the
marriage market presided over by a bearded Auctioneer (Martin Landry),
made-up women wait for their turn to be presented on a raised platform
and bid upon by 'buyers'. "Lips brilliant with juice of henna;
eyes lined with kohl. [NOTE: - According to Herodotus, women corresponding
to our street outcasts, for life the wards of Church and State.]" The
tomboyish, impudent, rowdy Mountain Girl is dragged into the market.
She is disobedient to her brother's wishes that she remain quiet
and not eat onions: "Tish tish! 'tis no place to eat onions."
"The girl's turn - perhaps not so different from
the modern way." [The scene draws analogies between ancient
auction-block marriage and later in the Modern Story about the way
women are compelled to walk enticingly in front of men.] Once the
unfeminine, rowdy Mountain Girl's turn arrives, she stands with her
feet apart and her hands on her hips on top of the platform. She
pouts in contempt at her audience, trying to discourage any potential
suitor. With head bowed, the Rhapsode holds a harp in his hands and
is in deep sorrow "in distant Nineveh - One who would give his
life if he were able to buy the merchandise held so lightly upon
Love's market." The auctioneer encourages bids from the crowd,
entreating them with a rose in his hand:
Any man will be happy with this sweet wild
rose - this gentle dove.
When a potential buyer reaches out to touch the hem
of her skirt, she clenches her fist - in closeup. She extends her
clawing, scratching nails at him: "But touch my skirt and I'll
scratch your eyes out!" The haughty girl begins eating onions
again. "The temper and rough language of the 'wild rose' prove
her to be not without thorns." To entice reluctant but amused
buyers, the auctioneer pulls coins from a box, offering: "With
her goes a third of a mina of silver." The girl sulks and then
rages at them:
You lice! You rats! You refuse me? There is no gentler
dove in all Babylon than I.
As she is stomping around on the platform, yelling
and scolding the disinterested buyers, people all around fall on
their knees when Prince Belshazzar, "now ruling for his father," enters
with his procession. She too bows down and then apologizes - looking
up with awe and amazement - and an adoring smile:
Oh, lord of lords! Oh, king of kings! Oh, masu!
Oh, scorching sun of the mid-day, these bugs will not buy me for
a wife! I dwell in sorrow.
The Prince holds out his hand toward his assistant,
gesturing that his royal seal be rolled out on a small tablet. She
is presented with the clay tablet and told: "This seal gives
you freedom to marry or not to marry - to be consecrated to the goddess
of love or not as thou choosest."
After the procession moves on, the girl looks toward the buyers, scoffing
saucily at them, and pointing to her tablet of freedom which liberates
her from marriage obligations.
"The Rhapsode, working in the tenements, to convert
backsliders to the true worship of Bel." In the tenements and
marketplace, the Rhapsode (as an agent of the Priests of Bel) preaches
to the people to admonish them to follow the High Priest of Bel,
and give up on following Ishtar. When the Mountain Girl enters the
scene and demands a drink of water at the well, he approaches her
with persistence, but she motions for him to back away: "Put
away thy perfumes, they garments of Assinnu, the female man. I
shall love none but a soldier." In her hovel of a house,
the superstitious Mountain Girl shovels coal into her stove and then
leans on her shovel - "the love smitten Mountain Girl vows eternal
allegiance to Belshazzar."
In a new scene, "in the Love Temple, Virgins of
the sacred fires of life." A fire burns in a sacred smoke pot
- a metaphor for passionate fire worship. Scantily-clad virgins in
the Love Temple - temple prostitutes - are consecrated to the cult
of Ishtar, the goddess of love and fertility. The naked and half-naked
women gaze at themselves in mirrors, rest on couches, sway back and
forth, or dance and frolic in the water of a fountain. Belshazzar
enters into his Princess' apartment - behind him, dancing girls are
seen through an open door. She kneels before him and they embrace. "He
promises to build her a city, beautiful as the memory of her own
in a foreign land."
In the erotic atmosphere, he tells his consort: "The
fragrant mystery of your body is greater than the mystery of life." Beyond
the doors in the background, a bored eunuch yawns. After a dissolve,
one of the girls there plays the strings of a harp, and a half-naked
woman veiled in gauze (with backlighting) dances. "Belshazzar
the king, The very young king, of Babylon - And his Princess Beloved,
Clearest and rarest of all his pearls, The very dearest one of his
dancing girls." The Prince proudly shows his Princess Beloved
his kingdom stretching out into the distance from the tower above
the great wall.
"Belshazzar, shepherd of the mighty nation, purified
by the sacred baths and a Sabbath of rest, visits the temple of the
moon god." With his entourage, Belshazzar walks through the
archway of the temple to Bel-Marduk, where the Mountain Girl murmurs
and sighs lovingly at him: "My masu, my hero-love."
Next to her in the crowd, "another agent of the High Priest of
Bel" is "agitating against Belshazzar," still fearing
the loss of his religious power. To defend her loved one, the Mountain
Girl grabs the High Priest by the throat and cries out: "Lies!
Lies! Lies!" For her angry assault and affrontery on a priest
(and the Priesthood itself), she is dragged off by soldiers: "...The
High Priest orders that she be beaten to death with a rod of iron." In
the temple court, she kneels before Belshazzar and pleads that she
speaks the truth:
Mountain Girl: I swear, oh Sar, this priest spoke
evil of thee.
Belshazzar: Since when has the High Priest of Bel the power of death
over my subjects?
After Belshazzar intervenes on the girl's behalf -
a second time, the High Priest bows and apologizes to Belshazzar,
who "again gives the girl her freedom."
The cradle scene is followed by a return to the Modern
Story. The story recounts what has happened to the three main
protagonists: the Dear One (and her father), the Friendless One,
and the Boy.
"The Dear One in her new environment forced upon
her by the Jenkins strike. The same old love and dreams." In
her slum dwelling, the Dear One mends her father's clothes. She mourns
the almost-dead, sagging and wilting geranium plant that she tends
by her window, and then finds it "hopeful" that a new shoot
grows from the dying stem - she believes life may be renewed. Outside
she watches a fancily-dressed, admired woman sashaying around in
front of men, and thinks to herself as she practices the same walk: "I'll
walk like her and maybe everybody will like me too." Her father
returns from work, tired, dirty, and with a heart pain in his chest.
"In the same neighborhood, the friendless one
again." Wearing a fancy gown, the Friendless One drinks wine
at a restaurant table while seated with her legs apart. "Across
the hall, The Musketeer of the Slums." In the Musketeer's office/living
quarters, the camera pans up past a nude female statue, a book on
the shelf ("The Love of Lucile") and two other nude paintings.
The Friendless One has become the Musketeer's mistress. "The
Boy, now a barbarian of the streets, a member of The Musketeer's
band." The Boy brings the Musketeer a stolen ring in his office,
and is told to quit flirting with the Friendless One. After the Boy
departs, the Musketeer angrily scolds her. She slaps him, but then
they roughly kiss each other.
In the film director's comment on modern courtship,
the Dear One is "imitating the walk of the girl on the street" after
coming down the stairs of her tenement building - she ties a sash
around her skirt below the knees to help make her hips twist and
attract attention. "The Boy's news stand, a blind for his real
operations. Their first meeting." After practicing her imitative
walk for the Boy on the sidwalk in front of the newsstand (although
they are pushed apart by a blind man), the "new walk seems to
bring results."
Inside her apartment building, the Boy firmly grabs her - she reacts
with hesitation and fright, biting her fingers. He tells her: "Say
kid, you're going to be my chicken." She flails her arms behind
his back as he kisses her, making her dizzy. Her father comes downstairs
and defends her, and then takes his daughter upstairs and forces her
on her knees: "Pray to be forgiven!"
The Dear One prays toward a statue of the Madonna and child, and cradles
her father's head.
"Inability to meet new conditions brings untimely
death to The Dear One's father." In limp grief, she stands over
his coffin in her apartment. The Boy enters behind her and sheds
a big tear. After standing frozen, she suddenly falls on the coffin,
sobbing. In a long shot, Jenkins sits at his desk in the middle of
his bare, vast factory office.
"Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking - The Comforter,
out of Nazareth." The film returns to the Judean Story with
an episode from the gospels - the wedding feast at Cana: "There
was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, John ii-1. [NOTE: - The ceremony
according to Sayce, Hastings, Brown and Tissot.]" After her
veil has been removed, the Bride (Bessie Love) smiles at her Bridegroom
(George Walsh). "The first sop to the bride." Bread is
dipped into mashed grapes, and then fed to the bride: "Be ye
as harmless as doves." The Nazarene (Howard Gaye), dressed in
a white robe, comes forward with a group of disciples through an
archway outside the home in Cana. A closeup captures a dozen white
doves under a stone bench. The two self-righteous Pharisees approach
cautiously. The Nazarene is "scorned and rejected of men." In
the home, Mary, the Mother (Lillian Langdon) comes to her son and
embraces him. The Pharisees watch the Cana wedding feast disapprovingly
through the window:
"Meddlers then as now. 'There is too much revelry and pleasure-seeking
among the people." [The Pharisees are directly paralleled to the
Uplifters of reform in the Modern Story.]
When "the poor bride and groom suffer great humiliation,"
because "the wine has given out," the Nazarene performs "the
first miracle. The turning of water into wine. [NOTE: - Wine was deemed
a fit offering to God; the drinking of it a part of the Jewish religion.]" With
a shadow of a cross cast over him, the Nazarene holds out his hand
over the wine jug - he performs a miracle by turning the water into
wine for the celebrants. The astonished onlookers carry the heavy wine-filled
jug back to the party. The bride and groom drink from a cup of wine
and the jubilation continues.
"Now for a time the little love god works his
small but mighty way, in other days the same as now." In the French
Story, the common people are unaware of the intolerance and suffering
being perpetuated around them by the powerful elite: "Brown
Eyes and her family happily ignorant of the web intolerance is weaving
around them." In her home (with Prosper at her side) with her
mother (Ruth Handford) and her family, Brown Eyes' oblivious father
(Spottiswoode Aitken) reads to everyone from a book. "Love's
silent mystery." The love between Brown Eyes and Prosper, who
exchange glances, is threatened by "the mercenary made bold
by passion." After saying goodbye to her sweetheart, Brown Eyes
picks up a dropped handkerchief at her doorstep. The Mercenary, who
has watched her from afar on the street, advances and grabs her but
she spurns him and fights him off.
The cradle rocking scene transitions the film to the Modern
Story, paralleling the story of the young couple in the French
segment with the two young people in the modern day segment. "In
the good old summertime. For the little Dear One, passing days
and youth have healed the wound" of her father's death. The
Boy and little Dear One, now close friends, walk by the riverfront
docks and boats. At "the end of a 'Coney Island' day," the
Boy walks her to her apartment room's door for a prolonged good-night
scene:
Dear One: [Good night.]
Boy: Nothing doing on the good night stuff, I always go inside to
see my girls. (He pulls out a cigarette from a pack. She turns,
hurries inside her apartment, and shuts the door. He playfully
pushes on the door from the outside.)
Dear One: [No.] Help me to be a strong-jawed jane. (She pushes her
chin up. She firmly pushes the door shut and locks it.) I told you
before - I promised Our Lady and I promised father that no man would
ever come in this room.
Boy: (angrily) Just for that I'll never see you again! (He heads
for the staircase.)
Dear One: (She sorrowfully leans her head against the door. He hears
her crying, softens, smiles, and comes back to the door. He knocks.)
[Who is it?]
Boy: I was thinking -- suppose we get married, then I can come in.
Dear One: (puzzled) [Married?] (She rolls her eyes.) [Do you really
mean that you want to marry me?] (She bites her finger and giggles.)
Boy: That's me. Kiss me good night and we'll call it settled. (She
unlocks the door. He sticks his head in.) [Come on, kiss me darling.]
(They almost kiss but she pulls back. She reacts shyly. He pleads
and they kiss. He moves back and she quickly shuts the door. She
giggles with her hand over her mouth. The boy smiles and exults excitedly
as he leaves. She sighs deliriously.)
"The enormous sums supplied by Jenkins to be distributed
as the meddlers see fit - in 'charity' - now make the Uplifters the
most influential power in the coummunity." Glass office doors
are painted with the words: "MARY T. JENKINS FOUNDATION FUND,
GENERAL OFFICES." After an iris closes and opens, there is a
double-exposure shot: the office is first empty, and then filled
with bustling women. Miss Jenkins arrives with her entourage.
As there are hypocritical reformers in the Modern Story,
there are "equally intolerant hypocrites of another age" in
the Judean Story. The Pharisees speak to men in the streets
of Jerusalem - denouncing the Nazarene for his hypocrisy for congregating
with publicans and for saving an adulteress:
And the Pharisee said: 'Behold a man gluttonous,
and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.' St. Matthew
XI-19.
To prove their point, the Nazarene is pictured sitting
in the midst of a group of publicans and sinners who are wining and
dining. Another instance is "the woman taken in adultery." In
an open air court, the Nazarene sits and watches as the accused adulterous
woman is dragged there and mocked. A Pharisee holds a stone high
in the air, affirming Moses' law to punish her by stoning: "Now
Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned; but what
sayest thou?" - John VIII. The Nazarene saves the sinning woman
and delivers a pointed lesson (written with his finger in the sand
on the stone step) to the morally self-righteous religious leaders: "He
that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." They
nervously drop their stones. With her face covered, the woman is
ashamed and wants to flee:
Nazarene: Woman, where are those thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee?
Adulteress: No man, Lord. (She falls on her knees and stretches her
arms out to him as he forgives her. She rises, with arms up in the
air.)
The Modern Story: "Now, how shall we find
this Christly example followed in our story of today? The Committee
of Seventeen report they have cleaned up the city."
In the Jenkins Foundation offices, three of the reformers
enthusiastically report about their activities to legislate morality
to their stern leader, in the areas of drinking in saloons, dancing
in public places, and prostitution:
It is peaceful in the -- [an image of a beer hall/saloon
which has been vacated and closed - chairs are piled up in a corner]
No more dancing in -- [a shot of a former dance hall which has been
transformed into a restaurant]
You yourself were with us when we raided -- [women are herded down
two sets of steps from a building by police - it is a house of ill
repute - and led to a patrol wagon, while reformers watch smugly
from a balcony. The brothels are to be closed. "When women cease
to attract men they often turn to Reform as a second choice."]
"But these results they do not report:" The
underworld activities of the Musketeer of the Slums and others are
able to still flourish and prosper. In a back room, a man pulls out
two bottles of smuggled booze from his pants pockets. Police enter
the scene through a window shade, grab the bottles, and warn the
men. "Each one his own distiller. Instead of mild wines and
beers -" a home-made distillery apparatus uses ears of corn
to brew whiskey mash. And men still flirt and procure young ladies
on slum streets and back alleys.
After their marriage, "the Boy, strongly braced
in the Dear One's sweet human faith, sets his steps with hers on
the straight road." Life is difficult - they live in a slum
apartment, but the Dear One teaches the Boy to pray and follow the
'straight and narrow' life. She is overjoyed by the Boy's conversion
and renouncement of his criminal pursuits. "The Boy tells the
boss he won't need the 'cannon' any more; he is through with the
old life."
At the Boss' place, the Boy tosses his pistol at the Musketeer of the
Slums, vowing that he is giving up his life of crime for a more honest
and upright life. After a short fight that leaves the underworld czar
on the floor, the Boy leaves - the Boss vows revenge because he fears
that the Boy may prosecute him.
"As an example to others of the band, The Musketeer,
with the help of men higher up, arranges the old familiar frame-up." To
crush the Boy, hired thugs beat him up, and when he goes unconscious,
they plant a pistol and wallet on him, and throw him on the sidewalk.
The victimized Boy is found by police - with the incriminating evidence
- and unjustly imprisoned.
The next scene opens with a long exterior shot of "the
sometimes House of Intolerance" - a large prison. The Boy is
led up the steps past a guard with a rifle. The prison door snaps
shut with a finality - the bar latch comes down and a little peep-hole
window closes. "Stolen goods, planted on the Boy, and his bad
reputation, intolerate him away for a term." The Dear One is
devastated by the Boy's incarceration: "The broken love nest
- The Dear One - alone - " In her apartment, she sadly and listlessly
sweeps the floor to keep her mind off what has happened. She picks
up her husband's cap on the table, "while at the Jenkins home
the Uplifters celebrate their success in righting the world that
was all wrong." Another reception is held in the large ballroom
of the Jenkins household to celebrate their reform efforts. The ones
ultimately responsible for the rise of oppressive underworld figures
and corruption in society are those who encourage intolerance under
the guise of social reform. |