Judith of Bethulia (1914)
Released 8th March 1914
In 1913, Biograph’s director D. W. Griffith was agitating to make movies longer than the two-reelers to which the studio confined him. His frustration only grew as European film companies released such epic features as Enrico Guazzoni’s Quo Vadis? which lasted over two hours, played to packed houses and ran for 22 weeks at the Astor Theater on Broadway.
Griffith ordered construction of a frontier town in the San Fernando Valley for The Battle of Elderbush Gulch, a western he was planning. He also built a walled city in the hills near Chatsworth for a biblical epic he intended to shoot – Judith of Bethulia. This was to be his first feature, although he hid his intentions from the Biograph executives, who had authorised production of a standard two-reeler with a budget of $18,000.
The locations for Judith of Bethulia were ready by the time Griffith had finished shooting The Battle of Elderbush Gulch and Brute Force, a quasi-sequel to Man’s Genesis. Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s play, based on the Old Testament’s Book of Judith Apocrypha, was well known, meaning it had a ready-made audience. Despite this, Griffith commissioned a scenario by Grace A. Pierce to avoid copyright issues. The story also contained an element of titillation in that its selfless heroine is prepared to give herself sexually for the sake of her people.
Griffith shot the film amid exuberant, good-natured confusion. Before dawn each day, the company caught a train that transported them to waiting long wagons pulled by four-horse teams. These would drive them to the location. Because Biograph’s costume department couldn’t cope with their sheer numbers, extras were responsible for their own costumes, prompting a daily scramble; loss of a costume meant dismissal. The curling crepe beards worn by extras wilted in the intense heat. Sweet wore a crepe costume with tiny panties, which gave her little protection while riding side-saddle. Lillian Gish, who played a young mother in the film, recalled the unvarying box lunch of a dry, thick-sliced cheese sandwich, piece of fruit and half-pint carton of milk. If they were lucky, a hard-boiled egg would sometimes be included. Even Gish’s mother was recruited as an extra, receiving a severe sunburn for her contribution.
Despite the studio’s objections, Griffith cast slender Henry B. Walthall in the role of Holofernes, the brutish Assyrian warrior. When studio heads complained he was too short for the part, Griffith replied, “Well, Wally will play him tall.” And so he did, thanks to the cinematographic wizardry of Billy Bitzer. When asked by his assistant Karl Brown how he made the slight actor look so imposing on screen, Bitzer said, “Perch him up on something. Box, couch, throne, anything. Squat the camera down as low as you can without overshooting the set. Then play Blanche Sweet as far away as you can in the background, at full length; then he’ll look big and she’ll look little and that’s all there is to it.”
Biograph sent accountant Johannes Charlemagne Epping to the location to investigate the rising costs. His report back must have enraged them. Griffith paid little attention to the budget. When the well that provides the focal point between juvenile lead Robert Harron and his sweetheart Mae Marsh ran dry, he ordered a tank of water to be delivered at a cost of $80 (£2,500 today, allowing for inflation). He also engaged an orchestra to play on set – which would soon become common practice on silent sets – creating an atmosphere to aid Sweet’s performance. Such excess (in the eyes of the studio), together with the six reels shot, resulted in the film’s budget ballooning to $36,000 – twice the original sum allowed.
The story centres around the siege of the walled city of Bethulia, through which an invading Assyrian army must march if it is to invade Judea. The town’s soldiers repel an attack, resulting in a lengthy siege. People die as food and water grow scarce. Judith (Blanche Sweet), Bethulia’s most beautiful resident, seduces Holofernes (Henry B. Walthall), the Assyrian army’s sadistic leader. She intends to kill him. However, her resolve falters when she develops feelings for him.
Judith of Bethulia’s battle scenes feel like a rehearsal for greater things to come – in particular, the Babylonian scenes in Intolerance. As such, they are perhaps not as accomplished, although still far superior to anything previously seen. Griffith once again shows his innate skill in capturing authentic recreations of ancient locations. The streets of Bethulia look old and weathered, as if they have stood for thousands of years. It’s possible to imagine that the many extras filling its streets are genuine townsfolk going about their daily business. The care Griffith takes to recreate a long-ago world is evident in every location, every prop, every costume.
Seventeen-year-old Blanche Sweet delivers a nuanced performance as Judith. She signifies her inner turmoil with subtle changes of expression before revealing her anguish and pain during the ‘sackcloth and ashes’ scene. Opposite her, an unrecognisable Henry B. Walthall broods manfully, expressing the sheer brutality of his character while barely leaving his couch. Robert Harron is perhaps a tad too expressive as a young Bethulian, but Mae Marsh projects bruised innocence as the maiden that he loves who is captured by the Assyrian invaders. Also worthy of mention is the French actor J. Jiquel Lanoe, who plays Holoferne’s chief eunuch, a character who seems to grow more camp with each passing scene (Lanoe’s lover, Harry Hyde, plays one of the Bethulian soldiers).
Griffith received a frosty reception from Harry Marvin and Jeremiah J. Kennedy at Biograph when he reported to the company’s new studio on 175th Street in the Bronx. That they had built it with the profits from Griffith’s movies seemed to slip their minds. “They have no vision,” Griffith complained to Lillian Gish. “They want to release Judith as four films instead of sending it out as one long picture and charging more for admission.”
Ironically, the studio heads were no longer opposed to making longer movies. They had clinched a deal to adapt Klaw & Erlanger’s most successful plays into five-reel pictures. However, Griffith had challenged their authority by making Judith of Bethulia a feature. Perhaps as punishment, they declined to offer him the chance to direct them. Instead, they wanted him to supervise the new “stage experts” they intended to hire to make the Klaw and Erlanger films. Griffith’s overdue renewed contract allowed him to direct only short films.
The director refused to sign it, and in October 1913 he and Biograph – his home for six years – parted company, effectively sounding the death knell for the studio. Most of his stock company followed him: Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Blanche Sweet, Henry B. Walthall, Donald Crisp, Mae Marsh, Spottiswoode Aitken, Robert Harron all defected from Biograph. Only Dell Henderson remained, with Lionel Barrymore choosing to return to the stage. Billy Bitzer, Griffith’s cameraman since his early days at Biograph, followed the director in December 2013.
Biograph locked Judith in a vault, delaying its release for almost a year. By then, American exhibitors were regularly showing foreign multi-reel features, so the film had lost its novelty value. The Klaw & Erlanger negotiations broke down. With most of its stars following Griffith to Harry Aitken’s Mutual, the studio limped along by re-issuing Griffith’s back-catalogue. They also produced pale imitations of his dramas and Sennett-style comedies. In 1917, they released Her Condoned Sin, a six-reel version of Judith of Bethulia with new intertitles and added scenes Griffith had cut from the original. It was to be one of the company’s last releases.