Henry B. Walthall: Film Reviews--The Silents 1916-1927
A Tribute Page to the Silent Film Star

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Slide promoting the 1919 film The Boomerang.

Note on the grading system: The "Walthall Factor" Grade is not an evaluation of Henry B. Walthall's acting skills as he never gave a bad performance even when the film, and his part in it, was lame. The Walthall Factor is a combination of Walthall's time on screen, the treatment of his role (was the character he played worthy of his talents), and--ultimately--whether or not I enjoyed watching him in the role (it is, after all, my website).

 

Probably Henry Walthall's best performance
in the hunk department. As the Lone Wolf
in the 1919 film False Faces

 

• False Faces (Released February 16, 1919) Film on the "Further Career and Adventures of the Lone Wolf." Walthall has the lead role as Michael Lanyard, the fictional thief/good guy "Lone Wolf." The film begins on the Western Front during the Great War. Lanyard, who had posed as a German secret agent, crawls under British fire and search lights to reach a British trench. He identifies himself as the Lone Wolf who is out to get revenge on the German spy Ekstrom. Ekstrom had led an attack on a Belgium town which resulted in the death of Lanyard's sister and nephew. Lanyard takes on a variety of different "faces" on his way to America for a final showdown with Ekstrom. One scene finds the Lone Wolf on a submarine commanded by the captain who sank the Lusitania (the film was released only four years after the sinking). Faces, which also starred Lon Chaney, is a fairly fast-moving film (I had problems following it at times) that is action-packed. Walthall has plenty of physical scenes and his overall performance is awesome--like an action-hero (who knew?). Scenes showing his character's sensitivity while recalling the attack on his family were also nice. He demonstrates here that he had the ability to play the typical heroic role with physical stunts and a suave demeanor (although his character had a nervous, unsure dimension as well). The sexy mustache doesn't hurt either. Walthall Factor: A+ Film Grade: A-
  

   

  
  "We're not even married yet and you're nagging me."

   

• The Boomerang (Released May 1919) The Boomerang is a film I never thought I'd see. I figured it was probably lost or locked away in an archive somewhere and all I would have of it is the above glass slide. Well, Reel Classic DVD has made it available to all on their website as well as The Confession which is one of Walthall's hardest films to find, so check it out!
  
  Walthall started in moving pictures in his early 30s, so he often played roles in which his characters were much younger. Usually, any age discrepancy did not detract from his performance. In The Boomerang, however, the age difference is noticeable. Walthall was 41 by the time the film was released, and he looked it. He plays George Montgomery Gray (who is called "Gay," but I will not refer to his character by that name), the idle son of National Food President Maximilian Gray. The President of the rival Consolidated Packing Company, Peter Cameron, is anxious to marry his daughter, Rose, to George in order to facilitate a merger between the companies. At their engagement party, Rose tells George he should carve out his own path instead of sponging off his father's powerful company. They are not even married yet and she starts with the nagging. George promises Rose he will make her proud. He will have to prove himself sooner than he expected.
  
  At the engagement party, he is confronted by the creepy Napoleon Snape (which the intertitle describes as a "drug-polluted parasite"). Snape shows George a letter from Rose's brother Lonnie stating that he impregnated Snape's niece, Nora. To avoid a scandal to Rose's family, George writes Snape a hush check made out, at Snape's request, to Nora.
  
  The merger between the companies is announced before the wedding. George is the lone dissenter, warning such a union would violate the U.S. anti-trust laws. Cameron cannot let George jeopardize the merger. He buys the check George made out to Nora and uses it to accuse George of cheating on Rose. The engagement is broken and George is kicked out of the company to fend for himself. Working at a construction site, he learns about the plight of the working man as food prices climb thanks to the monopoly co-run by his father. He also suspects poor food storage practices by National Food when tainted meat reaches the plates of the working classes and causes a wave of food poisoning.
  
  At a labor rally, George urges "votes not violence" to the rowdy audience. His speech is not a crowd-pleaser, but it impresses the President of the Civic League and daughter of the Independent candidate for Governor. When her father is elected, George is promoted to Prosecutor and he uses his position to take on the "Beef Barons" and, ultimately, earn Rose's love. I thought he should have ended up with the Italian construction worker's sister, Marie, but it was not to be. Oh, and it turns out Lonnie was married to Nora the whole time, so the shocking baby out-of-wedlock subject is averted.
  
  The hour-long film treated its important and complicated subject matter well, although the plot got a bit convoluted at times. This film is the only one I've seen where Walthall was visibly too old for the role. The character lines in his face show maturity well beyond his spoiled rich kid character. An attorney and the governor both refer to him as "my boy." Come on! The actress who plays his fiancee was 18! Still, Walthall handles the role like the master he was, transitioning as his character moves from the rich and idle life, to the construction site, the rough & tumble labor rallies, the polished protocol of the governor's office, and the authoritarian role as Prosecutor in the courtroom with ease. Walthall Factor: A- Film Grade: B
  

   

  
  Father Bartlett taking pity on all creatures.

   

• The Confession (Released January, 1920) The Confession gave Walthall one of his best characters of the 1920s: the leading role of Father Bartlett. Bartlett hears the confession of a murderer but, due to his holy vow of confidentiality, cannot reveal this information even though Bartlett's brother is tried and convicted of the crime. Time is running out, and Father Bartlett must convince the real murderer (who is being tormented by his guilty demons) to make a public confession before Bartlett's brother meets the gallows. The film runs about 78 minutes, is fairly fast-paced and very easy to follow. Walthall puts on a brilliant performance and his character is the primary focus from beginning to end. Walthall Factor: A Film Grade: A
  

   

  
  "I told you we should not have bet against our son's team."

   

• The Plastic Age (Released December 15, 1925) In this Clara Bow classic, Henry Walthall plays Henry Carver, the nervous, proud, yet stern (and may I say adorable) father to a football star headed for Prescott University (Hugh Carver played by Donald Keith). Mr. Carver has to admonish his son after he failed in a track meet (young Hugh was distracted by Bow's character). Walthall is also seen at the football game cheering on his son (now a senior) who will, of course, be the hero of the game. As a football fan, I enjoyed seeing those old-time training routines and game strategies. A fun film full of fraternity pranks, rowdy club raids, etc. And, if I may mention again, Walthall is very cute in this one. Walthall Factor: B Film Grade: B+
  

   

  
  "So...you're with the church, huh?"

   

• The Road to Mandalay (Released June 28, 1926) Interesting story about Joe the "horrible man from Singapore" (Lon Chaney) who admires a young shop clerk (unbeknownst to her, he is her father). Walthall has a very significant role in this film as Father James, Joe's brother. James tries to convince his brother to reveal his identity to his daughter, but Joe is too ashamed of his wicked roots in the slums of Singapore. Meanwhile, his daughter falls in love with a man from those very slums. Joe is intent on crashing their wedding against his brother's insistence that the bridegroom has changed. Joe takes the groom back to Singapore "with the yellows, browns, and blacks" (yes, there is a lot of racist stereotyping in this one). Joe's daughter follows them to Singapore and ends up stabbing her father to protect her fiance. Understanding the love the two share, Joe ends up protecting them from an evil Chinese man. He ends up collapsing from his stab wound the moment his brother arrives. Walthall's character is in the final scene at his brother's bedside. This film seems to be a very important addition to Walthall's repertoire, as--next to The Birth of a Nation--I've seen more screen shots of this film in books with chapters on Walthall than any other. Walthall Factor: B+ Film Grade: B
  

   

  
  With another silent hunk, Lars Hanson.

   

• The Scarlet Letter (Premiered August 9, 1926 in New York--later elsewhere) Walthall's first Scarlet Letter film starred Lillian Gish and Lars Handsome, er, Hanson (no I am not changing allegiance). Hanson was excellent in one of my favorite silent films Flesh and the Devil. Karl Dane is also cast in his usual goofy (yet more sympathetic) role. The majority of the film focuses on the love affair between Hester Prynne and Minister Arther Dimmesdale. Walthall--who plays Hester Prynne's AWOL husband who is reunited with his wife only to discover her unfaithfulness--enters the film after the halfway point. He is made to look like a creepy little troll.
  
  Gish, in the 1973 book Dorothy and Lillian Gish, made an interesting comment about her reunion with The Little Colonel: "Not having seen Henry Walthall in nearly ten years I asked for him to play the husband. When we met I was a head taller. He had to play our scenes together standing on wooden boxes" (pg. 146). The last time they worked together was in the D.W. Griffith film The Great Love released August 1918. Strangely, her imdb page lists her at 5'5 1/2" (not sure if that stat is from her heyday or in later years, but one would assume from that story she was taller than that). Also, Walthall's character slouched which no doubt added to any height discrepancy.
  
  Unfortunately, the copy I have (from a television broadcast) cut out what I think was a large portion of Walthall's part (including the scene pictured in Lahue's book Gentlemen to the Rescue). Walthall's performance was brilliant as always, but I was disappointed at how short a time he was on screen. It's probably unfair to mete out a Walthall Factor grade without seeing all his scenes, but here goes... Walthall Factor: B- Film Grade: A
  

   

  
  "I'd rather send your mother off to war."

   

• Wings (Premiered in New York August 12, 1927--Released later elsewhere) Walthall plays a very limited and sorrowful role in this first Academy Award winner for Best Picture. Although, he was only 49 when this movie was filmed, he is made up to look like a decrepit old man mourning his son's departure off to war and, later, his son's death. As Joe Franklin noted in Classics of the Silent Screen Walthall "milk[ed] his emotional scenes for all they were worth" (p. 93). Unfortunately, these scenes only make up 7 1/2 minutes of a very long film. Despite Walthall's limited part, the film is spectacular considering its age. Although silent goddess Clara Bow headlines the cast, I was surprised how limited her role in this movie was. The plot she is tied to is very weak and I don't think the conclusion helps it too much (Clara's character leaving the war and her love interest changing his affections so effortlessly once he returned home). Her sexy image is really toned down as well, although one scene does have her luring her drunken boyfriend (a very funny drunken boyfriend) from a Paris night club in a skimpy number. The dress didn't fit the character's girl-next-door image at all. The real storyline is between pals Jack Powell and David Armstrong (played expertly by Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen). Anyone interested in the First World War will find this film a real treat! The training scenes I found particularly interesting. Then there are the many aerial fighting scenes. They are so well done they look like documentary footage. Scenes shot from the pilot's point of view put the viewer right into the action! Scenes like these make the "two guys in love with the same girl" plot seem so insignificant. Walthall Factor: C+ Film Grade: A-

   

  
  Is this the face of a murderer?

   

• London After Midnight (Stills Reconstruction) (Originally released December 17, 1927--the stills reconstruction released October 31, 2002) No, I've never seen this famous lost film. I did, however, see the version that was reconstructed using movie stills which Turner Classic Movies broadcasted Halloween 2002. The plot is difficult to follow or even to understand sometimes. The Lon Chaney vampire scenes that make this lost film so desirable look rather silly in this format (and maybe in the actual film). I don't think I'm ruining any reader's day by giving away this 75-year old ending, but Walthall's character (Sir James Hamlin) is the murderer. The film has many stills of Henry as well as a very sweet close-up of him and Marceline Day. Walthall Factor: A- Film Grade: C
  
  

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