A Romance of a Happy Valley (1919)
Directed by D.W. Griffith •
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A Romance of a Happy Valley (D.W. Griffith, January 1919) with Lilian Gish as Jennie Timberlake and Bobby Harron as John Logan Jr., camera Billy Bitzer for D.W. Griffith Productions, distribution Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, Artcraft Pictures Corporation 1
‘There’s no better place for a romance than Old Kentucky – In the Land of Pretend on the Hill that Never Was. Living a bit of a dream, in a religious atmosphere, adhering to the doctrine of full ordination. Where Vinegar Watkins and Old Lady Smiles wage an invisible battle.’ A farmer’s cart passes a barrier guarded by a pipe-smoking lady (Old Lady Smile). ‘Should all our stories contain a moral lesson? Here we easily find one: Do not harm the stranger within your gates, unless you yourself are harmed. Now we’ll drive down the hill, past Old Lady Smile at the toll gate… to a backcountry inn, popular in the summer with the people of Louisville, with the occasional New Yorker.’ The film is set in Kentucky farmland among the corn fields.
At the local inn, farm boy John L. Logan Jr. meets a New Yorker, who tells him that there is a lot of money to be made in New York: ‘I was a poor farm boy, just like you. Now I make $25 almost every week.’ ‘The ambitious dreams of a farm boy. They may not be so different from those of Abraham Lincoln in a cabin around here.’ We meet John L. Logan Sr. and his wife (Kate Bruce), who is shucking corn on the cob. The mother often sings at work, generally her favorite song: ‘Shall we meet by the river?’ Father Logan says to his wife: ‘Well, mother. The farm’s mortgage is almost paid off. John will get the best farm around here.’ But John Jr. comes to his parents and says: ‘I – I – I want to go to New York to earn money. ..’ That angers his father, who wants him to continue farming. Father stands up and completely disagrees: ‘Go back to work – and stop talking about that nonsense.’ When John has left, father says: ‘Now that’s gratitude! Just when he is becoming useful to us, he wants to leave.
In ‘the farm next door lives Jennie Timberlake, who has been trying to show John how important her affection for him is since the third grade.’ ‘Jennie struggles with her father’s obligation to wear clothes like her mother’s, and the fear that if Kentucky doesn’t wear a more modern style, she will lose John.’ Jennie carries fashion plates around. ‘She is sometimes known as absent-minded Jennie.’ She says to her father: ‘Daddy, here are the new fashion plates that the Farmers’ Almanac sent.’ She shows the images hopefully to her father, but he doesn’t like it: ‘What was good enough for your mother is good enough for anyone else.’ Jennie disagrees. She sits outside and ‘hears the rustling of corn along the hedges and smells the scent of acacia blossoms in the afternoon air.’ Jennie is hoeing in the garden with her father and John Jr. walks with his hoe over his shoulder along the corn fields. John is working in the nearby field and when her hoe breaks, Jennie asks him to fix it. As they stand close together, John says: ‘New York is the place for a man to be.’ Jennie says: ‘It’s a great city, of course, but they say the weather there is terrible. No farms, no corn – no flowers —. As soon as they get there they leave again. ’ John’s hand drops along the handle of the hoe to Jennie’s hand and she caresses his little finger with her thumb. They stand there with their straw hats falling over each other and are in love, but they don’t really want to know. Father calls Jennie back.
On ‘Saturday evening we see stronger efforts in the battle against New York.’ Jenny puts on her most beautiful dress, cleans her hat and puts a flower on it (00:14:24, as a symbol of her love for John). ‘If this doesn’t keep him home, nothing will.’ John goes to church with his mother and Jennie is ready, dressed up like a doll. (It is striking that the Logan’s’ house has the sign Good Board - tc 00:14:38 - which means that they rent out rooms with meals, a common extra income in the rural area. This becomes relevant later in the story). The village population enters the Acacia Forest church, strong in the old faith (Evangelical Protestantism). ‘Strange are the behaviors that are often seen in the great drama in which a struggling soul blindly seeks something better.’ The churchgoers are greeted by the minister and ‘mother asks him to make a special effort to bring her boy into line - to save him from the terrible temptation.’ ‘At the end of the sermon’, which at Jennie induces sleep, the pastor makes a strong moral appeal to John not to go to that devilish city: ‘There is a poor soul here fighting temptation — lured away from Love and Duty by Sodom and Gomorrah — by the Big City. We want this boy’s soul.’ Mother looks at John who is already feeling quite short of breath. ‘As we sing Song 206, we ask this struggling soul to come forward and place himself under God’s protection.’ ‘Lover of my soul (Jesus) let me fly into your bosom! (give me protection). The pastor, mother and part of the church community surround John Jr. and Jennie watches from behind and says: ‘Save him from the devil and New York.’ John is deeply impressed. ‘To our new brother we give the right hand of brotherhood.’ Members of the church community come forward and give John the right hand. Nellie does that too, but certainly not convincingly. While ‘going home’, John and Nellie walk up together. She says to him: ‘ Now I’m sure you’ll never relapse again, will you? No, never again, John gestures: ‘I promise you’ and he gives her a kiss. And Jennie gives him a kiss too. Jennie’s father takes her home and John and his mother also go home. Mother tells her husband: ‘Father, John has joined the Church—he will stay home and be a good son.’ Father is pleased, but John is having a hard time. John is held on his lap like a small child, receives a few spanks on his bottom and finally lies conquered on his father’s shoulder.
Vinegar (the sour) Watkins says: ‘He’ll relapse soon.’ Perhaps this taunt is unnecessarily harshing the father. Now comes a continuity error: Father comes out of the door and down the stairs twice around 00:23:27. Father corrects Jimmie’s uninhibited behavior. ‘The last straw.’ John ‘follows the worldly sage and relapses.’ While ploughing, he suddenly has had enough: ‘I’m fed up — I’m going to New York, make money!’ Meanwhile, Jennie is treating her father’s headache with wet cloths and she ties a string to his hand and to her hand in her bedroom. ‘If it still hurts, pull the string to wake me up.’ John is getting ready to leave in the middle of the night. He carries the inscribed watch with photo that his mother gave him (extreme close-up 00:25:47). His father has just been woken up by two dogs fighting outside. He goes outside, throws a can at the dogs and goes back to bed. John sneaks down the stairs, but slips and makes a noise, which father hears. John wants to leave unnoticed, but father is watching him and mother is also getting out of bed. Father says: ‘You won’t make a cent there, you’ll starve.’ John replies: ‘Well, you won’t hear from me until then, not a word. And when I come back, I’ll buy the farm!’ Father becomes enraged and tries to attack John, but mother struggles to restrain him. John flees outside where his mother bids him a touching farewell: ‘May the grace of God go with you!’ John wants to say goodbye to Jennie and taps on her window. Jennie doesn’t trust it, thinks there are ‘burglars’ and pulls the string to wake her father. Father takes his gun and sticks it out the window, but soon finds out that it is only about John. ‘It’s me, Johnny – I’m going to New York.’ Jennie says goodbye to John through the open window. But Jennie also walks outside half-dressed where she says to the departing John: ‘You are smart enough to leave, but when you come back I will already be married.’ John says: ‘I promise you – just one year!’ ‘No, I’m not getting married, I’m waiting for you.’ John has to hurry to get on the carriage.
John takes the train to New York and Jennie keeps track of the number of days he will be away in ‘next year’ on a slate: 364. ‘The battle of frowning and smiling… and the greatest of these is charity! The sour neighbor Vinegar Watkins comes and sits on a bench near John’s parents and says: ‘Charity – love – all nonsense. Money is all that matters.’ Nellie arrives at the toll gate of Old Lady Smiles: ‘Don’t frown, child. God smiles at you through the flowers and the corn and from everywhere. You just have to smile back.’ Old Lady Smiles bursts out, but Jennie barely reacts and goes through the tollgate. ‘We wish John would have found a great job in the city, but the facts are what they are. His greatest ambition is to invent a toy frog that can swim.’ John has a job as a laborer at the Eastern Toy Manufacturing Co. and lives in a dreary room, where he conducts his experiments with the frog. He looks out the window at the sky and sees the image of Jennie in double exposure (mental POV 00:36:47). ‘He writes – out of pride or ? – no more letters home.’ The development of the swimming frog seems like a fiasco.
A hobo steps out of the car of a freight train. He looks for a place to sleep in a chicken coop. This ‘descendant of Judas Iscariot visits the area.’ He shaves and makes sure he looks a little neater. ‘Jennie, like an old, faithful, stupid woman, keeps careful track of the days until the end of the year. After all, he said he would come back after one year. Today is the day of his return’ and Jennie, who has dressed festively, keeps a close eye on the time on the alarm clock and listens to see if the transport carriage is already arriving. She indeed hears it rattling across the road (acoustic coupling 00:40:44) but John is not on board. That’s a disappointment. ‘The Twilight – The Last Hope’ but John doesn’t show up. ‘The second year, another 365 days.’ ‘The boy’s coat as a scarecrow. A fair exchange.’ Nellie dresses the scarecrow with John’s coat and lays her head lovingly against the coat (00:42:08). Meanwhile, at the toll post of Old Lady Smiles, the polished vagabond approaches. ‘It’s six months later --- the polished Judas is going to betray again.’ He’s hanging out at the toll post when Nellie walks by. He opens the barrier for her and walks with her for a while. ‘The stories of New York get all the attention – and a promise to see each other again.’ Nellie walks with her new acquaintance along a stream and under a tree and he does his best to make her his. But she quickly walks over to the scarecrow, which symbolizes John, and says to him: ‘See, you were gone so long that I’m out with another man now.’ The wanderer is waiting for Jennie and wonders what’s going on. Jennie tells the scarecrow: ‘Marry me quickly! I’m relapsing.’ She puts a wedding ring in the sleeve of the scarecrow’s coat, takes it out again and puts it on her finger: now she’s married. She walks back to Judas and says: ‘I can’t see you again – I’m a married woman.’ Judas finds that hard to accept.
In New York, ‘John also has to deal with temptations.’ A friend comes to his room with two girlfriends while John is working on his frog. One of the girls says: ‘Come on, let’s go out.’ In mental POV (00:45:13) we see a dance hall where John is dancing with the girl. But John doesn’t really feel like it, he wants to continue with his frog and thinks about the session in church when he was taught not to stray from the right path (mental POV 00:45:32). He then says: ‘No – I can’t go out – I have to wait until I can make this frog swim.’ The friends don’t understand that. In his room John makes a new, unsuccessful attempt to make the frog swim.
‘The eighth year.’ ‘Adversity combined with the Spirit of Evil.’ John’s father sits doggedly playing with his folding knife, while Vinegar Watkins sits next to him. John’s mother plays with John’s toy horse and caresses it as a substitute for John (00:48:01). ‘John’s father has received the message that they may lose their house.’ Mother remains calm about it and says: ‘The Lord will take care of it!’ In ‘the last week they look for the few things they can take with them. Mother takes the toy horse with her. Meanwhile, John has a new idea to make his frog swim and lo and behold: it swims! John is enthusiastic and caresses the frog as mother caresses the horse (relational cross-cut 00:50:06 both caress the object of their love). John’s father’s black servant says: ‘My wages or I’ll leave.’ But there’s no money. ‘John’s father makes a desperate attempt to borrow money.’ And Jenny, decked out in flowers, ‘ walks through the misty landscape of memory, where love once was.’ ‘John’s father tries to borrow money from an old friend in the neighboring town.’
Meanwhile, a couple arrives by train. The man says: ‘I haven’t been here in years, they’ll be surprised to see I’m married.’ Griffith is misleading us here: could this be John? But another man in a light jacket also jumps out of the train. John’s father meet an old friend, an innkeeper, and the reunion is extremely cordial: he is patted on the shoulders. The father says to the innkeeper at the pool table: ‘What kind of newfangled game is this? And together they make a cue. Meanwhile, the couple from the train arrives at the inn. And the gentleman in the light coat also appears there. Finally, John’s father ‘musteres up the courage to ask for a loan.’ That completely changes the mood: ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t do anything for you.’ The black waiter asks the innkeeper for change to pay back on a hundred dollar bill. The gentleman in the light coat apparently pays with those large bills. ‘Showing off’: John’s father watches the gentleman in the light coat pass a stack of hundred dollar bills through his hands (eyeball POV 00:54:49). Father thinks: ‘I’m certainly glad he showed that, we only need a small part of all that money!’ The gentleman in a light coat leaves the inn to look for a room to rent. He is followed by father Logan. As mentioned earlier, the Logans’ house has the Good Board sign (00:57:14) and the man in the light coat is looking for a room here. The black servant says: ‘Everyone here has left. I expect them to be back next morning.’
It’s true that everyone is out and about: father is trying to get a loan and leaves at 00:50:39 and mother is visiting the sick together with Jennie in a subplot. Jennie goes to the sick person’s house at 00:50:44 with flowers, book and accordion. At 01:00:01 we see Jennie and John ’s mother visiting the sick person in the sick room. At 01:01:07 mother returns home.
The negro servant leads the gentleman in the light coat to his room. In a Cabiria movement we follow the man who turns out to be John (00:57:47 – 00:57:55). He is back in his parental home and looks around with a look of recognition. Upstairs he pays the black servant, who, after some hesitation, puts the money in his own pocket and flees the house. Meanwhile, father Logan has also arrived home and he has just seen that the man in a light coat went upstairs.
The wanderer we call Judas appears on the scene again, now with a few companions. He makes a crack by burning through a steel grille in front of a window with a cutting torch. A detective sees this and an entire police team goes after the criminals. Judas escapes and flees through the fields, but is hit by a police bullet after some time.
Mr. Logan paces downstairs in the house and looks intently upstairs, where the man in the light coat stays and he plays with his folding knife. John settles into his room and looks with nostalgic feelings at the watch with inscription and photo that his mother gave him. He remembers the love he felt for Jennie and the kiss he received from her (mental POV 01:00:28). Father sits downstairs anxiously waiting for the best moment to rob the commensal and continues to play with his knife. ‘The temptation.’ Mother comes home and starts reading the Bible. Meanwhile, father sneaks upstairs and the injured Judas arrives at the side stairs that lead to John’s bedroom (01:02:15). While mother reads the Bible downstairs, father enters the dark bedroom with a grim look and tries to rob his guest. But the man resists and while mother reads the Bible downstairs, father thinks he has ended the life of the man lying in bed (relational cross-cut 01:04:15, 01:04:24, pious and peaceful vs wicked and violent). Father stands there with hands like claws (01:04:26). He realizes that he has done something terrible and looks for money from the man, but does not find it. He takes the dead man on his shoulder, carries him down the stairs and lays him down in the field. Mother goes to the commensal’s room with the oil lamp and finds the room empty. The hat of the man in the light coat hangs over the bed, his bag shows the initials J.L.L. and on the bed they find the watch with inscription and photo that she gave John (extreme close-up 01:06:38). Now she knows for sure: the commensal is John! Father walks up the outside stairs and returns to John’s room. Mother says, pointing to the bed: ‘Dad, John has come home!’ and she shows him his watch. But then the terrible truth dawns on father: the man he thinks he killed was John! (01:07:23). He almost faints and says: ‘My own son – and I – I came here
to –’ Father is desperate and close to madness. And at that moment John comes in through the door. Father and mother are perplexed and John greets them, politely at first, but then falls into his mother’s arms. Father says: ‘Were you not here, were you not in this room?’ ‘Yes, but I got out of bed and went to the window, where I saw…’ In mental POV at 01:09:27 we see that John gets out of bed and sees the pursuit of Judas through the window, goes outside and walks around there. ‘I searched for a long time, but couldn’t find him at all.’ Meanwhile, the police officers find Judas, who was put back by father, in the open field. One of them says to John and father: ‘We found the escaped thief – I don’t know how he got that far, as seriously injured as he was.’ In John’s room, father says: _‘I just fought to get away – he fell backwards – I – I didn’t understand anything (this implies that father did not kill the man, but that he died spontaneously from his injuries). Father now understands how it happened: in mental POV at 01:12:04 he sees how the injured man crawled into John’_s bed. Father collapses and mother comforts him.
Nellie comes home after the sick visit, including book and accordion. She finds the slate on which she recorded John’s absence back and sits down by the window, looking melancholic. But there John appears in front of the open window. She can’t believe her eyes: Yes, it’s me, he gestures. She shyly shakes John’s hand. ‘Sunday’ John and Jennie walk past the Old Lady Smiles barrier. ‘Smiles wins’, because John’s father smiles for the first time. Jennie asks John: ‘Will you never relapse again?’ He replies: ‘Oh, yes, often enough – and if I do, you must relapse with me.’ And then they kiss and embrace each other lovingly. End.
Relational cross-cut:
Mother brings John’s toy horse. Meanwhile, John has a new idea to make his frog swim and lo and behold: it swims! John is enthusiastic and caresses the frog as mother caresses the horse (relational cross-cut 00:50:06 both caress the object of their love).
But the man resists and while mother reads the Bible downstairs, father thinks he has ended the life of the man lying in bed (relational cross-cut 01:04:15, 01:04:24, pious and peaceful vs godless and violent).
Eyeball POV:
John’s father sees how the gentleman in the light coat passes a stack of hundred dollar bills through his hands (eyeball POV 00:54:49).
Mental POV:
John looks out the window at the sky and sees the image of Jennie in double exposure (mental POV 00:36:47).
One of the girls in New York says: ‘Come on, let’s go out.’ In mental POV (00:45:13) we see a dance hall where John is dancing with the girl. But John doesn’t really feel like it, he wants to continue with his frog and thinks about the session in church when he was taught not to stray from the right path (mental POV 00:45:32).
John remembers the love he felt for Jennie and the kiss he received from her (mental POV 01:00:28).
In mental POV at 01:09:27 we see that John gets out of bed and sees the pursuit of Judas through the window, goes outside and walks around there.
Father sees in mental POV at 01:12:04 how the injured man crawled into John’s bed.
Acoustic coupling:
Jenny listens to see if the carriage er is already approaching. She indeed hears it rattling across the road (acoustic coupling 00:40:44).
Flowers as a sign of love:
Jenny puts on her most beautiful dress, polishes her hat and puts a flower on it (00:14:24, as a sign of her love for John).
Extreme close-up:
John carries the watch with inscription and photo that his mother gave him (extreme close-up 00:25:47 and 01:06:38).
Cabiria movement:
In a Cabiria movement we follow the man who turns out to be John (00:57:47 – 00:57:55).
Hands like claws:
Father stands there with hands like claws (01:04:26).
Symbols:
Nellie dresses the scarecrow with John’s coat and rests her head lovingly against the coat (00:42:08). She quickly walks to the scarecrow, which symbolizes John, and says to him: ‘See, you stayed gone so long that I’m out with another man now.’ The wanderer waits for Jennie and wonders what’s going on. Jennie tells the scarecrow: ‘Marry me quickly! I’m relapsing.’ She puts a wedding ring in the sleeve of the scarecrow’s coat, takes it out again and puts it on her finger: now she’s married.
John’s mother plays with John’s toy horse and caresses it as a substitute for John (00:48:01).