The Love Flower (1920)

Directed by D.W. Griffith •

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The Love Flower (Griffith, August 1920) camera Billy Bitzer based on the story “Black Beach” by Ralph Stock, with Carol Dempster, Florence Short and Richard Barthelmess for D.W. Griffith Productions / United Artists ¹.

‘How many acts in history that are deplorable in themselves, especially those committed by women, have been glorified because they were committed in the name of love. And our daily history is full of deeds committed by the fair hand of woman, because of her great love, that are overlooked or condoned. To what extent should Love forgive these acts done for its sake? Here the vegetable kingdom runs wild – Sweet potatoes.’ We see a market in a tropical country. ‘Natives prepare sponges for tiled bathrooms of distant luxurious countries.’ Natives sit on the dock trimming the natural sponges.

On an island in the West Indies live Thomas Bevan, his wife and his daughter Margaret, stepdaughter of his wife Clara. We see the interior of a house where Mr and Mrs Bevan are sitting at the table. Thomas Bevan, one whose bitter mistakes of younger days bring him here to forget and to be forgotten. ‘Quiet home life and care of a young stepdaughter in a boring sea island sponge port is not Clara Bevan’s idea of joy and laughter.’ Mrs. Bevan is bothered by her husband’s cigarette smoke. He puts out his cigarette, but she looks at him witheringly. In the garden, among the flowers, sits ‘Bevan’s daughter Margaret, for whom her father’s love is her only happiness. Girlish dreams whispered in the pink ear of a rose beneath the azure southern sky.’

‘A business letter shatters (Bevan’s) great expectations.’ He looks defeated as he reads the letter and his wife says: ‘Why can’t you, like other men, make money and get me out of this miserable hole!’ Clara angrily throws down the newspaper and walks away. Meanwhile, in the garden, Margaret has ‘shadows as her only playmates.’ She runs around, but Clara comes to admonish her: ‘Stop running around like an idiot!’ We see the ‘portals (waterways) to the West Indies, where men go to forget and be forgotten.’ We sail over the water and see: ‘A seaport beneath the semi-tropic skies, where the ships of the buccaneers (pirates) cut through the rainbow-colored waters, following the gold-laden ships adown the Spanish Main’ (Pirate ships followed gold-laden ships, to rob them, along the Spanish controlled coastal regions of the Caribean). Ships lie in the harbor, while trade is conducted ashore. Bevan goes outside and waves to his daughter who is mourning in the garden. She reacts enthusiastically and flies to her father, whom she loves. She wants to go with him, but father says: ‘No honey, you have to stay home.’ ‘Beneath an old silk cotton tree’, Bevan walks past a huge tree and Margaret follows after her father anyway.

We see ‘Crane, who recently arrived. With his piercing eyes and a firmly lined mouth, he boasts that throughout his career as a bloodhound of the law, he has never failed to capture the man he is looking for. ’ He apparently has a search warrant with him that he gives to one of his two attendants (local traders). Meanwhile, Margaret quietly follows behind her father. She arrives with him in a black village where a little boy and his mother are performing a dance (a scene reminiscent of a similar scene from ‘Birth of a Nation’). ‘The other traders in Mennanee resent Bevan’s presence and bother him in every way possible.’ One of them says to Crane: ‘That’s Bevan with his daughter.’ Crane introduces himself to Bevan, who sends Margaret away and says: ‘For years I have been paying the price for that terrible mistake, that check! PLEASE don’t stir that up again!’

Bevan ‘leaves for a short trip.’ He says goodbye coolly to his wife and emotionally to his daughter. Clara is relieved that he is gone and when she has checked that Margaret has also left, she signals to her lover who is already waiting in the garden: ‘Her boredom drives her to follies.’ The lover signals back, and ‘this is noticed by the servants.’ The lover enters in a shot vignetted by gauze that is sharp in the center but blurred at the edges (00:14:26) and the two immediately kiss, while Bevan is already out and about. A servant stops Bevan and tells him: ‘There’s a man while you’re away, sir – he’s visiting –’ Bevan reprimands the man and sends him away. Meanwhile, the lovemaking continues and Bevan changes his mind, considers turning around and walks back home. Clara and her lover walk intimately entwined to the bedroom and Bevan walks into the living room. There he sees the lover’s white hat. He walks to the bedroom where the turtle doves are making love and catches them in the act. ‘Get out!’ he says to the man, but he says: ‘If I go, she will come with me.’ Bevan attacks him and throws him against the wall. The man pulls out a revolver and shoots, but doesn’t hit anyone. The fight between the two continues, with the gun going off again. Personnel outside hear this (acoustic link 00:18:03). Clara sits huddled in a corner with her hands over her ears and Margaret comes in and looks shocked at what is going on. Bevan says to the lover who is apparently hit by a bullet: ‘And now get the hell out!’ But the man collapses and when Bevan listens to his heart he discovers to his horror that he is dead. Clara is in disarray and hits Bevan: ‘You killed him! I hate you! I hate you!’ Bevan defends himself: ‘I didn’t do that!’ and to Margaret, who witnessed the fight: ‘You believe me, right?’ and Margaret flies into her father’s arms.

‘Crane, restless when he’s on the hunt, walks through the town.’ Bevan fears ‘that his past and the hostility of the town’s residents will make justice impossible’ and flees out the door with Margaret, encountering Crane. ‘Yes, a short business trip.’ Crane doesn’t trust it and runs into Bevan’s servants. They talk about: ‘A shot, somewhere around here!’ Bevan and Margaret arrive at the harbour. There ‘he buys the only motorboat in the port, attempting to reach a wandering ship heading south and sets out ‘to get gasoline.’ Meanwhile, Crane sets out to investigate with the three servants and arrives at the crime scene where Clara is bent over her dead lover and screaming: ‘Bevan, my husband, for no reason!’ Crane walks to the docks where little boys point him to the store where Bevan buys gas. Bevan and Margaret are just coming out with the gasoline. When they see Crane standing by the boat, Bevan sends his daughter to keep Crane busy. Meanwhile, Bevan walks around the back and approaches Crane from behind with a gun. While holding Crane at gunpoint Crane says: ‘I’ll get you Bevan! If you are at the end of the world!’ Bevan sails away with Margaret and Crane watches him powerlessly.

‘They go on the long, long, endless path. Because there is a pursuit that never tires, THE LAW, ruthless, merciless, terrible.’ They come alongside a large sailing ship and sail from Florida around the southern tip of South America to the Indian archipelago. ‘Stop him! That vengeful cry extends to the ends of the world.’ ‘London – Scotland Yard’: Officers are at the station reading a wanted bulletin in which Thomas Bevan is wanted for murder. ‘In India – The Sikh police’ and ‘the New York police – from land to harbor’ read the wanted person report.’ We see Bevan hoeing in a garden near a forest hut. ‘Here father and daughter have found refuge and a measure of contentment, apart from those painful moments of fear of the clutches of the Law.’ Margaret kneads the dough, shapes it into a loaf and places it in a baking tin over the fire. She runs around and harvests a coconut. ‘Sometimes straining and swaying in hot youthful folly against the cool spray of the sea.’ Margaret stands with her arms spread by the sea as the wind blows through her clothes and the sea rushes over her (wind and waves 00:28:53 – 00:29:17). Thomas Bevan and Margaret stand together on a high cliff: ‘Sometimes grown-ups play together.’ (despite their threatening existence, they are open to play). He encourages her to jump off the cliff: ‘You probably don’t dare to make that leap!’ Margaret hesitates: ‘Well, I’ll try.’ And she dives into the water, after which we see her swimming in underwater footage. ‘An attempt to match her father’s record of swimming underwater for three minutes.’ Thomas Bevan stands on the cliff keeping time. ‘At the end of his count’, Margaret swims back up and surfaces. And then Thomas Bevan jumps after her. The two climb up at the water’s edge and Margaret says: ‘Daddy, Daddy! I did it!’

‘With the exception of a faithful old native, they live alone: the girl has not seen a white man other than her father for years.’ But then a sailboat approaches the island. ‘On the other side of the island, an adventurous young man, Jerry Trevethon, arrives (on his sailboat). He forgets his wealth for a few months each year to follow Stevenson’s trail in the South Seas. (Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Trail in the South Seas’ refers to the novel he wrote about his journey in the Pacific in the late 1880’s. The same author wrote ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’).

Jerry sits on his boat at the tiller ‘with the salty smell of the sea in his nose and the wide world before him.’ Margaret dresses a baby kitten in a suit: ‘Curious babies.’ The kitten looks like a stylish young lady (but what is the use of this scene in the film?). And then she takes a goat on her lap. The goat and the kitten sniff and lick each other and wrap their paws around each other. ‘Children’s hearts awaken feelings of motherhood.’ The little creatures in her lap give Margaret a dreamy look (that’s all Carol Dempster can do).

‘Crane’s clues have led him, still unconfused by conflicting data, to the South Sea Islands. ‘ ‘By all the trials and sacrifices, a wonderful deep love has arisen that burns in the girl’s heart like a sacred altar flame.’ Crane sits at a table in his hotel and is visited by a local informant who says: ‘My native agent tells me that a white man and a girl are staying on a remote island called Monaki.’ ‘The girl goes (while her father sleeps) on a simple trade trip to the inhabitants of the larger island - her only contact with the outside world.’ She crosses a rope bridge and leaves by canoe. ‘On the river of the hyacinths. To the natives the hyacinth is The Love Flower.’ The hyacinths grow in bunches on the water of the river (00:39:13). ‘Beds of these flowers often float, like violet barges, on their way to dreamland.’ As Margaret lies by the shore with her canoe, she ‘sees a lyrical scene of primitive love unfold before her eyes, their canoe scented with the blossoms of the love flower’: a boy and a girl sit in a canoe decorated with flowers. The girl pulls the boy towards her with a hyacinth in her hands, after which they kiss (00:40:09). Margaret is inspired by what she sees: ‘Dreams vague and pale as the violet tinted hyacinths on the riverbank’ (the look in Carol Dempster’s eyes is meaningless). Margaret sails her canoe onto the beach and gets out with a slaughtered chicken in her hand, but ‘the native trader is delayed.’ Meanwhile, Jerry Trevethon reefs the sails and goes ashore as well. Margaret passes the time picking hyacinths. Walking through the woods are ‘light-fingered (thieving) natives from a usually friendly tribe, out for adventure and success.’ They walk to Jerry’s sailboat and board it, while Jerry is just returning walking with a keg he has filled with water. In the forest he bumps into Margaret, who is walking with a hyacinth in her hand (00:42:46). (Carol Dempster looks at Barthelmess, who has to represent the love of her life as if she were meeting the lady next door). ‘Out of concern for her father, she doesn’t trust any stranger.’ Margaret says: ‘Please go away! We don’t want strangers here.’ But quietly she likes him. (How an actress like Mae Marsh or Constance Talmadge is missed here!)

The natives come out of Jerry’s boat with all kinds of hijacked items. Jerry encounters them and wants his property back: ‘Give me my coat back!’ He gets into a fight with the natives who knock him down. But there is Margaret who takes a spear from one of the natives and restrains him with it. ‘Don’t stab me, me good boy’ says the native. Margaret chases the other natives away while Jerry regains consciousness. He says to Margaret: ‘You dropped your flowers’ and picks one up: ‘The Love Flower’. After the title, he has apparently given the flower to Margaret and picks up another hyacinth from the ground and gestures that the hyacinth should represent the love bond between him and Margaret. Margaret, also with a flower in her hand, agrees (00:46:09 – 00:46:38) and rushes away. Jerry dreams somewhat more with the flower in his hand (00:46:45). ‘For the lonely, love-starved girl, the poor water flower becomes a very precious possession.’ Mary lifts the flower to her lips as Jerry goes back on board. ‘The other flower also seems precious’: Jerry also gazes pensively at the flower he brought with him (00:47:39) and keeps it in his wallet. Margaret throws the bag of merchandise she bought from the native into her canoe and leaves, while Jerry is already at sea. Margaret arrives ‘bursting with emotions, vibrant and new as the summer dew, a tornado and a purple hyacinth united in one’ at her father’s house. She tells him: ‘I have seen a man… Her father’s old haunting fear resurfaces when he hears of the stranger’s visit’. ‘Did he look like a police officer?’ Margaret thinks and in mental POV we see a close-up of Jerry (mental POV 00:49:48).

‘A week later, Jerry arrives at port.’ ‘Crane, who is hunting Bevan, follows his last clue, arrives at the same harbor’ and sees Jerry’s sailboat. ‘Jerry, who has no idea of Crane’s purpose, agrees to take him to the remote island. So, Crane arranges for Jerry’s sailboat to follow his lead to the father and the girl to Monaki.’ He sets sail with Jerry, while Margaret draws up her precious hyacinth from her cleavage (00:51:57): ‘Never a girl again, but a woman’s heart anxiously looking forward to a hope that will never come true.’ Margaret presses the flower to her cheek. As Jerry sits at the tiller he looks at the flower in his wallet and thinks (in mental POV 00:52:39) about how he offered the hyacinth to Margaret. ‘The beginning of a friendship’: Jerry tries in vain to contact the blunt Crane. He even plays him a song on his ukulele. But Crane won’t thaw. ‘Rotten!’ he thinks of Jerry’s music. Jerry climbs the mast and Crane looks up at him (eyeball POV 00:54:22) and Jerry sees the island afar (eyeball POV 00:54:24). Crane also sees an island with his binoculars (eyeball POV and binocular mask 00:54:58). But that ‘is not the island’ he wants to go to, that island is further away.

For ‘Father’s birthday’, Margaret bakes a cake. Meanwhile, ‘Jerry and Crane arrive at the other side of the island.’ Margaret has made a cake with a lot of sticks for candles and wants to surprise her father. Crane pretends to be a butterfly collector with a landing net. That surprises Jerry: ‘Dear Lord, chasing butterflies with that face!’ Crane walks carefully over the rope bridge towards Bevan’s hut. Margaret says to her father: ‘You mustn’t look yet, Daddy! It’s a surprise!’ Crane sees Margaret and her father, with his eyes closed, standing near the cake (eyeball POV 00:57:38). And then Bevan gets to look and he sees the birthday cake (eyeball POV in close-up 00:57:54). There are hyacinth flowers on the cake and sticks represents the candles. Father and Margaret are happy, but then suddenly Crane is in front of them. After a long stare-down he says: ‘Thomas Bevan, I’m arresting you for murder!’ Meanwhile, Jerry walks up, and is surprised to see Margaret again. Margret ‘is convinced that her dream lover is a paid informant who is selling her father’s life.’ (Carol Dempster’s expression is here terribly inadequate again). The men walk into the cabin, where ‘her beautiful birthday cake into which she has put so much loving care is nothing but food at this feast of the doomed.’ Jerry says: ‘I’ve met this young lady before’ but Margaret just glares at him. When Jerry, Crane and Father eat the cake, Margaret goes outside, where she grabs an ax and uses it to punche a hole in Jerry’s boat.

Bevan asks: ‘When are we going?’ ‘At the morning tide.’ But Jerry says. ‘Listen! You can’t take him in my boat. I’m not a spy! But Bevan says: ‘This makes no sense, boy. If you don’t take me, someone else will.’ Margaret pulls the leaky boat into deeper water, where it sinks. Then she swims back. ‘In the morning’ Crane, Bevan and Jerry are on their way to the boat, but ‘the boat has gone’ and Crane and Bevan have to return to the cabin empty-handed. After making sure that they don’t have an alarm gun, they decide to wait.’ But Crane raises a flag on a cliff and starts giving ‘smoke signals’. ‘While they wait’ Jerry and Margaret meet outside, with Jerry saying: ‘I swear I didn’t know what this man came here for!’ But Margaret just says: ‘You miserable spy!’ and slaps him. ‘Worried about Crane’s long absence, his friends from the Law begin a search.’ They set off by boat and ‘learn that strange pillars of smoke have been seen coming from Monaki.’ Jerry sits down with Margaret again and says: ‘You have to believe me!’ And he shows the flower he has kept in his wallet (01:10:22). ‘You see – I’ve kept that since the first time we met.’ And then Margaret takes out the flower she kept in her cleavage (01:11:06).

‘The girl’s great love (for her father) causes her to endanger her own life in a desperate attempt to save her father’s.’ She climbs a pole onto a rock and from there tries to throw a boulder at the passing Crane. In mental POV (01:12:19) she imagines her father walking onto the scaffold with the gallows to be executed. Margaret throws the boulder down, but misses. She flees and a little later we see her walking along the beach. ‘Like her shattered expectations, tropical moonbeams swoon in the jasmine-scented air.’ Margeret feels hopeless (and Carol Dempster does produce a hopeless piece of pathos). But there’s Jerry approaching her, whom she avoids by crawling backwards: ‘By all the saints I swear I didn’t know what that man came for!’ But Margaret says: ‘Please go away.’

‘The police boat starts the search for Crane’: they set sail on a sailing ship. Meanwhile, Jerry (eyeball POV 01:16:16) is on the shore and looks at Margaret who gazes out over the water as the sun sets. Crane is also at the shore and goes swimming, while Margaret observes him and (in mental POV 01:17:23) is reminded of her father’s impending death sentence. A little further away, Jerry is fishing. Margaret takes off her dress and steps into the water. ‘She uses her ability for a deadly purpose’ and dives underwater where she pulls Crane down by his legs. Crane fights, but disappears underwater. Jerry sees that someone is in distress, but then Crane surfaces again and Jerry helps him onto land. ‘Yes, an octopus’ Crane explaines what happened. ‘The full moon low tide washes up Jerry’s boat.’ Jerry is excited to have recovered the boat and pulls his mud-covered boat to shore. There he meets Margaret again, who tells him: ‘I sank that boat - you will never take my father!’ And then Jerry jumps on board and widens the hole in the hull with his ax: ‘Do you believe me now!’ The boat has now sunk again. Now Margaret can no longer control her feelings (which are expressed rather stupidly by Carol Dempster) and she falls into Jerry’s arms. They hug deeply, but then Margaret flees again, while Jerry jumps for joy. He says to his boat, laughing: ‘Sinc, darn you! sinc!

‘Meanwhile, the police boat approaches Monaki’ at full speed and Bevan (eyeball POV 01:24:10) sees Crane standing lookout while producing smoke signals. A sail appears on the horizon and from the boat the police officer looks with his binoculars at the cliff where Crane is giving off smoke signals (eyeball POV and round telescope mask 01:24:24). Bevan comes to check on Crane who is looking at the ship through his binoculars (eyeball POV shot and telescope mask 01:24:45). Margaret also comes to stand with them while the wind blows through her dress (01:24:53 – 01:25:43). The wind enhances the drama of this event. Bevan is allowed to look at the ship with Crane’s binoculars (eyeball POV and binocular mask 01:25:13). Crane says, laughing scornfully: ‘I told you I’d get you.’ Bevan says to Margaret: ‘This is the end’ as Crane waves the flag. Margaret comes up with another plan and shows in a number of expressionless shots against a black background (01:26:18). She thinks about the rope bridge (mental POV 01:26:32). ‘To save her father, she plans to sacrifice herself.’ She goes to the rope bridge and cuts most of the ropes. Jerry also sees the police boat approaching and ‘also starts action.’ He closes all the doors and windows of the hut tightly. Margaret approaches Crane and says: ‘I want to speak to you alone, will you come with me?’ She leads him to the rope bridge and says: ‘You could still spare my father.’ But that is out of the question for Crane: ‘No, I say!’ ‘If all else fails, she is prepared to cross the bridge of death with Crane.’ ‘Alright then let’s go.’ The two are standing in front of the bridge when Jerry approaches Crane: ‘The boat has arrived. Go grab your things and I’ll carry them down.’ Crane walks away from the rope bridge and into the cabin, where Jerry locks him up. Even by force Crane is unable to break out of here. Jerry arrives at Margaret, who is still standing at the rope bridge, and says: ‘We will take your father up the river in the canoe.’ Jerry wants to walk onto the rope bridge, but Margaret stops him. She throws a tree trunk onto the bridge, which immediately collapses. This closes off an escape route, but nevertheless he embraces Margaret: ‘The boy not only forgives her, he also feels a strong sense of pride in her’ and stays with her and supports her. (Here is a parallel with other Griffith films, in which a moral message is delivered: In ‘Way Down East’ David not only forgives Anna for her sin, but also risks his life for her on the ice. In Broke Blossoms, Cheng Huan not only forgives Lucy, but also protects her, putting himself in danger).

A native walks past the hut and Crane shouts: ‘Open the door, your master is sick!’ The native cannot open the door, but he can remove the post at the window and Crane jumps out. Meanwhile, Jerry and Margaret manage to reach the beach where the canoe is moored: ‘Quick, go get your father.’ Bevan is still standing on the cliff near the flag. Crane tells him: ‘Come on, the boat has arrived.’ But that does not appeal to Bevan: ‘I’m not coming!’ An argument ensues and then a fight between the men, during which they walk along the edge of the cliff. Jerry sees from the beach the fight between the men (eyeball POV 01:36:19) and so does Anna (eyeball POV 01:36:28). They wrestle each other along the edge of the abyss and fall into the water together. The brawl continues underwater. Crane floats to the surface and climbs onto land. When he sees Margaret he says: ‘Your father? At the bottom of the sea.’ Margaret runs in a daze over the rocks until Jerry grabs her. The police officers have now come ashore and are walking towards Crane. ‘I’ve got him – he’s dead.’ But then we see Bevan crawling on the shore. ‘Jerry and the girl are given permission to leave on Crane’s boat.’ ‘And as Jerry guides the grief-stricken girl to the boat’, much to their shock, Bevan suddenly emerges from the bushes. Bevan extends his hands to Margaret and rushes into his arms and kisses him. Jerry joins the celebration. But then he changes his mind: ‘He thinks you’re dead – stay here until we come back.’ And to Margaret: ‘We’ll come back later for your father.’ The two get on board and sail away.

A folder is taken from the filing cabinet at the police station. It concerns Thomas and Margaret Bevan. ‘Dead’ is written on the search form and the folder is hung back. Margaret and Jerry ‘on their (flower covered) honeymoon boat bound for her father who is waiting by the River of the Hyacinths, the Flower of Love,’. ‘All in all – for all time.’ End.

‘Wow, what a bad movie’ is the main thing you can say about this movie. It is flawed on every level. In the script, in Carol Dempster’s performance and in the editing. Apparently Griffith had to take all kinds of filler shots in the studio against a black background, which were missing from the location shooting and which disrupt the unity of place in the film. What a mess and what pompous lyrics.

Eyeball POV:

This movie is heavy on eyeball POV shots.

Jerry climbs the mast and Crane looks up at him (eyeball POV 00:54:22) and Jerry sees the island in the distance (eyeball POV 00:54:24). Crane also sees an island with his binoculars (eyeball POV and binocular mask 00:54:58).

Crane sees Margaret and her father, with his eyes closed, standing near the birthdaycake (eyeball POV 00:57:38). And then Bevan sees the birthday cake (eyeball POV in close-up 00:57:54).

Meanwhile, Jerry (eyeball POV 01:16:16) is on the shore watching Margaret gaze over the water as the sun sets.

_‘Meanwhile, Bevan (eyeball POV 01:24:10) sees Crane standing lookout while producing smoke signals. A sail appears on the horizon and from the boat the police officer looks with his binoculars at the cliff where Crane is giving off smoke signals (eyeball POV and round telescope mask 01:24:24). Bevan comes to check on Crane who is looking at the ship through his binoculars (eyeball POV shot and telescope mask 01:24:45). Bevan is allowed to look at the ship with Crane’_s binoculars (eyeball POV and binocular mask 01:25:13).

Jerry sees the fight between the men from the beach (eyeball POV 01:36:19) and so does Anna (eyeball POV 01:36:28). They wrestle each other along the edge of the abyss and fall into the water together.

Mental POV:

Bevan asks: ‘Did he look like a police officer?’ Margaret thinks and in mental POV we see a close-up of Jerry (mental POV 00:49:48).

Margaret imagines in mental POV (01:12:19) how her father walks onto the scaffold with the gallows to be executed.

As Margaret observes Crane, she is reminded (in mental POV 01:17:23) of her father’s impending death sentence.

Margaret comes up with another plan and thinks about the rope bridge (mental POV 01:26:32).

Flowers as a sign of love:

‘On the river of the hyacinths. To the natives the hyacinth is ‘The Love Flower’.’ The hyacinths grow in bunches on the water of the river (00:39:13). ‘Beds of these flowers often float, like violet barges, on their way to dreamland.’ As Margaret lies ashore in her canoe, she ‘sees a lyrical scene of primitive love unfold before her eyes, their canoe scented with the blossom of the love flower’: a boy and a girl sit in a canoe decorated with flowers. The girl pulls the boy towards her with a hyacinth in her hands, whereupon they kiss each other (00:40:09).

In the woods, Jerry bumps into Margaret, who is walking with a hyacinth in her hand (00:42:46). Secretly, Margaret likes him.

Jerry says to Margaret: ‘You dropped your flowers’ and picks one up: ‘The Love Flower’. After the title, he has apparently given the flower to Margaret and picks up another hyacinth from the ground and gestures that the hyacinth should represent the love bond between him and Margaret. Margaret, also with a flower in her hand, agrees (00:46:09 – 00:46:38) and rushes away. Jerry dreams some more with the flower in his hand (00:46:45). ‘For the lonely, love-starved girl, the poor water flower becomes a very precious possession.’ Mary lifts the flower to her lips as Jerry goes back on board. ‘The other flower also seems precious’: Jerry also looks pensively at the flower he brought with him (00:47:39) and keeps it in his wallet.

Crane sets sail with Jerry, while Margaret produces her precious hyacinth from her cleavage (00:51:57): ‘Never a girl again, but a woman’s heart that eagerly looks forward to a hope that will never come true.’ Margaret presses the flower to her cheek. As Jerry sits at the tiller he looks at the flower in his wallet and thinks (in mental POV 00:52:39) of how he offered the hyacinth to Margaret.

Jerry shows the flower he kept in his wallet (01:10:22). ‘You see – I’ve kept that from the first time we met.’ And then Margaret takes out the flower she kept in her cleavage (01:11:06).

Wind and waves:

Margaret stands with her arms spread apart by the sea as the wind blows through her clothes and the sea splashes over her (00:28:53 – 00:29:17).

Margaret also comes, with the wind blowing through her dress (01:24:53 – 01:25:43), to stand with Crane and Bevan, who are looking forward to the sailboat that has come to pick up Bevan. The wind enhances the drama of this event.

Space:

From 00:29:43 – 00:30:17 Margaret looks down from the cliff and so does Thomas Bevan from 00:30:25 to 00:32:10, with the downward-facing camera following the direction of his gaze. The relative height is thus clearly visualized.

Vignetting:

Almost all shots in this film are vignetted. Where strong emotions are involved, vignetting is at its most intense. When Clara receives her lover, we see this in a very strong shot vignetted with gauze. Only the most central part of the image is sharp and brightly lit (00:14:26). It seems as if we are allowed to witness extramarital action through a peephole.

Acoustic coupling:

Personnel outside hear the shots inside and respond (00:18:03).

Intermediate shots:

Griffith apparently missed essential shots during the editing that had to express emotion or that were necessary for continuity and sought refuge in intermediate shots that were made against a black background in the studio. These are often poorly acted shots by Carol Dempster.

Timecodes of this are: 00:12:09, 00:12:25, 01:15:02, 01:16:40, 01:22:04, 01:22:11, 01:22:45, 01:22:55, 01:26:17, 01:26:23, 01:26:40, 01:29:57, 01:30:18, 01:30:22, 01:30:30, 01:36:26, 01:36:31, 01:36:59, 01:37:22 and 01:38:10.

Carol Dempster

started her film career at the age of 15 as a harem girl in the Babylonian scene of Intolerance² She was trained as a dancer by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn and toured with the ‘Denishawn dancers’ in the vaudeville circuit. Griffith liked her promotional photos ‘s, taken by photographer Hendrik Sartov, in which Sartov applied a revolutionary lighting technique, very much. Sartov became, alongside Billy Bitzer, Griffith’s cameraman and Carol Dempster was given a screen test, which was filmed by Sartov ³. Billy Bitzer describes how Griffith took a lot of time to study the screen test of this new star. Bitzer thought she was an attractive girl, ‘the new type, full of pep and built for speed’, but doubted whether she could act. But Griffith soon befriended her and, unlike all the others, who named him ‘Mr. Griffith’, Dempster called him ‘David’. To which Lillian Gish said: ‘There he goes again.’ ⁴. Dempster had a long-term relationship with Griffith but gave up acting in 1926, marrying an ‘investment banker’ in 1929. She was Griffith”s star in a series of films until 1926 ⁵..

In this film Carol Dempster’s acting is deplorable. She is especially impressive as a daredevil. She walks over a rope bridge with her hands loose, dives from a cliff and climbs up the rocks. She also excels in affectionate behavior. ‘Photoplay’ was also very negative about her acting performances: ‘as an actress, Miss Dempster is an excellent cliff-diver ’ ⁶.

‘Moving Picture World’ stated that her acting was ‘adequate. ‘Exhibitor’s Herald’ said that ‘her portayal did not fully communicate the depth of the character’s sacrifice’. Generally, critics lacked the emotional depth. The screen magic, her predecessor Lilian Gish was able to produce and which was also present in the performance of Mae Marsh and Constance Talmadge was totally lacking.

The magic that occurs between Richard Barthelmess and Clarine Seymour in ‘The Idol Dancer’ (D.W. Griffith, 1920) ⁷ is completely missing between Barthelmess and Dempster in ‘The Love Flower’. At the first meeting with the seductive Barthelmess, Margaret’s big love, Carol Dempster looks slightly surprised and with a face without emotion, as if she is meeting her neighbor (00:42:51).

Griffith shot both ‘The Idol Dancer’ and ‘The Love Flower’ in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and on Nassau, New Providence Island, Bahamas for First National Pictures in December 1919. But after editing the film in April 1920, he bought the rights to ‘The Love Flower’ for $400,000.—. In an attempt to save the film, he shot additional underwater footage of Dempster in Florida and footage of Dempster, MacQuarrie and Randolph against a black background ⁸. Dempster’s sad facial expressions in these studio shots only contribute to the disgust of this film.