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__Sally of the Sawdust __(D.W. Griffith, July 1925) with Carol Dempster and W.C. Fields for D.W. Griffith Productions / United Artists

¹.

Green Meadow (100 miles northeast of New York) is home to Judge Foster. The Fosters have a large piece of land, but are otherwise not very wealthy. Mrs. Foster plays the piano and her daughter dances to the music. Mother and daughter are very fond of each other. But then a circus artist arrives at the door, whom the daughter wants to marry. If she continues, there will be no room for her in the house, but the daughter’s decision is made and she leaves. Mother and daughter say a touching farewell.

Five years later, in the far West, the daughter lies deathly ill in a tent belonging to the circus. Her daughter Sally is happily playing and the circus illusionist Professor Eustance McGargle (W.C. Fields) visits her in the tent. The daughter’s husband (with whom she ran away) is already dead. And now that she herself is critically ill, she gives McGargle Sally’s birth certificate. ‘Do what’s best for Sally, maybe my parents in Green Meadows can help.’ Sally kisses her mother goodbye.

Mrs. Foster pulls out memories of her daughter from an old chest. McGargle informs the Foster’s by letter that their daughter has died, but says nothing about the child, whom he wants to keep with him. Sally sits on his lap, he hugs her and the girl loves him too. The letter hits the Fosters hard.

Many years later we see the circus caravan passing through a town in Western Pennsylvania (east of New York). A circus wagon with a lion cage passes by, while the audience stands and waves along the road. At 00:06:57 Sally and McGargle appear on screen. In the distance we see the circus tent with the text ‘Big Show’. A performer does a handstand on a horse while clowns watch and a clown uses a donkey’s tail as a crank. A column of elephants passes by and on the ‘side show’ girls dance in hula hula skirts. ‘Sally of the Sawdust, fickle, tomboy but also woman’, makes an elephant do a trick and rides on the elephant’s neck. She is completely fused with the circus. McGargle points out a passing plane to a visitor and robs the viewer, who is not paying attention, of his wallet. But the elephant takes the wallet from McGargle again, so the man gets it back. The circus tent (the Big Show) is full of people watching a lion performance. In the side show, Sally performs tricks in the rings and helps ‘Professor McGargle’ with his juggling number, excites the audience and does a graceful dance. The crowd loves it and McGargle advises them to go into the tent and watch ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. (The free side show should attract paying audiences to the ‘Big Show’).

Leon the acrobat loves Sally, but Sally is a tomboy who doesn’t notice his interest. While McGargle plays ‘shell game’ with the bystanders (The old army game) and extorts money from them, Leon looks through a crack in the tent canvas at Sally, who is undressing. Leon goes into the tent and tries to overpower and kiss Sally (00:15:03 - 00:15:42). Sally resists violently and is relieved by McGargle, who hits a bottle on Leon’s head, after which Leon runs off. McGargle points out to Sally that she is becoming a grown woman and pets her fatherly. And he looks again at Sally’s birth certificate and sees in mental point of view (00:16:50) how he received the papers from Sally’s mother on her deathbed. It seems like Griffith isn’t sure we understand Sally and McGargle’s relationship properly.

The ‘shell game’ victims are furious and wait for McGargle and Sally outside the tent. They go after them and Sally and McGargle hide under a circus wagon. They call the circus colleague’s for help, whereupon a huge brawl ensues, during which Sally also makes a fuss with a piece of wood and hides McGargle’s money in her stocking. During the fight, McGargle also picks his opponents pocket. And after Sally has beaten up one of the men, she uses an elephant to chase the victims away. After the fight, McGargle has a headache and Sally has a black eye. And Sally gives him his money back.

McGargle considers visiting Sally”s family in Green Meadow and, if they are good, returning Sally to them. The influx of the wealthy from the city, who built a country house in Green Meadows, made the Fosters (who had a lot of land) rich. They live in a somewhat gaudy, not very tasteful country house, but that does not make up for the loss of their daughter. Mrs. Foster looks into the box of memories again, but Mr. Foster lets her close the box again.

The circus has ended up in Connecticut and McGargle believes that this opportunity should be taken to visit Sally’s family. They are sitting together at the Burrville station (30 miles west of Green Meadow) and from there McGargle has sent a telegram to the World Carnival Co. with his last money. The answer (00:24:01) is that they must report to the fair in Green Meadow at their own expense. Sally has a quarter left in her shoe, which she uses to buy two sandwiches and a cigar. But that does mean that they have to continue on foot. As they walk along the track, a train rushes by, almost blowing them away in a cloud of dust. After following the track on foot for a while, McGargle gets pain in his feet and they decide to jump on a passing train. They sit in the space between the coal tender and the first wagon and brave the elements, which is not easy. Sally clings to McGargle. And then they arrive at a station where water needs to be filled. The station master discovers the stowaways and has them sprayed away with the enormous jet of water. Sally and McGargle are soaking wet, even his cigar needs to be wrung out. McGargle sees that this is the Green Meadow station and says: ‘Daughter, we have arrived’.

At baker Schulz they are allowed to dry a bit in the oven. Sally crawls into one of the ovens and McGargle crawls into the second. Both ovens are lukewarm and Sally does her make-up in the oven. Through a relational cross-cut (00:31:49 bitter poverty vs exorbitant luxury) we see how the Foster family has a luxurious lunch, while their granddaughter sits soaking wet in the baker’s oven. The baker accidentally slams the door of the oven where McGargle is sitting. When Sally, dried up again, comes out of the oven, she has lost McGargle and she stokes the fire some more, making Mc Gargle feel hotter and hotter. She puts two buns in her blouse, which makes her bosom a little fuller, hears McGargle calling and frees him. When he comes out of the oven he must be quenched. He embraces Sally, feels the buns in her blouse and thinks that Sally is really growing up now.

Mr. Lennox, friend of the Fosters, contributed significantly to their wealth. He has a son, Peyton, a dandyish young man. At the annual benefit fair (for homeless orphans) on the Lennoxes’ estate, judge Foster and Mr. Lennox walk around and there is also the civilized girl chosen by Lennox’s father for Peyton. Sally and McGargle arrive at the fair and are clearly ‘displaced’ in this elite company. The relational cross-cut (at 00:38:13 rich and elite vs poor and socially inept) contrasts the two worlds. Peyton and his girlfriend make fun of McGargle and Sally. Foster wonders what this strange bunch is doing here and when McGargle asks about the manager it is clear that they are among the fairground performers. A police officer warns McGargle not to play cards or shell game.

Sally takes a walk around the estate, where luxurious ladies walk around, and is quietly followed by Peyton. She picks a flower and sits on the wall of the cemetery. There she sees (eyeball POV 00:40:21) a gravestone dedicated to ‘Mother, in loving memory’ and is reminded of her own deceased mother. She throws the flower on the grave (00:40:49). Peyton still looks with interest at Sally, who wipes her tears. Apparently he’s a little in love. Sally helps a little boy who has fallen on his knee and Peyton comes along and gives the boy a banknote as comfort. Peyton introduces himself to Sally. He says that he saw her throw a flower on the grave (mental POV 00:43:26) and says that he lives nearby. In an intermediate shot we see his exorbitantly luxurious villa: ‘ That’s my house.’ And further along is the Fosters’ house. Sally continues walking, but judge Foster apparently saw the meeting between Peyton Lennox and Sally.

McGargle asks the police officer about Henry C. Foster. ‘He’s one of the richest people in town, but he doesn’t like carnival people.’ Sally lies down in the grass and Peyton follows her and lies down next to her. ‘A rich young man and a homeless girl – the never-changing bond of youth.’ Peyton grows closer to Sally and she offers no resistance. She has a flower in her hand (close-up 00:46:12) and drops it. Peyton leans over Sally and picks up the flower (00:46:15). But at the same moment, Foster walks up and asks Peyton what he is doing. But he gestures for him to continue walking. Peyton still has the flower in his hand and tries to win Sally over, but Sally suddenly stands up and he puts the flower in his buttonhole (00:47:03). Judge Foster warns his friend Lennox that his son has lost his heart to that ‘show girl’. Meanwhile, Peyton is still walking around with the flower in his hand (00:47:38). ‘And so judge Foster begins prosecuting the daughter of his beloved only child (his granddaughter).’ He orders the sheriff to keep an eye on McGargle and his daughter, ‘ they are a threat to the community.’

Meanwhile, Sally and McGargle arrive at the Fosters’ mansion. Sally picks flowers there. When Foster spots them, he angrily chases them away, this is private property. McGargle takes Sally with him, if this is her grandfather, then it is better that she does not know that she is descended from him. ‘Why did we even go there?’ Sally wonders, but she doesn’t get an answer. In the evening the fair runs at full speed. The deep space character of the shots is striking (00:51:22). We see a merry-go-round, a Ferris wheel and a crowd of people. The audience is clearly very civilized. A bagpipe band makes music and girls do a Can Can dance. On the dance floor we see beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen. And Prof. Eustace McGargle appears with Sally. He has decided to keep his secret and keep Sally to himself. Mrs. Foster (Sally’s grandmother) stands alone at the fair and sees the performance of McGargle and Sally, who dances to McGargle’s xylophone music. Peyton Lennox, member of the organizing committee, sees her dancing. Sally is asked by a wealthy lady from the audience to perform at the Fosters’ home on the charity night. For the first time, McGargle sees Sally not only as his loving daughter, but also as a source of income.

When the fair is almost over, Peyton comes to sit with Sally on the merry-go-round. He puts his arm around her and kisses her. But they are taken by Mr. Lennox, who believes that his son should not be involved with that showgirl, that daughter of that fake villain. Sally reacts furiously, wants to hit Lennox with her guitar and rushes away. Peyton tells his father that he is going to marry her with or without his consent. Lennox complains to Judge Foster, who wants to prevent Peyton from marrying this street child from the circus. And he orders the sheriff to arrest Sally and McGargle. The sheriff says he will arrest them both. Sally sits in her tent, angry and sad, and tells McGargle: ‘They said I was no good.’ The outrage almost drives McGargle to reveal the secret, but he holds back.

At the Fosters’ the dance evening is being held for charity. Beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen walk around and Sally reports at the front door, but is not admitted. As an artist, she has to enter through the side door. There are many dancers sitting and standing in the dressing room, preparing for the show. A dance group with four ladies and a gentleman appears on the dance floor, surrounded by the audience. Outside, McGargle sells illegal liquor from a cart. And then, as Peyton applauds loudly, Sally appears in a tutu. She does some dance steps and some jumps, but does not show any credible ballet. Peyton watches mesmerized in a soft-focus shot. From the side room Mrs. Foster walks up and sees Sally dancing. ‘The grandmother is especially attracted to the girl.’

A curtain now slides open in a corner of the room, behind which is an Oriental ‘ tableau vivant’ with beautiful ladies. But now comes ‘Peyton’s plan’. A curtain opens, behind which Sally stands radiant in a beautiful dark dress, with a silver-colored headdress, large earrings and high heels. So, she can also present herself as a lady. Peyton enjoys it and the guests stand up and clap for her, after which the curtain closes. When Sally appears to enter through the door, many gentlemen crowd around her. But Peyton, under the guise of having a telegram for Sally, runs through the door and closes it. After some hesitation they embrace and kiss each other fervently.

Sally is wearing her everyday clothes again. She thanks the dressers and leaves. Sally walks through the deserted living room and sits down in a comfortable armchair. Mrs. Foster walks into the living room and says that she really enjoyed Sally’s dancing and liked to dance herself, but the prudish judge wouldn’t let her. And she demonstrates a few dance steps and plays the piano while Sally dances. In mental point of view and at the same time a relational cross-cut shot (01:10:17) we see how Mrs. Foster thinks back to the time when she played the piano and her daughter (Sally’s mother) danced. This image refers to one of the opening shots at 00:01:25. Mrs. Foster sees in Sally the rebirth of her daughter. Sally kisses Mrs. Foster’s hand for a long time, wipes away a tear and then embraces her. But then the judge comes in, and his attitude drives Sally away. Mrs. Foster stands up for Sally: ‘I think she’s a good girl, no matter what anyone else says.’ Outside is the sheriff, who goes after Sally.

Mr. Lennox makes up an important assignment that allows him to send his son Peyton on a journey. Meanwhile, McGargle is in a tent again busy with his card trick (Three Card Monte) to swindle money out of naive bystanders. A police officer spots him and alerts the sheriff. Meanwhile, Sally tries to get McGargle to stop his scam. But he is incorrigible. And then the sheriff looks with one eye through a slit in the tent canvas and sees (in eyeball POV 01:14:48) that McGargle is doing his card trick. He invades the tent, catches McGargle red-handed and arrests him. Sally blows out the oil lamp (with most of the studio light extinguishing 01:15:18) and pulls away the central pole of the tent. The tent collapses and McGargle manages to escape. Sally takes the cards, to take away the evidence against McGargle. McGargle manages to escape disguised as an Indian. The sheriff crawls out from under the tent canvas, after which Sally appears last and is immediately arrested as an accomplice. At the police station, the playing cards are found in her jacket and she is put in the police cell while she resists. The sheriff informs Judge Foster by telephone: ‘We have the girl.’

Mc Gargle is now on the run from the police, and he seeks refuge in a forest, precisely in a house where mafia types are hiding. They see him as a ‘revenuer’ (a tax agent who tracks down moonshiners). He is searched and is not allowed to leave by the criminals because he knows too much about them. But he manages to bribe the crook guarding him with a stack of banknotes and immediately steal the money from his pocket. But now he’s out of the house and a little further away he manages to steal a car. ‘McGargle decides to turn himself in, pay the fine and take Sally with him forever.’ The crooks follow him in their car and a wild chase ensues. The crooks are hampered by a flat tire and McGargle by a confrontation with a traffic cop. After all kinds of wanderings, McGargle at one point catches up with the criminals who think they are after him, which leads to mutual surprise. The chase has a strong Comedy Capers character. After the ‘heart-stopping’ chase, McGargle’s car jolts and collides through a newly plowed field where the car ends up on its side.

The next morning in her cell, Sally is afraid that everyone has abandoned her. After all, she does not know that Peyton Lennox has been sent on a journey by his father. Sally appears in court presided over by judge Foster. First, the police officers who caught McGargle red-handed and determined that Sally was complicit testifies. ‘She had the playing cards in her pocket and helped him escape.’ The judge asks the police officer whether the girl’s father should be considered an unfit guardian. ‘He’s a worthless villain.’ Now Sally jumps up and defends McGargle, slamming her fist on the table. Immediately after this we cut to the judge, who also hits the table (relational cross-cut at 01:28:04: both hit the table, Sally with her fist vs the judge with his hammer). Sally is subjected to a harsh interrogation by the judge. He asks, among other things, her age, the names of her father and mother, not knowing that his own daughter is Sally’s mother. Sally mentiones Prof. Eustace McGargle as her father and as her mother, her ‘Daddy, the only mother I ever had.’ Mrs. Foster enters the courtroom and now also follows the progress of the trial. She thinks that the girl is being treated very harshly. ‘If the little grandmother knew that the judge was torturing their own grandchild.’ Sally defends the honor of McGargle, her father and also her mother in her answers: ‘He is a noble, honorable gentleman! When my father comes back he will put you all to death!’ The judge wants to send Sally to a home for troublesome girls. Sally decides to flee, but the court bailiff tries to detain her. She fights free and climbs to the high window in the courtroom, climbs out and clambers down a tree. She flees through gardens and fences to a rural area, where an entire police force chases her and where she can hide on top of a shed. But in the end she is caught and, despite her great resistance, she is brought back to court.

But then suddenly, to Sally’s delight, McGargle appears in the courtroom and they run into each other’s arms. McGargle presents Sally’s birth papers. ‘Her mother was Mary Foster, your daughter, judge.’ Mrs. Foster sits in the audience with wide eyes and shouts out. The judge doesn’t know how to deal with this and McGargle and Sally hug. Peyton has now returned from his trip and the housekeeper points out the process that is going on. McGargle is now being grilled in the dock. He is accused of gambling, but McGargle says it is a game of science and skill: ‘The Old Army Game!’ Sally and McGargle are acquitted. Mrs. Foster and her granddaughter embrace. And Judge Foster also strats to open up. McGargle is also treated kindly by the company. Peyton runs into the courtroom and sits next to Sally, who is sitting on her grandmother’s lap. But Sally is only moderately interested in him.

In the final scene, J. Eustace McGargle has become a property developer, a man in bonis. He sells plots of land and uses the (fraudulent) methods of ‘The Old Army Game’. Behind McGargle and Sally, both in luxurious clothes, in the spacious car are her boyfriend Peyton Lennox, Mr Lennox, and in the third row Mr. and Mrs. Foster.

Sally of the Sawdust

is based on the musical ‘Poppy’, in which Fields performed for a year in 1923. W.C. Fields is funny and puts on a great vaudeville routine. McGargle calls his ‘Three Card Monte’, the shell game with three cards ‘The Old Army Game’, a theme that recurs in the film ‘It’s the Old Army Game’ (A.E. Sutherland, 1926) ² which W.C Fields made with Louise Brooks for Famous Players-Lasky Corporation in 1926. Carol Dempster is cheerful, warm, very affectionate and cuddly, flexible and sometimes acrobatic, but largely lacks the expression that Mary Pickford for example can display. However, she is more modern than Gish or Pickford. Because of her background as a dancer Griffith let her, in both this film and in ‘The Girl Who Stayed at Home’ (I.E. Griffith, March 1919) for Paramount ³ perform as dancer, but again and again we see a few very short movements and nowhere does she show examples of dance art that are even remotely impressive. The second part of this film is a bit too drawn out, but as a whole the film is attractive.

Vignette:

The lighting plan of this film is again largely based on a hard backlight, while the imaging in the majority of the scenes is determined by vignetting. We have to realize that vignetting in the dark cinema gave a very different experience than on the computer screen. The black vignette edge of the image merged with the darkness of the cinema hall and created an image floating in space, with a dream-like character, which thus gave a completely different experience than the sharply defined image against a white background that we see on the computer screen. Sometimes the vignetting is used to direct the viewer’s eyes to part of the image, such as the legs of the dancers performing with the Fosters’ (01:02:43). But more often, vignetting leads to a certain abstraction of the image, which is isolated from the rest of the environment. It seems as if we are allowed to quietly witness an intimate spectacle through a peephole, which makes vignetting a ‘mood’ determining factor. Moreover, a vignette shot in the middle of a non-vignette scene gets extra charge or ‘tense’. For example, during the evening fair, only the shot of Mrs. Foster is vignetted (cross-cut at 00:53:02), focusing the viewer’s attention on her, and for good reason. She watches Sally’s performance with enthusiasm, but is also her grandmother, although she is not aware of it. This is how tension is created among the audience. After all, the viewer has an information advantage over the actress and would like to provide that nice lady with the information around which the entire plot of the film revolves. The heavily vignetted shot of the sheriff (01:00:20 and 01:08:02) also suddenly appears among non-vignetted shots, which reinforces the threat posed by it. And that also applies to the heavily vignetted close-ups’s of Judge Foster as he interrogates Sally (01:29:42, 01:29:51, 01:30:05, 01:30:11, 01:30:45, 01:30:51, 01:31:00, 01:31:04, 01:31:20, 01:32:37), edited amid of the mostly non-vignetted court shots. The highly vignetted shot of McGargle (01:20:09), when he is fleeing from the police, also contrasts strongly with the surrounding non-vignetted shots. It therefore forms a point of rest in a rather hectic sequence of images. Only if a scene has a ‘documentary’ character, such as the arrival of the circus (00:06:45), the ‘chase’ scene with the angry ‘shell game’ victims (00:17:30) and the illegal sale of alcohol (01:02:50), vignetting is not used at all.

A special method of vignetting, with gauze strips above and below, before the lens, intended to draw the viewer’s attention to one part of the image, can be seen at 01:16:54, when McGargle moves through the middle third of the image and both the top and bottom thirds of the image are out of hazy. At 01:17:33 a shot with a similar effect appears as police officers walk down the street looking for McGargle.

Mental POV:

• McGargle looks again at Sally’s birth certificate and sees in mental point of view (00:16:50) how he received the papers from Sally’s mother on her deathbed.
• Peyton introduces himself to Sally. He says that he saw her throw a flower on the grave (mental POV 00:43:26).
• As Sally meets Mrs. Foster in the living room, Mrs. Foster plays the piano and Sally dances to the music. In a mental point of view shot we see how Mrs. Foster remembers how she played the piano and her daughter Mary (Sally’s mother) danced (01:10:17). This image refers to one of the opening shots at 00:01:25.

Eyeball POV:

• Sally takes a walk around the estate, picks a flower and sits on the wall of the cemetery. There she sees (eyeball POV 00:40:21) a gravestone dedicated to ‘Mother, in loving memory’ and is reminded of her own deceased mother.
• The sheriff looks with one eye through a slit in the tent canvas and sees (in a more than classic eyeball POV shot 01:14:48) that McGargle is doing his card trick.

Relational cross cut:

• Through a relational cross-cut (00:31:49 bitter poverty vs exorbitant luxury) we see how the Foster family lunches in luxury, while their granddaughter sits soaking wet in the baker’s oven to dry.
• Sally and McGargle arrive at the fair and are clearly ‘displaced’ in this elite group. The relational cross-cut (at 00:38:13 rich and elite vs poor and socially inept) contrasts the two worlds.
• Mrs. Foster plays the piano while Sally dances. In a relational cross-cut shot (01:10:17 in both cases piano playing and dancing ) we see how Mrs. Foster played the piano in a similar manner years ago and her daughter (Sally’s mother) danced along with it. This image refers to one of the opening shots at 00:01:25.
• ‘He’s a worthless villain.’ Now Sally jumps up and defends McGargle, slamming her fist on the table. Immediately after this we cut to the judge also hitting the table (relational cross-cut at 01:28:04: both hitting the table, Sally with the fist vs the judge with his gavel).

Violence against women:

Leon the acrobat loves Sally, but Sally is a tomboy who doesn’t notice. While McGargle plays the shell game with the bystanders, Leon looks through a crack in the tent canvas at Sally, who is undressing. Leon goes into the tent and tries to overpower and kiss Sally (00:15:03 - 00:15:42). Sally resists fiercely and is relieved by McGargle, who hits a bottle on Leon’s head, after which Leon runs off.

Flowers as a sign of love:

• Sally takes a walk on the estate and picks a flower. She sees a gravestone ‘Mother, in loving memory’ in the cemetery and is reminded of her own deceased mother. She throws the flower on the grave (00:40:49).
• Peyton introduces himself to Sally. Sally lies down in the grass and Peyton lies down next to her. Peyton gets closer to Sally and she offers no resistance. She has a flower in her hand (close-up 00:46:12) and drops it. Peyton leans over Sally and picks up the flower (00:46:15). Judge Foster threatens to disrupt the love scene, but Peyton gestures for him to move on. Peyton still has the flower in his hand and tries to win Sally over, but Sally suddenly stands up and he puts the flower in his buttonhole (00:47:03). She doesn’t want his love now. Judge Foster warns his friend Lennox that his son has lost his heart to that ‘show girl’. Meanwhile, Peyton is still walking around with the flower in his hand (00:47:38). His love is not over yet.

Deep space:

In the evening the fair is running at full speed. What is striking is the deep space character of the shots (00:51:22). We see a merry-go-round, a Ferris wheel and a crowd of people.

Use of artificial light:

The sheriff invades the tent, catches McGargle red-handed and arrests him. But Sally blows out the oil lamp (with most of the studio lights going out 01:15:18).

Editing:

It is striking how sloppily this film is edited. Orderly match on action editing is regularly violated:

1. Mary turns twice (00:02:40)

2. Judge Foster’s head position mismatch (00:06:38)

3. McGargle’s spin jumps (00:16:38).

4. Sudden change in attitude Sally as a dancer (01:04:20 and 01:04:24).

5. The car’s reverse twice (01:42:27)

Footnotes

1. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK-EELb5tkg ↩

2. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkhWPRqeBxQ ↩

3. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLbYuelp1-Y ↩