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Uncle Tom's Cabin
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by Kino International
Sales Rank: 32045
Price: $24.95
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Harry Pollard's epic 1927 version of Harriet Beecher Stowe's landmark novel <I>Uncle Tom's Cabin</I> was one of the most expensive silent films ever made. James B. Lowe, whose composure, dignity, and gentleness suggest a silent-era Danny Glover, stars as kindly Tom, the slave ripped from his family to pay his master's debt, but the film favors the more sensational melodrama of the married light-skinned couple Eliza and George and their son Harry (all played by white performers), split up and sold to the highest bidder. Pollard, a Southerner himself, maintains an uneasy balance between a sentimental portrayal of a happy Dixie with smiling slaves and a land where humans are bought and sold like cattle to wicked, money-grubbing masters. The exaggerated performances and stereotypes have not aged well and Pollard shows a weakness for broad Victorian melodrama, but the film boasts many moving moments and nail-biting sequences, highlighted by Eliza's harrowing escape across the ice floes as hounds literally nip at her heels. (A staple of the many touring stage productions of the play, D.W. Griffith borrowed the scene for the climax of <I>Way Down East</I>.) <I>Uncle Tom's Cabin</I> is more interesting as a product of its era than any serious attempt to explore the evils of slavery, but it's an exciting, handsomely mounted picture. Kino's restored edition features the original Movietone score by Erno Rapee, complete with sound effects and songs. <p> The DVD also features a detailed and informative essay by historian David Pierce, an extensive collection of stills, promotional materials, and music cue sheets, and details of cuts made to the film, including two deleted scenes that are among the best moments the film has to offer. <I>--Sean Axmaker</I>
Viewer Reviews
Ok, this film is like many of the silent era, it takes its story from a novel and retells it in a totally different way. Sometimes it's ok, sometimes it's not. In this film, it is Ok! I had heard that this film wasn't very good and I wasn't going to buy it except that I love the book the story came from. A sale for 50% off prompted me to purchase the DVD. I watched it thinking it wasn't going to be good but "interesting". I ended up loving it! The movie takes the story and gussies it up with exciting scenes and even adding the civil war as an added bonus. Remember, the book basically started the civil war so ther was no hope in the novel. The acting is very good and the movie direction is quite creative. I highly recommend this movie to anyone with interest in silent films and Uncle Tom's Cabin. Don't forget to take a look at two deleted scenes included on the DVD. They involve Topsy's distress over being black and how little value is placed on her humanity. She feels she cannot behave because she is "not good" and making herself white would change that situation.
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