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Directed by Cecil B. DeMille
From sweeping historical epics to signature sex comedies, Cecil B. DeMille directed films with flamboyance, panache and meticulous attention to detail. He indulged the general public's lust for a glimpse of the society set in all their outrageous behavior. This perception was created in part, and certainly cultivated, by DeMille himself.
His first talkie, Dynamite, was advertised in "Motion Picture Herald" as "a drama that digs through the veneer of sex and silks to reach the heart! " Dynamite was DeMille's first project while under contract at MGM. In 1929, MGM was still releasing most of its talkies with silent versions in order to satisfy those markets that were not yet wired for sound. lt is the silent version that has been preserved for this festival. Though one reel shorter, the silent version departs little from its sound counterpart. A "Variety" review from the time sums up the complicated plot: "A miner, condemned to death, whom the spoiled society bud has wed in prison on the eve of execution...all to comply with a will, leaving her millions, in order that she may buy another woman's husband. That the laborer is saved from the gallows at the 11th hour forms the knot which the scenario must untie."
DeMille plucked Kay Johnson and Charles Bickford from the stage to play two of the leading roles (the society woman, Cynthia Crothers, and the miner, Hagon Derk). Conrad Nagel plays the polo player who completes the accidental love triangle. The film garnered an Academy Award nomination in the category of "Interior Decoration" for art director J. Mitchell Leisen (soon to drop the "J." and go on to direct some of the great romantic films of the '30s and '40s), who was equally adept at portraying the palatial playgrounds of the wealthy and the gritty realism of a miner's life.
–Barbara Whitehead
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Producer: Cecil B. DeMille Scenarist: Jeanie MacPherson Cinematographer: Peverell Marley Editor: Anne Bauchens With: Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, Julia Faye, Joel McCrea
35mm, silent, 120 min.
Preserved from Cecil B. DeMille's personal 35mm nitrate print. Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory. Special thanks to: Cecilia deMille Presley.
