Tess of the Storm Country
About Tess of the Storm Country
Seventeen-year-old Tess Skinner, a squatter's daughter, fights Elias Graves, who wants the fishermen off his land. His ally Dan Jordan is shot by Ben Letts, who blames Tess's father. Tess falls in love with Elias's son Frederick. She hides the baby of Elias's daughter Teola, born after Dan's death, and claims the child as her own. Frederick sees the baby and leaves her. Teola confesses in church and dies. Skinner is freed, Elias and Frederick apologize, and Tess takes Frederick back.
Cast & crew
More about Tess of the Storm Country
Mary Pickford produced and starred. John S. Robertson directed. Josephine Lovett and E. Lloyd Sheldon wrote the adaptation, with Elmer Harris also credited; the source is Grace Miller White's 1909 novel. Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks bought the rights from Famous Players-Lasky, which had made her 1914 version. Marshall Neilan was announced as director in January 1922; in March, Famous Players-Lasky loaned Robertson. United Artists released the film on November 12, 1922.
Themes
Background
United Artists, the company Pickford had helped found, released this remake in November 1922.
In film history
Pickford's second screen version of Tess Skinner, made eight years after her Famous Players film and a decade before Janet Gaynor's sound remake.
Making
Pickford pushed the remake after Little Lord Fauntleroy. The 1922 film opens by calling itself a new production of the story under better conditions than the 1914 picture.
Look
Charles Rosher photographed the film.
Preservation
A print survives. The Mary Pickford Foundation lists a preservation project for the 1922 film with the Library of Congress.
Notes
- Pickford had played Tess in 1914 for Famous Players. She said she wanted the role again because the crew now had a larger budget and better tools. Her previous film, Little Lord Fauntleroy, had failed with critics.
- Lloyd Hughes plays Frederick, Gloria Hope plays Teola, David Torrence plays Elias, Forrest Robinson plays Daddy Skinner, and Jean Hersholt plays Ben Letts.
- Milton Berle has an uncredited bit.
- A sound remake with Janet Gaynor opened in 1932.
- Charles Rosher was the cinematographer.
Scenes
- Tess pulls Teola from the river and then claims the newborn as hers.
- She breaks into the Graves house for milk and Elias catches her.
- In church she tries to baptize the dying baby herself, and Teola admits the child is hers.
Influenced by
- Tess of the Storm Country (novel, 1909)
- Tess of the Storm Country (1914 film)
Influenced
- Tess of the Storm Country (1932)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Tess of the Storm Country (1922).webm)
