The Other Half
About The Other Half
Captain Donald Trent comes home from the war with new ideas and takes a job at the bottom of his father's mills. Corporal Jimmy Davis goes back to his mill job. After Trent's father dies, Donald becomes manager and returns to the old way of running the place. Jimmy is blinded in a mill accident. Donald will not see him. Katherine Boone, who owns a newspaper, writes editorials aimed at Donald. The group is brought back together.
Cast & crew
More about The Other Half
King Vidor wrote and directed the film for the Brentwood Corporation. Ira H. Morgan photographed it. Exhibitors Mutual and Robertson-Cole released it on 18 August 1919. It runs 50 minutes. Florence Vidor, the director's wife, plays Katherine Boone. Charles Meredith plays Donald Trent. ZaSu Pitts plays Jennie Jones, called the Jazz Kid. David Butler plays Jimmy Davis. Alfred Allen plays J. Martin Trent. Wikipedia places the picture as the third of four films in which Vidor was working through Christian Science ideas about moral strength and country life. The 70th Berlin International Film Festival showed it in February 2020 in a Vidor retrospective.
Themes
Background
Donald and Jimmy come home from the 1914–1918 war into a mill town. The argument of the film is what Donald does with the plant once his father is dead.
Making
Vidor casts his wife as the editor who writes Donald back toward the men he served with, after the mill accident.
Look
Ira H. Morgan photographed the mill floor, the accident, and the newspaper office.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print is in circulation. The Berlinale showed the film in February 2020. The George Eastman Museum holds a lantern slide.
Notes
- Frances Raymond plays Mrs. Boone. Hugh Saxon plays James Bradley. Thomas Jefferson plays Caleb Fairman.
- Jimmy's injury is a blinding at the mill, after Donald has become manager.
- Katherine's weapon is the newspaper, not a speech at the mill gate.
- A George Eastman Museum record includes a lantern slide for the film.
- An Internet Archive copy is filed as silent-the-other-half.
Scenes
- Donald takes a bottom job in the mill, then inherits the manager's desk and changes.
- Jimmy is blinded. Donald refuses to visit.
- Katherine's editorials bring the group back together.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-other-half)
