True Heart Susie
About True Heart Susie
Susie, who lives with her aunt, loves the boy next door, William Jenkins, and does not tell him. She sells the family cow and other farm goods to pay for his study to be a minister. He comes home, takes her for a soft drink, and still looks at girls who dress up. He marries Bettina Hopkins. Betty slips out to a dance, loses her key in the rain, and Susie covers for her. Betty dies of the illness that follows. William says he will not marry again, then sees what Susie has done and asks her.
Cast & crew
More about True Heart Susie
Griffith produced and directed. Marian Fremont is credited with the script, G. W. Bitzer with the camera, and James Smith with the editing. Artcraft Pictures released it in the United States on June 1, 1919.
Themes
Making
Griffith’s own company made the film and handed it to Artcraft, the Paramount brand used for his releases at the time. The story stays in one town: the farm, the soft-drink counter, the parsonage, and a dance in a neighbor’s house.
Reviews
Paul O’Dell wrote that commentators have noted the charm and the sharp emotional moments, and that the film is more openly sentimental than most of Griffith’s. He called the ending the weak part: Susie has grown up, then turns coy again when William proposes. James Travers, on FrenchFilms.org, singled out Gish’s plain playing of Susie.
Look
G. W. Bitzer shot the film.
Music
It is a silent film. The intertitles are in English. No composer is credited.
Preservation
A print is in the British Film Institute archive. Wikimedia Commons holds a WebM under the title True Heart Susie (1919) by D. W. Griffith.
Notes
- Clarine Seymour plays Bettina. Kate Bruce plays Bettina’s aunt. Raymond Cannon plays Sporty Malone. Carol Dempster plays a friend of Bettina’s.
- George Fawcett is billed as the stranger. Wilbur Higby plays William’s father. Loyola O’Connor plays Susie’s aunt.
- Broken Blossoms, also Griffith and Gish, had opened in May 1919. TV Guide later wrote that this picture sat in that film’s shadow.
- William tells Susie to dress plainly, and she is still plain when he comes home from college.
Scenes
- Susie sells the cow so William can go to college.
- He buys her a soft drink and watches the dressed-up girls.
- Betty, locked out in the rain, comes to Susie, who hides the dance from William.
- After Betty’s death he asks Susie to marry him.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (True Heart Susie (1919) by D. W. Griffith.webm)
