Uncle Tom's Cabin
About Uncle Tom's Cabin
World Film adapted George L. Aiken's play of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel. Sam Lucas plays Uncle Tom. Walter Hitchcock is George Shelby, Hattie Delaro is Mrs. Shelby, Teresa Michelena is Eliza, Irving Cummings is George Harris, Marie Eline is Little Eva, and Roy Applegate is Simon Legree.
Cast & crew
More about Uncle Tom's Cabin
William Robert Daly directed. Irvin Willat photographed it. World Film produced it at Fort Lee, New Jersey. Release date on Wikipedia is August 10, 1914. Running time is 54 minutes. Wikidata also lists a Kentucky narrative setting. Publicity said that, unlike earlier versions, it used "real ice, real bloodhounds, real negroes, real actors, real scenes from real life as it really was in the antebellum days."
Themes
Background
Stowe's 1852 novel had already been filmed more than once by 1914. This World Film version was sold on using Black performers in the Black parts and on practical ice and bloodhounds.
In film history
Wikipedia calls it the first movie with a Black actor in a leading role, Sam Lucas as Uncle Tom. The National Film Registry added it in 2012 as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.
Making
The company staged the ice, the dogs, and the plantation scenes at Fort Lee and advertised them as physical, not painted or substituted.
Look
Irvin Willat photographed the Fort Lee production, including the ice and the bloodhound scenes the ads promoted.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Selected for the National Film Registry in 2012. A digital copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Paul Scardon plays Haley. Garfield Thompson plays St. Clair. Boots Wall plays Topsy. Master Abernathy plays George Shelby Jr.
- Wikidata's cast list adds Fern Andra and Irvin Willat. On the Wikipedia credits Willat is the cinematographer, not a billed actor.
- The publicity line contrasts this cast with earlier screen versions that had not used Black actors in the Black roles.
- In 2012 the Library of Congress named it to the National Film Registry.
Influenced by
- Uncle Tom's Cabin
- George L. Aiken's play
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Uncle Tom's Cabin (1914).webm)
