Home, Sweet Home (1914/I)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

D.W. Griffith

Writers:

H.E. Aitken (writer)
D.W. Griffith (writer)

Release Date:

17 May 1914 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

John Howard Payne leaves home and begins a career in the theater. Despite encouragement from his mother and his sweetheart...

Plot Keywords:

Allegory

Cast

Henry B. Walthall	...	John Howard Payne
Josephine Crowell	...	Payne's Mother
Lillian Gish	...	Payne's Sweetheart
Dorothy Gish	...	Sister of Payne's Sweetheart
Fay Tincher	...	The Worldly Woman
Mae Marsh	...	Apple Pie Mary
Spottiswoode Aitken	...	Mary's Father
Robert Harron	...	The Eastener, Robert Winthrop
Miriam Cooper	...	The Fiancee
Mary Alden	...	The Mother
Donald Crisp	...	The Mother's Son
James Kirkwood	...	The Mother's Son
Jack Pickford	...	The Mother's Son
Fred Burns	...	The Sheriff
Courtenay Foote	...	The Husband

Runtime:

USA:55 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Chatsworth Park, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Majestic Motion Picture Company

Movie Connections:

Featured in Mary Pickford: A Life on Film (1997)

An Interesting Idea That Works Fairly Well

The idea of joining together four different narratives with the theme of "Home, Sweet Home" works fairly well in this early full-length D.W. Griffith feature. The account of composer John Howard Payne's own life is interesting for the way that it puts his well-known song in context. The other three stories vary in quality, but all are at least worth seeing. The format seems to have been a hedge against the possibility that releasing the whole thing as one picture might be unsuccessful. But Griffith and others would soon make better use of the multiple narrative idea, making this feature of some interest historically.

Of the three fictional stories, one is mostly routine (the young married couple), one is pretty good (the young man heading out west), and one is somewhat interesting but heavy-handed and unconvincing (the two brothers). All of them are similar to familiar kinds of one-reel dramas from the era. None of the stories are particularly memorable, but they're not bad either. As a whole, the idea and the material are good enough to make it worth watching.