The Whispering Chorus (1918)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Cecil B. DeMille

Writers:

Jeanie Macpherson (writer)
Perley Poore Sheehan (novel)

Release Date:

28 March 1918 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

John Trimble has embezzled and obtains another identity by having a mutilated body buried in his place...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Raymond Hatton	...	John Tremble
Kathlyn Williams	...	Jane Tremble
Edythe Chapman	...	John Tremble's mother
Elliott Dexter	...	George Coggeswell
Noah Beery	...	Longshoreman
Guy Oliver	...	Chief McFarland
John Burton	...	Charles Barden
Tully Marshall	...	F.P. Clumley
William H. Brown	...	Stauberry
James Neill	...	Channing
Gustav von Seyffertitz	...	Mocking Face
Walter Lynch	...	Evil Face
Edna Mae Cooper	...	Good Face

Runtime:

USA:86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

Trivia:

The wedding sequence in which George Coggeswell (Elliott Dexter) marries Jane Trimble ('Kathlyn Williams (I)') was staged at Christ Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. The best man was played by Paramount executive Charles Eyton, who was married to Kathlyn Williams in real life. According to Dexter, Eyton had to be persuaded to allow the use of the couples' actual wedding rings for the scene.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic (2004) (TV)

From Rembrandt to Kafka

After transferring the chiaroscuro effects of Rembrandt's painting onto 'The Cheat,' director Cecil B. DeMille likens Kafka's writing in 'The Whispering Chorus,' with its disjointed, nightmarish, psychological drama. The lighting and tinting, as usual for DeMille's films, are superior. Also, as usual, the framing, staging and acting are theatrical. The mise-en-scène, tinting and editing in the dénouement were especially good. The narrative is what sets this film apart, though.

The depiction of the hall of echoes, or the whispering chorus--the stream of consciousness--as superimposed faces (none of which are of the protagonist) with conflicting advice seems silly today, like a naïve representation of dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder). Yet, how else could one depict a stream of consciousness in a silent film, without narration? Furthermore, the protagonist is deranged, a psychotic; this is not only evident by the faces, but also in his actions. The story is somewhat congruently nonsensical. The action follows a sort of dream logic, like a Kafka story, often lacking reason and continuing further into a surrealist nightmare of unnatural, ironic events seemingly out of the dazed protagonist's control. The editing is probably the other technique that best supports this, such as in the sequence crosscutting between Jane remarrying and John in China, jumping two years twice within a short length of film.

Although DeMille was making a psychological drama, with some focus on subjective perspective, he apparently didn't intend to attempt Kafkaesque depths, and he largely fails to; there's too much causation to the plot, and the film is too objective. That DeMille was trying a narrative that somewhat differs from traditional, popular storytelling is commendable. In this respect, 'The Whispering Chorus' "marked a turning point in DeMille's career, causing him to abandon his interesting path of 'artistic' pictures and concentrate on films of proved appeal instead," in the words of American film historian William Everson ("American Silent Film"). I don't know about the lack of profit of this film determining DeMille's subsequent films, but at this time, early in his career, he was trying different things. And, rather than continuing along the more interesting path including this film and 'The Cheat,' he went on to make 'Male and Female' and other such commercial rubbish. Cinéma lost an interesting filmmaker here.