'The Bargain', a William S. Hart western, is one of the many thousands of silent films which survive only because of the U.S. government's 'paper prints' law, which seemed rather bizarre at the time, but in hindsight may indicate that the U.S. government know what they're doing after all. I'll describe the situation, and you can judge for yourself.
In the late 19th century, when movie production companies first tried to copyright their films in the U.S., the Library of Congress stated that only artistic works published on PAPER could be registered for copyright. Movies, being photographed on celluloid, were ineligible. This seems rather a capricious ruling, but perhaps the LoC simply didn't want to accumulate cans of film stock ... which, in those days, were usually highly flammable nitrate-emulsion celluloid. (Although the LoC acquired plenty of nitrate films eventually.) This decision prompted many production companies to make special 'paper print' versions of their films, to be used solely for registering U.S. copyright and for storage in the Library of Congress. Essentially, a paper print reproduces the movie frame-by-frame on long paper streamers rather than celluloid filmstrips. Such prints cannot be projected, but can be bound into books and 'read'.
The LoC's decision was borne out when those nitrate prints started to decompose. Many early movies -- including 'The Bargain' -- have no known surviving original film prints, and exist today only because the paper prints registered in the Library of Congress were eventually re-photographed onto acetate-emulsion (safety) film stock. Thank you, Uncle Sam.
Unfortunately, some film producers weren't completely honest when registering their movies for copyright. I saw 'The Bargain' in October 2006 at the Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy, where it was screened from an acetate print struck from the paper original. As much as I enjoyed this film, I was more interested in seeing another one which the festival programmers scheduled along with 'The Bargain', a film so rare that it isn't listed in IMDb yet: 'Marceline, the World-Renowned Clown of the N.Y. Hippodrome'. This purported to be the stage act of a famous European clown who was (among other things) Chaplin's mentor. To my great annoyance, the producers of that movie had only bothered to convert the first few frames of their nitrate filmstrip into a paper print for the copyright office ... so the programmers at Cinema Muto could only show us those opening frames, looped several times.
SPOILERS AHEAD. 'The Bargain' was made early in William S. Hart's career, but shows his screen character firmly in place. Rather than playing a standard white-hat hero or black-hat varmint, Hart typically played corrupt characters who are reformed in the last reel, usually by the love of a good woman. Here, Jim Stokes (Hart) is a stagecoach robber who's wounded while stealing the express-company's money, but is saved by miner Phil Brent and his pretty daughter Nell. After Jim marries Nell, his past catches up with him ... in the form of sheriff Bud Walsh, determined to bring Jim to justice. Jim has conveniently saved the stolen money all this time, and now he claims that he intends to make restitution ... which I found unlikely, since he was last seen scarpering for the Mexican border when the sheriff caught up with him. Walsh confiscates the money, but manages to lose it while gambling on a crooked roulette wheel. He then offers Jim a bargain: if Jim steals the money back for the sheriff, he'll allow Jim and Nell to escape into Mexico, presumably to live happily ever after.
I'm not much of a fan of westerns, but I found this one enjoyable. For once, Hart isn't the only morally ambiguous character: the sheriff who comes after him is just as crooked ... and stupid with it, since he manages to get snookered by a crooked wheel. Having blown the money at the roulette wheel, why didn't the sheriff simply claim that Jim had spent it before the sheriff captured him? The ending is rather contrived: since Walsh sets Jim free to rob the gambling house (with the understanding that Jim is to surrender the winnings to Walsh), there's nothing to prevent Jim from welshing on Walsh by keeping the money AND going free with Nell; because Jim honours the bargain, we accept that his reformation is genuine. I'll rate this intriguing early oater 7 out of 10.
In the late 19th century, when movie production companies first tried to copyright their films in the U.S., the Library of Congress stated that only artistic works published on PAPER could be registered for copyright. Movies, being photographed on celluloid, were ineligible. This seems rather a capricious ruling, but perhaps the LoC simply didn't want to accumulate cans of film stock ... which, in those days, were usually highly flammable nitrate-emulsion celluloid. (Although the LoC acquired plenty of nitrate films eventually.) This decision prompted many production companies to make special 'paper print' versions of their films, to be used solely for registering U.S. copyright and for storage in the Library of Congress. Essentially, a paper print reproduces the movie frame-by-frame on long paper streamers rather than celluloid filmstrips. Such prints cannot be projected, but can be bound into books and 'read'.
The LoC's decision was borne out when those nitrate prints started to decompose. Many early movies -- including 'The Bargain' -- have no known surviving original film prints, and exist today only because the paper prints registered in the Library of Congress were eventually re-photographed onto acetate-emulsion (safety) film stock. Thank you, Uncle Sam.
Unfortunately, some film producers weren't completely honest when registering their movies for copyright. I saw 'The Bargain' in October 2006 at the Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy, where it was screened from an acetate print struck from the paper original. As much as I enjoyed this film, I was more interested in seeing another one which the festival programmers scheduled along with 'The Bargain', a film so rare that it isn't listed in IMDb yet: 'Marceline, the World-Renowned Clown of the N.Y. Hippodrome'. This purported to be the stage act of a famous European clown who was (among other things) Chaplin's mentor. To my great annoyance, the producers of that movie had only bothered to convert the first few frames of their nitrate filmstrip into a paper print for the copyright office ... so the programmers at Cinema Muto could only show us those opening frames, looped several times.
SPOILERS AHEAD. 'The Bargain' was made early in William S. Hart's career, but shows his screen character firmly in place. Rather than playing a standard white-hat hero or black-hat varmint, Hart typically played corrupt characters who are reformed in the last reel, usually by the love of a good woman. Here, Jim Stokes (Hart) is a stagecoach robber who's wounded while stealing the express-company's money, but is saved by miner Phil Brent and his pretty daughter Nell. After Jim marries Nell, his past catches up with him ... in the form of sheriff Bud Walsh, determined to bring Jim to justice. Jim has conveniently saved the stolen money all this time, and now he claims that he intends to make restitution ... which I found unlikely, since he was last seen scarpering for the Mexican border when the sheriff caught up with him. Walsh confiscates the money, but manages to lose it while gambling on a crooked roulette wheel. He then offers Jim a bargain: if Jim steals the money back for the sheriff, he'll allow Jim and Nell to escape into Mexico, presumably to live happily ever after.
I'm not much of a fan of westerns, but I found this one enjoyable. For once, Hart isn't the only morally ambiguous character: the sheriff who comes after him is just as crooked ... and stupid with it, since he manages to get snookered by a crooked wheel. Having blown the money at the roulette wheel, why didn't the sheriff simply claim that Jim had spent it before the sheriff captured him? The ending is rather contrived: since Walsh sets Jim free to rob the gambling house (with the understanding that Jim is to surrender the winnings to Walsh), there's nothing to prevent Jim from welshing on Walsh by keeping the money AND going free with Nell; because Jim honours the bargain, we accept that his reformation is genuine. I'll rate this intriguing early oater 7 out of 10.