Booth Tarkington PAMPERED YOUTH (1925) Lost Silent Version MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS

Description

Vintage original 11×14 in. US lobby card
from the lost silent film drama,
PAMPERED YOUTH
, released in 1925 by the Vitagraph Company of America and
directed by David Smith
.
Based upon the famous 1918 Pulitzer prize-winning novel,
The Magnificent Ambersons
, by Booth Tarkington, a
t
the turn of the 20th century, the Ambersons are the leading family in a small
Indiana town: their home is the local showplace and their views are news.
Major Amberson’s (Emmett King) daughter, Isabel (Alice Calhoun), is unable to decide between two suitors
until one of them, Eugene Moran (Allan Forrest), disgraces himself by a drunken serenade.
Isabel then marries the other, Wilbur Minafer (Wallace MacDonald), whom she does not love, and
Eugene leaves town. When Wilbur dies, she centers all her affection on her son,
George, who develops from a spoiled child (Ben Alexander) into a shallow, self-centered man (Cullen Landis).
After a number of years, Eugene, now a widower, returns to the town, having
made a fortune in the manufacture of automobiles. George falls in love with
Eugene’s daughter (Charlotte Merriam), but resents Eugene’s obvious attachment to Mrs. Minafer. When
Major Amberson dies, George, who has dissipated the family fortune, is forced
to go to work. Matured by his job, George is reconciled to Eugene when Eugene
rescues Mrs. Minafer from a fire in the Amberson mansion.
The image depicts two separate scenes consisting of a close interior shot of a pensive
Eugene Morgan (
Allan Forrest
)
as he holds a framed photograph of
Wilbur Minafer (
Wallace MacDonald
) while beautiful Isabel Minafer (
Alice Calhoun
) kneels down by a door and also looks pensive. The border artwork depicts the story’s famous fire scene in the bottom left with a corresponding scene in the bottom right that also includes the famous “Vitagraph” studio logo.
This vintage original lobby card is unrestored in good- condition only with two light 5 in. diagonal creases on and near the bottom right corner; three pinholes in the top border and two in each side border; approximately 4 tiny white nicks on MacDonald’s right sleeve; a light 3 in. diagonal creases in the upper right background area; and random areas of discoloration in the borders. The beautiful, rich color tints are fresh and vibrant without any signs of fading.
Pampered Youth
was one of the final films produced by Vitagraph
Company of America before they were absorbed into Warner Bros.
Tarkington’s novel was also the basis for the 1942 RKO
production,
The Magnificent Ambersons
, directed by Orson Welles and
starring Joseph Cotten and Tim Holt. Only portions of the silent film version exist in a
Pathescope 9.5mm home digest
versions of Vitagraph feature films believed not to survive in their original
length and format. The home versions are reduced to one or two reels of 9.5mm
film, with run times of 10 to 20 minutes. The full-length Vitagraph
originals are thought ‘lost’, and that the digests are the only remaining
versions.
Two
major alterations of
Pampered Youth
from the novel on which it is based are the
title itself and the family name, from the “Ambersons” of the book to the
“Minafers” in the film. While the reviews from the time were kind, comparison to other films made at the same period cannot be
avoided, especially concerning the camera work, which was credited to David
Smith and Stephen Smith, Jr. The photography of
Pampered Youth
is primitive,
featuring fixed, distant camera views, which don’t allow for any nuances or
subtleties by the actors. Considering some of the cutting-edge film technique
that was already in regular use by 1925, this deficiency of skill was
undoubtedly due to either lack of imagination or laziness on the part of the director.
The result is a glaring flaw in the interpretation of the sweeping saga of
Tarkington’s original novel, for which he was awarded the 1919 Pulitzer prize
for literature. The core theme of the story is the rejection of modernity by
the protagonist, George Minafer (portrayed by Cullen Landis), a spoiled,
selfish scion who must eventually lose his family’s fortune, suffer poverty and
social shame, and then be redeemed by the story’s end.
But the surviving, snipped versions of
Pampered Youth
that are commercially
available are missing almost one hour of the original film, having been reduced
to only 24 minutes, as compared to the original 7 reels of film that was
released in 1925. Almost ten full minutes of the surviving, chopped film is
taken-up by the climatic fire scene, thus eliminating much of the prior plot
explanation and making little sense. This makes comparisons to the acclaimed
re-make in 1942 by Orson Welles (titled as the novel
The Magnificent Ambersons
)
very difficult to justly contrast or compare. But from the perspective of film
preservation and the performances of Alice Calhoun, Cullen Landis, Charlotte
Merriam, Wallace McDonald and a very young Ben Alexander, the surviving copies
of
Pampered Youth
are precious, indeed.