At the Movies

(This article gives links to see some of the films. If in time to come these links no longer work, a search of the appropriate titles should hopefully provide access.)

In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the Bible Students embraced the new medium of motion pictures to spread their message. This article is about six examples that were released between 1914-1922. Following articles on this blog give more details on the Kinemo series.

The Photodrama of Creation                         

This approximately eight hour production, normally shown in four parts on consecutive weeks or evenings, will require no introduction to readers here.

There are a number of places on YouTube where you can watch it, including some surviving films of CTR in action. Sound was on disc so CTR mimed to the recordings, not always with complete success. There are also a number of places where you can buy a DVD set of the production. However, it must be noted that all the work of restoration over the last 40 years has really been performed by one person, Brian K. This has been a real labor of love. Unfortunately, because the source material is out of copyright, others have felt no qualms about copying earlier restorations (perhaps from inferior VHS videos) and marketing them commercially. Leaving aside the ethics of this, if you want the very best version possible from surviving material, you really need to obtain one that bears Brian’s name.

Here is a link to one of the films of CTR as found on the YouTube channel "photodramaofcreation" (no spaces):

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCperQm8kxIi3D4baT4Qg_FA

Restitution - Mena Film Company

The Mena film company was put together by a group of Bible Students in 1917.  Their prospectus (a 32 page brochure to raise funds) gave their names and photographs. (All pictures from the brochure are used with permission from Tower Archives, with thanks.)

 Mena Film Company directors

     Adam and Eve

Satan

 The director, Howard Gaye, in action

The company had no direct connection with the Watch Tower Society (see WT March 15, 1918, page 94), although the original Photodrama was briefly sold to Mena by the Society before everyone thought better of the deal. Unlike the Photodrama this was commercially produced, and needed to be shown to paying audiences in a commercial setting to succeed. By all accounts, it didn’t.

 It was shown to a non-paying audience at an IBSA convention in Seattle in July 1918, but then with the difficulties of the day – the Society directors jailed, others leaving association with the IBSA – it sank. It was reissued commercially under a new title The Conquering Christ and was also known as Super Strategy and God’s To-morrow. The plethora of titles suggested a project in trouble and by the end of the 1920s one of the former Mena directors, Leslie Jones, was selling off 16mm prints in seven minute segments as a serial, now rebranded with yet another title, Redemption.

The custom with “religious films” of the day was to have a modern story and then flashbacks to Bible times for an appropriate moral or lesson. Restitution followed this pattern. You can read a synopsis of the story if you go to the usual sites like IMDB, and Leslie Jones’ advertisements in the 1929 Reunion Convention report give a very detailed description of the plot. But my favorite plot summary was found at the gowatchit.com website. Unfortunately it seems to have disappeared since I first downloaded it several years ago, so I cannot give the writer a credit, but this sort of gives the flavor of the 1918 production (from a modern perspective).

“The film begins at the literal Beginning, as Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden, then moves in jumps and spurts through both the Old and New Testament with Abraham, Sarah, Joseph and Mary making cameo appearances; at one point, Howard Gaye, the film’s director, is seen as Jesus, repeating the role he played in D W Griffith’s Intolerance. After spending a great deal of time on the reign of Emperor Nero, the story suddenly takes a quantum leap to 1918, where the First World War is placed in a religious context. (The Kaiser, identified as ‘A Modern Ruler’ is unsubtly likened to Satan). The film ends with the Resurrection, as the Guilty (read: The Germans) are punished and the Good (read: Everybody Else) rewarded. Undoubtedly a remarkable achievement, Restitution is one of the most frustrating entries in the annals of Lost Films.”

One can see from that description that such a film, unless heavily re-edited, would soon become very dated by world events.

The American Film Institute/Library of Congress catalog says they have a print, but on investigation, alas they don’t. However, one segment of Leslie Jones’ serial version Redemption has been rediscovered and copied. Lasting about seven minutes it can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlGBMw45CBk&feature=youtu.be

The sequence is of Herod’s plans to massacre the innocents. While still primitive by modern day standards, film technique had advanced considerably since the Photodrama of Creation. Here are a couple of screen shots.

See Alfred Garcia (as Satan) tempt F.A. Turner (as King Herod)

Kinemo

Moving forward from 1918, we come to Kinemo. A series of three films were produced on the soon to be doomed 17.5mm gauge, and sold to Watch Tower readers and the general public via the Kinemo Company. The history and description of this venture, with its ups and downs, is described in the next series of articles on this blog. They were filmed over 1920-21 but not marketed until the fall of 1922.

As a foretaste for the next articles, here is a screen shot of J F Rutherford leaving the Great Pyramid. It was a steep climb to exit and with the heat and JFR apparently wearing a thick three-piece suit…

Cedar Point Ohio 1922

One final film completes this article, and is discussed in the article Kinemo 3 below. The Cedar Point Ohio convention of 1922 was filmed. Here is a shot of the film crew.

Although the subsequent film was offered for sale in the New Era Enterprise newspaper it has disappeared. I know for certain that the modern Watchtower Society has no copies of any of this material. While it would be silent footage, it would of great historical interest to see it. That is, of course, if it still exists.

Come on now. Anyone out there?