The Usurer

Usurer, The (1910)

*** (out of 4)

Winning moral tale from Griffith about an usurer (George Nichols) who lives in luxury because he's cold-hearted enough to make sure his poor clients become even poorer. His evil ways will soon take a turn for the worse when he ends up locked with the one thing he loves most. Once one goes through many of Griffith's four hundred plus shorts they'll notice that one of the most returned to subjects are the evils of the rich and how they constantly keep poor people down. Griffith, by this time in his life, was making pretty good money but that didn't keep him from taking it easy on the rich and the story here is pretty hard-hitting and manages to still pack a punch, story wise, today. The movie runs at a very fast pace and one can't help but get the message loud and clear. Griffith's directing style doesn't miss a beat and his masterful touch for editing is perfectly done here once again and this is especially true with the sequence at the end with the usurer. Nichols manages to turn in a fine performance as does Grace Henderson as his sister and we also have Mack Sennett with a pretty good role. You can also see Mary Pickford as a sick child who has her bed taken away and we see Henry B. Walthall in one brief scene. Griffith's first wife, Linda Arvidson, can also be spotted here.

A money-grabbing moneylender receives a fitting, ironic comeuppance in The Usurer, a Griffith movie that lacks any kind of subtlety whatsoever in its attempts to tug at its audience's heartstrings. Scenes of moneylender George Nichols partying hard are contrasted with scenes of his impoverished clients having their meagre belongings taken off them for non-payment of their debts. But Griffith doesn't dwell on the social injustice that trapped these people in poverty and at the mercy of unscrupulous moneylenders, choosing instead to use these scenes as a means to lend a sense of justice to Nichols' fate

Whether intended or not the producers of this him have preached a sermon against oppression that should exert an influence against the methods of those who take advantage of the needy. It is a story of an usurer, emphasized by the contrast of the condition of those to whom he has loaned money and his own attendance at expensive banquets in alternate scenes. Dramatically the situation of the dependents is shown, and it is made clear that it is all for gold. The usurer's doom is made dramatic. A widow, whom he has oppressed, faints and in falling pushes his safe door shut with him inside and he is suffocated before the time lock allows the safe to be opened. The determination to get gold, no matter at what cost, has caused unspeakable misery throughout history. This picture represents a modern manifestation of this greed. Not all usurers are so summarily dealt with, but it is not too much to say that it would be well if they were. - The Moving Picture World, August 27, 1910

From a technical and artistic viewpoint, this short drama is only of fair quality. But it features the kind of heartfelt story that was so often characteristic of D.W. Griffith, at least when he was at his best. The social commentary in the story is well-aimed, and is still relevant over 90 years later, so that it's easily possible to appreciate the movie for that reason; but a more objective look reveals some ways that it could have been noticeably better.

The story shows a wealthy moneylender living in exorbitant luxury, even while he orders families to be forced out of their homes for being behind in their payments. The contrast between their sufferings and his plush lifestyle makes a definite impression, but it is carried out in a rather heavy-handed fashion, and a few years later Griffith would probably have come up with a more artful way of presenting the contrast. Too many of the key events are contrived, and this too he would have improved on later.

It's interesting that despite the obvious flaws, the movie still has a strong enough basic point to make it worth watching. When Griffith learned how to refine his technique and combine it with his strongly held views (some of which were bizarre, but others commendable), he was able to produce some memorable movies.

A slow-paced and terrifying film from D.W. Griffith, this film, like A CORNER IN WHEAT and ONE IS BUSINESS, THE OTHER CRIME, concerns itself with the depredations of the rich upon the poor. Griffith offers no solution but tells his story with scenes and titles that, in the hands of a lesser director, could be over the top. Indeed, they seem absurdly melodramatic at the beginning of the movie, until you see the policies of the greedy money-lender carried out.

Although Griffith directed more than five hundred pictures, almost all of which survive, he has a vast corpus of works that are rarely seen, because so many people concentrate on his best features and perhaps a dozen of his best-known shorts. Kino is to be applauded for including a sizable number of his lesser-known, but equally powerful shorts in their most recent compilation, and for hiring John Mirsalis to do scores.