The Whispering Chorus

Raymond Hatton who had a long and distinguished career since the very beginning of film is usually remembered for playing cantankerous old cusses as sidekicks in western films. But back in 1918 he was the protagonist/lead in Cecil B. DeMille's The Whispering Chorus, the story of a man tried and convicted for his own murder.

The character Hatton plays seems to be cursed. He embezzles from his boss and fearing discovery flees from his wife and mother. He gets what he considers a stroke of luck finding the body of a derelict. He mutilates the body and takes the dead man's identity. That would seem to guarantee success.

But here the cops get it backwards and declare Hatton under his real identity dead and the dead man wanted for the murder of Hatton. Quite a rude awakening when Hatton returns after 12 years.

Furthermore his wife marries a man who is now the governor of the state and he's played by DeMille silent regular Elliot Dexter. Quite the jackpot Hatton finds himself in.

The title The Whispering Chorus comes from the ghostly heads that appear to Hatton emphasizes every aspect of his nature. He has a genius for choosing the wrong path every time, listening to bad advice from his chorus of ghostly heads.

The special effects were state of the art for 1918, but DeMille also had a good story to work with and Hatton while such a loser does manage to obtain audience sympathy. In some ways this anticipates what Eugene O'Neill did on stage in Strange Interlude.

Back in the day movie directors weren't household names as they are today. Besides comedians Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle, directors of their own movies, the general public was largely unfamiliar with those helming their films behind the camera--that is with the exception of Cecil B. DeMille. Producing a string of successful films, DeMille purposely didn't pigeonhole himself into one particular genre. His March 1918 "The Whispering Chorus," an expressionistic, psycho thriller, proved the director was bold enough to branch out into areas rarely addressed in cinema up to this point.

"The Whispering Chorus" pleased movie critics with its stylized sophistication, bolstered by his art director Wilford Buckland, who created a darkened aura of what could be labeled a noir world where a devious act leads to life changing events. Buckland's Renaissance lighting highlights the leading character's angst of his act while secondary details lurking in the background augment his anxiety.

An underpaid account clerk for a large construction company embezzles a few thousand dollars to sustain his family while a panoply of voices in his head, the whispering chorus, lend him conflicting advice. He disappears when an investigation into the short account begins, leaving his bewildered wife. He devises a scheme when he comes upon a dead body to make it appear the corpse is him. Caught later with the clerk's ID, he's charged unbeknownst to police of killing himself.

Longtime screenwriter to DeMille, Jeanie Macpherson, adapted her intriguing script from a Perley Sheehan story, which could easily be confused with a later Raymond Chandler or James Cain potboiler. Her scenario gave DeMille the chance to frame a series of symbolic images throughout, including rose pedals falling to the floor as an electronic switch is pulled.

This 82 minute silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille was somewhat ahead of its time, being a serious attempt to film a drama of conscience in all its harrowing complexities. The 'whispering chorus' of the title consists of the rival impulses of the anti-hero, John Tremble, who is played by Raymond Hatton. A filmic device was used which may seem corny to us today, but at the time was doubtless very effective and perhaps innovative, namely the appearance on screen of diaphanous heads of good and bad people whispering to Tremble in his ear things like 'go ahead and do it' or 'an honourable person would not do such a thing'. Tremble is a man who is a bit too narcissistic for his own good, which is all too familiar to us today with the rise of smart phones from which people cannot extract their noses. Preoccupation with 'self' to the exclusion of all else has possibly become today's main social psychological problem. But in 1918 this ailment was still in its traditional form, known as selfishness. Tremble gives way to the bad voices of his whispering choruses and because he feels so sorry for himself and his lack of a new overcoat, steals some money from his employer. He has previously gambled away his last few dollars and staged a petulant scene at home in front of the miniature Christmas tree and his long-suffering wife and mother, tossing aside their small presents as being insignificant. Such spoilt-brat behaviour is bound to lead to doom, and as doom is always eagerly waiting for people to fall into it (as it has an insatiable maw) the anti-hero duly sinks into hopeless moral compromise. He disdains what he has got, namely a devoted wife and happy home, and wants what he cannot readily have except by theft. But then his theft is discovered and, to avoid going to jail, he fakes his own death and absconds to Cincinnati. (All of the action takes place in cities along the river, though the only locations we see are waterside ones.) He lives the life of a labourer and vagabond, becomes maimed and disfigured, and has a very rough time. Meanwhile his wife (played by Kathlyn Williams) has obtained a well paid job and after some years remarries a man who becomes the Governor of his state (played by Elliot Dexter). Tremble, having 'killed himself', then ironically ends up being caught many years later and charged with his own murder, as he is assumed to be the other man (whose body he had fished out of the river dead, and had not killed). All the complications one can imagine result from this state of affairs. The film is thus a very early 'film noir'. It is certainly not cheerful viewing. This film was preserved and restored by my old friend Dave Shepard, who died earlier this year. I would like to pay tribute to him, as a genuine hero of the history of the cinema. We knew each other when we were young. By a strange coincidence, when I was seventeen I independently met and befriended the stage actor John Griggs, one of the most passionate early collectors and preservers of old movies. It was only afterwards that I met Dave. It turned out that John Griggs had been Dave's mentor from the time he was a boy, as they lived near each other in New Jersey. I may be the only person left alive now who knew John Griggs, who was himself such a delightful and amusing man and enthusiast for early cinema. He had amassed over the decades a gigantic collection of 35mm prints of silent films, and this collection passed to Dave, giving him a huge head start in his career as a film preservationist. I well remember a short documentary film which Dave directed in his early twenties about children's games. He shot it mostly in a playground on 16mm in black and white and made a serious effort to understand children's mentality. It was very charming. He was always basically a sentimentalist. That film is not listed at IMDb, and I have forgotten its title. I am certain it was never distributed, and Dave was n t satisfied with it; indeed, I liked it better than he did. This DeMille film is not included in the partial list of restorations by Dave in his Wikipedia entry, but then he restored so many, there is probably no complete list of them in existence. Who knows, maybe the original print came from John Griggs. Dave and I used to discuss Eisenstein, Buster Keaton, and D. W. Griffith endlessly, and also foreign films. It was René Clément's FORBIDDEN GAMES (1952), which we both so greatly admired, which inspired Dave to want to make his own little documentary about children's games. All true cinema lovers owe a debt to Dave Shepard which they can only repay by watching as many as possible of the films which Dave loved so much and to which he dedicated his life to save and preserve for others to enjoy. Here's to you, Dave.

Raymond Hatton is "John Tremble - 2nd Assistant Cashier of the Clumley Contracting Company." He hears voices from the Hall of Echoes. Kathlyn Williams is "Jane Tremble - his wife." Eventually, she will hear voices of her own. Elliott Dexter is "'Fighting' George Coggeswell - A far-seeing young legislator who heads a commission with extraordinary powers to investigate the muddy waters of the state's politics." He tilts the scale of justice with pipe ashes.

Mr. Hatton is stuck in a $25 a week dead end job, with no hope for the future; living with his mother (Edythe Chapman) he is unable to even buy a cheap little dress for Ms. Williams, for Christmas. To make ends meet, Mr. Hatton embezzles $10.000 from his company. Plagued by guilt (and an investigation), Hatton drops out of sight, for a couple of days. Whilst fishing, he reels in a dead man, and decides to exchange identity with the deceased Edgar Smith. He becomes Smith, and very unwisely (as it turns out) frames him for both the Tremble embezzlement, and the murder of Tremble - so that he may achieve martyrdom. Then, he becomes a fugitive…

This is an epic psychological drama; always interesting, it slowly becomes more and more unnerving, even horrific. The crescendo of images and plot build wildly, to an INTENSE ending. The film sometimes appears to be off-track, but winds up a tightly woven nightmare. There are SO MANY images to praise - but, just watch... Also, look for the cross-cutting as Hatton fishes for a dead body while Dexter fishes for Tremble - then, later, Tremble hooks up with a Chinatown prostitute while his wife marries Dexter.

Director Cecil B. DeMille and the production team are in peak condition. Hatton, remembered mainly as a "supporting" or "character" actor, performs supremely in the lead role; he effectively portrays the "slow acid of discontent steadily consuming" the soul of John Tremble. Williams shows some psychological problems of her own. Noah Berry has an important role as a longshoreman who guiltily houses Hatton, after unintentionally crippling him.

It's difficult to believe this film was released in 1918, and has received relatively little acclaim. It's a NOT TO BE MISSED silent classic.

********** The Whispering Chorus (3/28/18) Cecil B. DeMille ~ Raymond Hatton, Kathlyn Williams, Elliott Dexter, Noah Berry

DeMille's Whispering Chorus is a haunting masterpiece that was ahead of it's time. The story line is highly creative - how the voices in your head can ruin your life. Basically, one man's degradation due to his cowardliness. This movie will make you think, which is exactly what DeMille intended. All in all, an excellent pre-20's silent film.

Raymond Hatton gives a fine performance as John Tremble. His change from a handsome upstanding man to a dirty tramp on the run is wonderfully done through make up - if compare a still of him from the first section of the film to a still from the end of the picture, he is almost unrecognizable as the same actor.

Kathryn Williams was a very attractive woman, and she portrays the role of Jane Tremble with delicacy. My personal opinion is that at the end of the movie, she acts in a very selfish manner, however, I think this is my 21st century eyes viewing early 20th century morals and is probably not the effect that DeMille, or screen writer Jeanie MacPhearson had in mind.

Thanks to Image entertainment, this 1918 film is available on DVD for new audiences to enjoy.