Tess of the Storm Country

America's Sweetheart,' Mary Pickford, played a vast array of characters in her long movie career. In the opening title of 1922's "Tess of the Storm Country," she states her favorite role was playing the daughter of a squatter fisherman, Tess Skinner.

Pickford took the role of Tess twice, originally in the Edwin S. Porter-directed work in 1914, a movie the actress had complained of his pedestrian direction. She was much happier with the second version, partly because of John S. Robertson, who earlier helmed the John Barrymore 1920 'Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde' film. Pickford also cited the advancements of cinematic techniques and technology taking place within the span of 1914 and the current 1922 times, making possible an aesthetic leap in improvement by updating a story she said deserved her second performance. The Grace Miller White 1909 novel received further adaptations in 1932 with Janet Gaynor and in 1960 with Diane Baker.

In the Pickford version, set in Ithaca, New York, a rich man owns property from top of the hill where his mansion sits all the way down to the shores of a big lake. That is where a group of squatters have set up a fishing village smack dab on his land. He's raised two children, now adults, a son who sides with the squatters, played by Lloyd Hughes in his first leading role, and a daughter, with actress Gloria Hope, who's madly in love with a law student. Pickford's spunky performance as Tess attracts the eye of Lloyd, the landowner's son. In real life, Hughes and Hope, meeting for the first time on the set, fell passionately in love and married soon after they finished "Tess of the Storm Country." Unusual for a Hollywood couple, the two remained married until Hughes' death in 1958.

The plot has every melodramatic device known in cinema: love, friendship, greed, murder, attempted kidnapping, an out-of-wedlock birth, sacrifice and a bit of comedy. Pickford's the glue that holds everything together. The actress was extremely happy with the positive reviews "Tess of the Country Storm" received. The accolades were especially appreciated after the disappointing negative ones said about her previous film, 1921's 'Little Lord Fauntleroy,' despite its box office success. 'Tess' was the only film Pickford appeared in 1922.

Wealthy Elias Graves builds his home on the top of a hill, where a group of squatters have taken up residence at the bottom. Many of the men in the squatters' village have their eyes on young Tess, and one of them, Ben Letts, frames Tess's father for murder. While maintaining her father's innocence, Tess must keep her love for Graves' son a secret, while caring for Elias' daughter's illegitimate child.

This has to be one of the defining films in Mary Pickford's career. At around two hours, it is something of an epic length by silent film standards. That is, if you ignore the D. W. Griffith film "Intolerance". A lot happens in two hours when you have nothing to say.

The version I watched was on DVD as part of a "Milestone Collection". I would say the digitally remastering was not top notch. A good deal of it was pixelated, and I imagine it is films like this where you really get the difference when you have a scan from the negative rather than just transferring the film over from a prior source.

Mary Pickford often stated that Tess Skinner was her favorite movie role. Well said! She played the part twice and for this version which she herself produced, she not only had to purchase the rights from Adolph Zukor but even give him credit on the film's main title card. Needless to say her portrayal of this role here is most winning. Indeed, in my opinion, the movie itself rates as one the all-time great experiences of silent cinema.

True, director John S. Robertson doesn't move his camera an inch from start to finish, but in Robertson's skillful hands this affectation not only doesn't matter but is probably more effective. A creative artist of the first rank, Robertson is a master of pace, camera angles and montage. He has also drawn brilliantly natural performances from all his players. Jean Hersholt who enacts the heavy is so hideously repulsive, it's hard to believe this is the same man as kindly Dr Christian; while Lloyd Hughes renders one of the best acting jobs of his entire career. True, it's probably not the way Mrs White intended, but it serves the plot admirably, as otherwise we would have difficulty explaining why the dope spent a fortune on defense but made not the slightest attempt to ascertain who actually fired the gun that killed his future brother-in-law! Needless to say, this particular quality of the likable hero is downplayed by Jack Ging in the bowdlerized 1960 version which also totally deletes the author's trenchant attack on smug, middle-class Christianity. Notice how the well-washed priest here moves forward a pace or two in surprise at the interruption, but then makes no attempt whatever to assist our plucky little heroine in the performance of duties that he himself was supposedly ordained to administer. This is a very moving scene indeed because it is so realistically presented.

"Tess" also provides an insight into the work of another fine actress, Gloria Hope, whose work was entirely confined to silent cinema. She married Lloyd Hughes in 1921 and retired in 1926 to devote her life completely to her husband and their two children. Lloyd Hughes died in 1958, but she lived until 1976, easily contactable in Pasadena, but I bet no-one had the brains to interview her. Another opportunity lost!

To me, Forrest Robinson only made a middling impression as Skinner. I thought he was slightly miscast and a brief glance at his filmography proves this: He usually played priests or judges! But David Torrence as usual was superb.

In all, an expensive production with beautiful photography and marvelous production values.

Besides being a good melodrama with some fine moments, the role of Tess offers Mary Pickford quite a showcase, providing some good comic moments, a number of moving scenes, and some tense confrontations. You can see why it was not only one of her most popular roles, but also one of her own favorites. The story is quite involved and sometimes thought-provoking, although there is more than one occasion when it sacrifices believability for cinematic effect.

At the beginning it introduces an interesting assortment of characters, and sets up the conflicts to come between the family of rich, mean-spirited Elias Graves and the poor squatters (including Tess), whom Graves is devoted to driving out. The tumultuous events that follow test their loyalties and perspectives. It does have more implausible or coincidence-laden developments than do most of Pickford's movies, but if you can suspend disbelief on those occasions, it's an entertaining story that makes you care about the characters. It's also quite a bit longer than most of Pickford's features, but that is primarily because there is so much going on; there aren't too many slow spots. In its time it was one of her signature roles, and it's still well worth watching.

TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY is possibly the best movie of all of Mary Pickford's films. At two hours, it was quite long for a 1922 silent film yet continues to hold your interest some 80 years after it was filmed. Mary gives one of her finest performances at times the role seems like a "greatest hits" performance with bits of Mary the innocent, Mary the little devil, Mary the little mother, Mary the spitfire, Mary the romantic heroine, etc. characteristics that often were used throughout a single film in the past. The movie is surprisingly frank about one supporting character's illegitimate child for 1922 and at one point our Little Mary is thought the unwed mother in question! If the Academy Awards had been around in 1922, no doubt the Best Actress Oscar for the year would have been Mary's.