Ocean Waif (1916) / 49-17 (1917)
by Alice Guy-Blache, Ruth Ann Baldwin
List Price:
Our Price: $10.03
You Save: $9.92 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Doris KenyonDirector: Alice Guy-Blache, Ruth Ann Baldwin
Brand: Kino International
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 6032
Studio: KINO VIDEO
Movie Reviews of Ocean Waif (1916) / 49-17 (1917)
Movie Review: A Tantalizing Tidbit From Alice Guy-Blache'.
Summary: 4 Stars
Alice Guy-Blache' (1873-1968) was not only the world's first woman film director but quite possibly the first film director period. Her work As Alice Guy for Gaumont predates Georges Melies by several months although her earliest film LA FEE AUX CHOUX/THE CABBAGE FAIRY (1896) no longer survives. After coming to America in 1907 with her husband Herbert Blache', she starts up her own studio in 1910 and opens her major studio called Solax in Fort Lee N.J. in 1912. Among the people who work for her is a young actress/writer named Lois Weber who would also develop into a major director (see HYPOCRITES also in this FIRST LADIES series from Kino).
THE OCEAN WAIF survives as a fragment of the original. It is aproximately 41 minutes long and suffers from nitrate decomposition in many places. However the skill of Alice Guy-Blache' still shines through in the restrained performances from the actors (remember this is 1916) and the strong visual composition of the shots. Sadly this is her only feature film to survive and it's incomplete. There are still several of her short films but for someone so important to film history, it's a sad legacy and a sad comment on how the films of independent producer-directors were treated. As an example of that, the other film on the disc Ruth Ann Baldwin's 49-17 which was made for Universal in 1917, survives in virtually pristine condition. It has the added attraction of an early film appearance from the great Danish born actor and later humanitarian Jean Hersholt.
Thanks are due to producer Jessica Rosner, Kino International, and pianist Jon Mirsalis for putting together and then releasing this FIRST LADIES: EARLY AMERICAN FILMMAKERS series first on VHS in 2000 and now on DVD in 2008. They look as good as they possibly can on DVD and are indispensible to students of film, people interested in women pioneers, and of course silent film afficionados. Rounding out the series is Dorothy Davenport Reid's THE RED KIMONA. To find out more about Alice Guy-Blache' check out Alison McMahan's thorough biography of her, ALICE GUY-BLACHE': LOST VISIONARY OF THE CINEMA
Summary of Ocean Waif (1916) / 49-17 (1917)
The mid-1910s was a virtual golden age for women directors, with over a dozen women working behind the camera. Alice Guy-Blaché was coming to the end of her 20+ years as a film pioneer while Ruth Ann Baldwin was at the beginning of her all-too-brief career as writer/director. THE OCEAN WAIF and 49-17 are both feminist parodies hidden under a veneer of propriety, featuring pure young women who are menaced by evil men and saved by good ones. Alice Guy-Blaché (French, 1873-1968), the world s first woman film director, made films for Gaumont in Paris (1896-1907), then had her own studio, the Solax Company, in Fort Lee, New Jersey (1910-1914). After Solax ceased production, she became a director for hire and went to work for The International Film Service, owned by William Randolph Hearst. The plot of THE OCEAN WAIF adheres closely to the Hearst agenda: a romantic story, plenty of pathos but no brutality, a likeable hero and an innocent young woman, and a suspenseful plot with a dramatic and happy ending ( the Mary Pickford school of narrative ). Guy-Blaché s parody of the Pygmalion-type love story gives equal screen time to each lover s point of view, but also skewers conventional class tropes. Doris Kenyon stars in the title role of an abused young woman who finds safety and eventually love in the arms of a famous novelist. Ruth Ann Baldwin was a journalist who joined Universal as a screenwriter in 1913. She wrote for the serial The Black Box in 1915, did a stint as an editor, and was tapped by the studio to direct. 49-17 is a charming and suspenseful western parody about a millionaire who hires a Wild West theatrical troupe to relive his past as a miner forty niner. Every sacred western cow is turned on its ear: the patriarchal representative of the law, the Young Man, the Gambler, the saloon brawl, and the Woman. Jean Hersholt gives a powerful performance early in his notable career as the taciturn desperado. Despite the success of 49-17, Baldwin s career as director was over by 1920.Similar DVD Movies
Birth of a Nation (Remastered 1915 Edition)Release date: 2009-01-10; DVD
Best price: $14.95
The Phantom of the Opera - The Ultimate Edition (1925 Original Version and 1929 Restored Version)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2003-09-09; DVD
Best price: $69.95
SilkwoodRelease date: 2003-10-07; DVD
Best price: $7.76
Price in other shops:
The BlotRelease date: 2004-03-02; DVD
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops:
The Affairs of AnatolRelease date: 2000-09-26; DVD
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
SpellboundSony; Release date: 2008-10-14; DVD
Best price: $7.17
Price in other shops:
The Red Kimona (1925)Kino International; Release date: 2008-04-22; DVD
Best price: $9.57
Price in other shops:
Hypocrites / Eleanor's CatchKino International; Release date: 2008-04-22; DVD
Best price: $9.85
Price in other shops:
Gaumont Treasures: 1897-1913KNV; Release date: 2009-09-01; DVD
Best price: $45.74
Price in other shops:
Male and FemaleImage Entertainment; Release date: 1999-08-17; DVD
Best price: $2.30
Price in other shops: