High Treason: A Play in 3 Acts by Pemberton Billing
Man, I want to see this film!!!
I want to see it because it seems to bridge the gap between Metropolis and Things to Come.
I want to see it because the few scenes available on "Cinema Europe: the Other Hollywood" have whetted my appetite.
I want to see it because of what Forest J. Ackerman has said about it.
Well, you get the idea.
Somehow I lucked out and was able to order a copy of the play upon which the movie was based. Reading it totally contradicted some of the things I had read about the film; namely that it was a film with lots of futuristic "gadgets" with a weak story holding it together. I found the play just the opposite. While maybe a little naive and dated, it is a tight little morality play. And the play itself, although based in the near-future, hangs together without incorporating any technological advances whatsoever. Interestingly, Billing was somewhat of an inventor dabbling in work on the gramaphone and wireless. Since he financed the movie, we can speculate that his inventiveness was inspiration for some of the advanced-for-1929 devices that were present.
Another suprise was that director James Whale had been a member of the theatrical cast. He portrayed a character called "Charles Falloway".
High Treason was filmed almost simultaneously as both a silent film and an early talkie. Both versions are still extant but the sound discs to the talkie version may be damaged beyond repair.
With a little more digging, I managed to get the "script" for the film from the New York State archives (they keep material that was filed for censorship review). It finally arrived about the same time the play did. It wasn't really a "script" but rather a transcript of the dialogue (the NY Archives record descriptions are horrendous ... overworked, understaffed poor souls!). Nonetheless, it filled in a few gaps about the sound film. Astoundingly, the film was banned in the state of New York despite several appeals and protests from the "National Board of Review". A quote from one of the review documents: "said picture is 'inhumane' and its exhibition 'tends to incite crime'."
For those who don't know ... SPOILERS ...,
The plot is about a pacifist who shoots a war-mongering head of state to avoid an upcoming war.
All in all, I've managed to put together some pieces about this lost-but-not-lost film.
I just someday hope to get more.
written: 10/20/2001
revised: 11/15/2002
