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Harry Pollard's epic 1927 version of Harriet Beecher Stowe's landmark novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was one of the most expensive silent films ever made. James B. Lowe, whose composure, dignity, and gentleness suggest a silent-era Danny Glover, stars as kindly Tom, the slave ripped from his family to pay his master's debt, but the film favors the more sensational melodrama of the married light-skinned couple Eliza and George and their son Harry (all played by white performers), split up and sold to the highest bidder. Pollard, a Southerner himself, maintains an uneasy balance between a sentimental portrayal of a happy Dixie with smiling slaves and a land where humans are bought and sold like cattle to wicked, money-grubbing masters. The exaggerated performances and stereotypes have not aged well and Pollard shows a weakness for broad Victorian melodrama, but the film boasts many moving moments and nail-biting sequences, highlighted by Eliza's harrowing escape across the ice floes as hounds literally nip at her heels. (A staple of the many touring stage productions of the play, D.W. Griffith borrowed the scene for the climax of Way Down East.) Uncle Tom's Cabin is more interesting as a product of its era than any serious attempt to explore the evils of slavery, but it's an exciting, handsomely mounted picture. Kino's restored edition features the original Movietone score by Erno Rapee, complete with sound effects and songs.

The DVD also features a detailed and informative essay by historian David Pierce, an extensive collection of stills, promotional materials, and music cue sheets, and details of cuts made to the film, including two deleted scenes that are among the best moments the film has to offer. --Sean Axmaker

Product Description

An earnest attempt to depict the harsh realities of slavery while lamenting the passage of the idealized South, Uncle Tom's Cabin is an extravagant historical drama and, at a cost of $1.8 million, was one of the most expensive films of the silent era. Since its publication in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist novel had found enormous success (reportedly second in sales only to the Bible), with epic stage productions appearing that same year, barnstorming across America almost continuously for 75 years. Margarita Fisher stars as Eliza, a fair-skinned servant who fled from the security of a Kentucky plantation when her young son and her dignified protector, Uncle Tom (James Lowe), are sold to a rival landowner. In the course of her Dickensian struggles, she experiences a side of indentured servitude beyond her worst fears, culminating in her arrival at the swampy lair of the murderous Simon Legree (George Siegmann). But the most memorable sequence, by far, is Eliza's fight to freedom across a treacherous ice floe (a staple of the many stage production, which D.W. Griffith shamelessly borrowed for his 1920 film Way Down East). Although some of the film's characterizations may appear derogatory to modern audiences, the film was considered groundbreaking for its sympathetic treatment of African-Americans caught in the turbulent nightmare of slavery. Director Harry Pollard emphasizes the horror of slavery with scenes of heart-wrenching drama and brutal violence -- as Eliza hysterically chases the wagon which carries away her child, as Uncle Tom boldly defies the lashes of his tormentor (hardly the weak-willed persona his name has since come to connote). Available for the first time on disc, Uncle Tom's Cabin is a fascinating bridge between the 19th Century barnstorming theatrical tradition and the new medium and freedom of the feature film.