A Corner in Wheat (1909)

Directed by

D. W. Griffith

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

14 min

Rated

NR

Rating

6.2 of 10 from 110 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A wealthy businessman buys up all the wheat to drive up prices. This makes bread too expensive for poor people and ruins their lives.

starktensemoralisticbriskvisually simplegrimdidacticaustere

What happens

A Corner in Wheat is a 1909 American short silent film which tells of a greedy tycoon who tries to corner the market in wheat, destroying the lives of the people who can no longer afford to buy bread. It was directed by D. W. Griffith and adapted by Griffith and Frank E. Woods from a novel and a short story by Frank Norris, titled The Pit and "A Deal in Wheat". Griffith may have had a real-life inspiration: six months earlier, James A. Patten had actually cornered the market in wheat, and in some cities, the price of bread doubled from five cents to ten, just as in the movie. In 1994, A Corner in Wheat was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• The Honor of Thieves (1909)
• The Stolen Loaf (1913)
• The Deception (1909)
• The Sacrifice (1909)
• The Roue's Heart (1909)