Scarlet Days (1919)

Directed by

D. W. Griffith

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 17m

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 11 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A bandit and a gambler cause trouble during the California gold rush. A young woman gets caught between them.

old westgold rushdramaticdatedmelodramatichistoricsimple

What happens

Scarlet Days is a 1919 American silent Western film produced and directed by D. W. Griffith and released through Paramount/Artcraft Pictures, Artcraft being an affiliate of Paramount. Richard Barthelmess stars in a role for which Griffith had screentested Rudolph Valentino. In today's time, this film is considered by many to be one of Griffith's worst films though it might have worked better as a short film. This film was unlike others created by D. W. Griffith. According to an article written for The Cincinnati Enquirer, written on November 16, 1919: "Unlike other recent Griffith production, Scarlet Days is a story of the old West, of the gold rush days of 49- Bret Harte transferred to the screen!" The Western film genre was expanding at this time and Scarlet Days fits into this category. Western films were popular for this time. Considered a lost film, a print was found in the State Film Archives of the Soviet Union, which donated it to the Museum of Modern Art in 1969. The film was screened to the public, for the first time since its rediscovery, on March 24 and 25, 1969. Scarlet Days was shown alongside another missing film, A Romance of Happy Valley, at the Museum of Modern Art's auditorium with titles still printed in Russian. English titles were later created by the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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