bucking broadway: a rediscovered treasure broadway: a rediscovered treasure archived under the wrong...

Bucking Broadway: A Rediscovered Treasure Bucking Broadway: A Rediscovered Treasure

Archived under the wrong name by a collector in 1970, the film had rested in an archive storage cell for almost 30 years when it was finally identified as one of John Ford’s lost films. Harry Carey acted in this Western love story which has now been digitally restored. It was a major hit back in its day, because of the furious horse ride through the streets of New York and because of the big fight at the end.

« Bucking Broadway: A Rediscovered Treasure », A Journey of Discovery AFF – CNC on www.cnc-aff.fr page 1/12


Rediscovery

Each year, around 1,000 films are deposited with the French film archives at the CNC. One of the CNC’s missions is to catalogue these films. During the cataloguing process, workers note the information listed on the film box labels and in the credits at the beginning of the film, if any. For silent films, the first title cards sometimes provide some information, but that is rare.

Boxes to be catalogued This initial information is not always correct: a film may be kept in the wrong box or, as was often the case for silent films shown at carnivals, the name of the film may have been changed in order to make it more appealing and a better sell. The Catalogue

The films are then reconsidered during a more in-depth cataloguing process, and that is when surprises can occur! That is how, 30 years after they were deposited by a collector, four reels of a film called Drame au Far West ended up being studied by an Archives librarian specialized in John Ford films. He thought he recognized Harry Carey, one of Ford’s favorite actors who played in his silent films.

The actor Harry Carey

In addition to that first clue, the researcher also seemed to recognize the director’s style: the wide-open spaces, the delicacy with which intimate scenes were filmed, certain shots that were recognizably his work, even the minor roles that brought a certain sense of humor to the story.

For example, the scene where the hero understands that he was fooled by the tailor who sold him a nice suit… worn by someone else! Scene from Bucking Broadway


Identification

By then searching amongst John Ford’s filmography, the researcher discovered that Drame au Far West was actually Bucking Broadway, filmed in 1917 and released in France in 1919, under the name A l’assaut du boulevard.

It was indeed the scene for which the film had been named that allowed Ford’s long-lost film to be officially identified. The discovery is all the more important that almost 80% of Ford’s silent films are now considered lost. The next natural step was to restore the film, after searching for any possible rights holders.

The ride through New York: the emblematic scene of Bucking Broadway Restoration Despite the very poor quality of the only rediscovered copy, the discovery’s importance was such that it fully justified restoration, whatever the price. In fact, the film was in critical condition: scratches, jumping images, numerous splices, mold, decomposing title cards, etc. At the start of the 20th century, few copies were in circulation and were therefore subject to over-use. “Traditional” restoration could not have fixed all these problems, so the film was restored using new digital methods, in partnership with Centrimage. This was the first entirely digital restoration undertaken in the French film archives.

Plan n°32 avant restauration Plan n°32 après restauration


Initial Procedure

Since the title cards were beginning to decompose, they were taken out of the film in order to prevent contamination; after precisely identifying their positions. Also, since the film copy was one that had been used in France, the title cards were all in French. Their texts were sent for translation to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York, a partner of the CNC on this project, and reintegrated in English in the final copy of the film.

French title card A first traditional color printing was made out of the rediscovered nitrate copy, in order to save it right away. Method

It quickly became obvious that a reference document was necessary in order to proceed with the restoration. A black and white working copy was therefore made. The images given to the Centrimage laboratory were scanned while immersed, and then a complete editorial script was created with images. By comparing the digital data with the working copy, scanning errors such as inverted images and missing or shortened shots could be identified.

Story board created using scanned images Once the story board, which was created off of the digital scan, matched the working copy, they were both invaluable references throughout the rest of the restoration. They were especially helpful during the interactions between the Centrimage team in charge of the restoration, and the Archive researchers. “De-restoration”

As the work continued, the story board and working copy that served as reference documents were all the more necessary that automatic restoration techniques were causing anomalies that could have been overlooked otherwise. In order for this “de-restoration” to succeed, each individual shot had to be carefully controlled and manually processed to correct any errors caused by the systematic techniques.


Before and after restoration: here, the character on the right has had his head cut off!

Another difficulty involved working on a shot without being able to view the whole sequence and return the shot to its context. Thus, light playing over two characters in a medium close-up shot, which could be explained by a hearth fire outside the frame, appeared to be a defect in the image. “Fixing” this image, which had been misinterpreted because it was isolated from the greater story context, might have affected the atmosphere of such an intimate scene.

Lighting effect on two shots: not to be confused with a defect

Title cards While the images were being restored, the issue of title cards arose. It was decided to insert English title cards, in a font similar to that used in another John Ford film, The Iron Horse (1924), whose graphics were typical of American silent films. The New York MoMA translated the French title cards and another company, Süpor, created the title cards and the inserts used for letters and telegrams.

Restored title card Restored telegram


Conclusion

The project took nine months to complete. The main deteriorations were corrected, although meticulous care was needed to prevent new ones from appearing. The images were stabilized and calibrated in a targeted manner. It would have been possible to carry the restoration even further, but the final goal was to preserve the film’s craftsmanship as it had been originally produced.

The film, however, remains incomplete. In fact, according to reviews from back when it was released, about 200 meters of the reel are still missing. A photogram of the scene missing from the restored copy was found in the Ciné-Journal magazine.

Photogram of a lost scene In the fall of 2004, the Cinema 08 magazine (which no longer exists) published an article on John Ford and offered a DVD copy of Bucking Broadway. Since then, the film has been regularly shown in festivals around the world, and since the spring of 2008, it has been available to Internet users on the Europafilmtreasures website. Analysis – Cheyenne Harry Rides Again In February of 2003, Eric Loné analyzed his discovery in the Positif magazine, no. 504.

“In 1917, John Ford was known as Jack Ford. He still had his full eyesight and had just become an actor under the direction of his older brother, Francis, before he too started directing for Bison 101 and Universal. In 1917, he filmed no fewer than nine films, all of them Westerns.

Picture of John Ford


One screening of Bucking Broadway was enough to prove how gifted Ford already was, although he was only 22. The telling of the story, the quality of the photography and framing, and the editing pace all confirmed the maturity that had already been glimpsed in Straight Shooting.

Straight Shooting Written by George Hively, the plot evolves around the cowboy Cheyenne Harry (Harry Carey), who appeared in about twenty films made by Ford between 1917 and 1919. In this film, Cheyenne Harry is about to marry the daughter of a ranch owner in Wyoming. However, the girl chooses a horse dealer instead, and follows him to New York. Realizing that she made a mistake, she asks Cheyenne Harry for help, and he saves her from a bad marriage. The climax of the film was a spectacular horseback cowboy ride down Broadway (John Ford later said in interviews with Peter Bogdanovitch that this scene was filmed in the center of Los Angeles), which was followed by an epic fight on a hotel terrace. The final fight Like in many other Westerns of the same period, the film action is contemporaneous with the shooting period. It was a time of transition, a crossroads between industrial progress and the Wild West: horses and cars shared the road, and cowboys answered the telephone. The colorful, anachronistic, and often humorous world depicted by Ford nevertheless had a bittersweet edge to it. For behind the comical situations — cowboys rushing to the window to watch a car go by, or the arrival of Cheyenne Harry at a New York hotel — it was indeed the end of an era that Ford was portraying. The love triangle is really a pretext for a confrontation between the traditional image of a simple, honest, sentimental and sincere cowboy and that of a city man who seems clever and superior but is in reality a vulgar hypocrite. As he often did, John Ford used this situation to promote the film’s moral: the winner of the belle’s heart is he who is most deserving, according to Hollywood’s value system. Watching Ford’s films one after another shows to what extent this value system has eroded over time, and in particular how much it did so during the United States’ first identity crises in the 1950s and 1960s; indeed, it eroded so far as to leave only an illusion-free vision of the human condition.


To this extent, Bucking Broadway is an exemplary film. It fully represents its era, but also heralded reflections about the Western movie model which will have to wait another fifty years or so. The end of myths is near, and Cheyenne Harry, the very incarnation of the cowboy, is, as is said in the film, almost ready to retire to the open plains forever.

Cheyenne Harry, the very incarnation of a cowboy Finally, it is only the denouement that allows viewers to still believe in the Wild West’s victory, something that was unimaginable in the more nostalgic films that Ford shot at the end of his career. For example, in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which, oddly enough, echoed Bucking Broadway, the cowboy played by John Wayne burns down the house he built for Vera Miles and ends up alone and forgotten, leaving the city man (James Stewart) the winner. Though shot forty years apart, the two films echo each other. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is the clear-sighted and cruel reflection of what Bucking Broadway had reluctantly foretold: the old Wild West was dead. The 1961 film went even further, proving that the Western, too, was dead.

John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

However, Bucking Broadway’s significance does not end there. The film actually outlines another one of Ford’s recurring themes: the importance of community. The evening of her engagement to Cheyenne Harry, the ranch owner’s daughter (played by Molly Malone) runs away with the city man, while a cowboy plays “Home, sweet home, Oh there’s no place like home” on a piano which, incidentally, is from New York. Once she has left, the young woman cannot bear being so far from home and has no choice but to return to her community, which is a reflection of her identity. John Ford turned this universal theme into one of the strengths of his work. Sometimes he aims at portraying cultural identity (for example, in The Searchers and Two Rode Together, two of his best films), while at other times his approach is much more autobiographical (for example, when he returned to his Irish roots in The Quiet Man or in The Rising of the Moon). Other typically Ford-like elements are also found in Bucking Broadway. For example, the epic fight (the height of which is reached in Donovan’s Reef) or the important role of the gate, which serves as a landmark where fates are decided. In addition, the film demonstrates Ford’s remarkable talent for screenshot composition. Meticulous frames, the idea of a frame within a frame, and the use of depth of field will all help define John Ford’s style in his later works.”


Data sheet

Original title: Bucking Broadway

Alternate title: Slumbering Fires

French title: A l’assaut du boulevard Series: Cheyenne Harry Year of production: 1917 Country of production: United States

Release date United States: December 24, 1917 Release date France: December 20, 1918 Color process: Tinted Sound category: Silent Length: Feature Original format: 35 mm Original length: 1425 m Length found: 1213 m Original duration: 75 min Genre, general: Fiction Genre, specific: Western Place filmed: Los Angeles (California – United States) Credits

Director: Jack Ford alias John Ford Scriptwriter: George Hively Original idea: John Ford Director of photography: Ben F. Reynolds Production Company: Universal Actors: Cheyenne Harry: Harry Carey Helen Clayton: Molly Malone Ben Clayton: L.M. Wells Thornton: Vester Pegg


Summary In Fortune, Wyoming, cowboy Cheyenne Harry works on Ben Clayton’s ranch. Although he has an independent spirit, Harry still falls under the charm of Helen Clayton, the rancher’s daughter, whom he plans to marry. He builds a house for her and gives her a heart carved out of wood, telling her to send it to him if she is ever in trouble. Helen, however, falls in love with Thornton, a horse dealer from the big city, who convinces her that she is not made for ranch life. The evening of her engagement to Harry, Helen leaves the ranch. She moves to New York to live with Thornton and a dubious woman he introduces as his sister, but once there she gets homesick and decides to send the little wooden heart to Cheyenne. Bitterly disappointed, Cheyenne has left the ranch and is heading for the open plains. While passing in front of the telegraph office, he is told of Helen’s letter. Without wasting even a minute, Harry kicks his horse into a gallop and jumps onto the train for New York. The cowboy arrives at the Columbia hotel and is introduced to modern comfort. Not knowing where to begin looking for Helen, he tells his story to a swindler and his partner, who originally wanted to rob him. Thornton has organized an engagement party for himself and Helen in the rooftop restaurant of the Columbia, and, completely by chance, the swindler and his partner sit at a nearby table and immediately recognize Helen, of whom Harry had shown them a picture.

As the party goes on, Thornton becomes drunk and mistreats Helen. Alerted as to what is happening, Harry calls upon the ranch cowboys, who happen to be in New York for a cattle sale, for help. They jump on their horses and ride through the city streets. Having arrived at the hotel terrace, they help Harry confront Thornton’s guests. The guests end up in the pool, before being kicked out. As for Harry, he gives Thornton a hiding.

During the fight, the little wooden heart breaks in two, but nothing can ruin Cheyenne Harry and Helen’s happiness.


Excerpts In many ways, Bucking Broadway sheds a new light on the way John Ford approached cinema in 1917. And, despite the fact that it is still pure action that drives the story, from its very beginning the film shows some of the themes that would dominate Ford’s later work. Indeed, Bucking Broadway is all the more significant because of the great films to come after it. It becomes one of the main films to influence Ford’s way of thinking about a cinematographic genre and world which he continued to evoke until they finally disappeared. Excerpts of the film are available online at www.cnc-aff.fr under the Bucking Broadway tab (QuickTime plug-in necessary): Man and wide-open spaces

The short focus, depth of field, and the relationship between the cowboy in the foreground and the riders galloping by in the background emphasize the wide-open spaces.

Intimate scene – the proposal

Control of low-key lighting to depict nighttime indoors. Lit by firelight. The basis of how Ford would continue to film intimate scenes is created.

The rivals – city-country duality

Use of transportation: Thornton tames all the horses! Importance of the barrier, which represents the boundaries of two worlds and is a landmark where fates are decided.

Being alone – alternating editing

Ford uses alternating editing with match cuts to bring the two forlorn characters together.

Departure for New York, or how to tame civilization!

The hero trades in his horse for the train (the iron horse!) by jumping onto it from his horse but brings his saddle with him, a sign that there will be other rides and one last transfer of a dying way of life to the outside world.

Horse ride and fight

The Far West bursts into the modern city! The film’s climax, as announced in its title.

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Credits and thanks Text and stills: Eric Loné, Jean-Louis Cot, and Magali Gourret Photograms and excerpts: Nicolas Ricordel Proofreading and corrections: Béatrice de Pastre and Jean-Marie Manant Design and construction: Magali Gourret Online posting: Driss Tsila Press reviews contemporaneous with the film’s original release in the United States and France can be downloaded from the last page of the “Bucking Broadway” discovery journey, online at www.cnc-aff.fr.

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bucking broadway: a rediscovered treasure broadway: a rediscovered treasure archived under the wrong...

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