Harry Lorraine | The Lads of the Village / 1919

harem scarem*

by Douglas Messerli

 

Kenelm Foss (screenplay, based on the stage musical), Harry Lorraine (director) The Lads of the Village / 1919

 

According to commentator Ellen Cheshire, it’s almost a miracle that we still have copies of Harry Lorraine’s 1919 film, The Lads of the Village. The film was based on a popular World War I music hall-like review produced by Joe Peterman that had traveled throughout Britain. Peterman also was the producer of the movie, the only problem being that he did not receive permission from the writers of the original, librettist Clifford Harris, lyricist Valentine, and composer James Tate. Peterman lost the case and was forced to pay damages and destroy copies of his film.

      Today, however, the British Film Institute shows it free from its site and a slightly restored but highly nitrate damaged version appears on You Tube.

      The small village to which the three heroes of World War I return has yet to hear why one of their group, Erb has just been awarded an important metal for bravery in the war, and the story, told by Captain Clements (H. J. Lord) constitutes the substance of the movie.

       The story involves Clement’s own actions as the lover of the local beauty Maud Ellington (Maudie Dunham), who begins by working as a secretary for the head of the International Peace Committee, Sir Karl Dusseldorf (Bernard Dudley) with whom she has apparently had a romantic interlude when she was younger.

       Dusseldorf holds her letters as ransom so that she might remain under his control as he openly flirts with her, reminding her that she once felt differently about him than she now does. She’s ready to return his letters in exchange for hers, but he refuses.

       Meanwhile, he sends her into London to hand-deliver a message of a certain party, Otto Drach, in a Charing Cross café. She hands the letter over but also meets, by accident, Clements in the same café, the two, after a brief lunch and after lunch walk, quickly falling in love.

      Drach, it turns out, is a major figure in the German underground in Britain, and Dusseldorf, we discover, is one of the heads of the German spy network.

       By the time she returns to Hapsberg House, Dusseldorf’s local residence, Maud has determined to resign, Dusseldorf coincidentally about to tell her that her services are no longer needed such he, unbeknownst to the others, intends to join up with the German underground in order to gain access to Clements special orders the officer will soon be delivering to the British forces in Mesopotamia.

       Meanwhile, the two local boys Erb and Bert have joined up with British services and are serving under the command of their local acquaintance Clements. And Maud, also wishing to do her duty, has joined up as a military nurse.

 

      During their early days in camp, they observe a fellow British soldier Drake (actually Drach who has taken on a new identity) oddly attempting to overhear a conversation of the camp’s military brass. Curious about is behavior, Erb and Bert follow him, overhear a telephone conversation between him and the German underground, and, leaving the confines of their camp, follow him to underground headquarters—finding entry only after hitting him over the head and tying him up—and discover the intent to intervene Clements’ message to the British forces in Turkey.

      Unfortunately, the two are arrested for having illegally left camp, and when they attempt to reveal the story to Clements, he perceives it was a mere story they have cooked up to explain their desertion of duty.

       Soon, all of the small-town group, Erb, Bert, Clements and nurse Maud join one another on a ship headed to Mestopatamia. Drake (Drach) is on the ship as well, spying on Clements and Maud’s shipboard romance, witnessing what he believes in the officer handing over the papers to Maud for safe-keeping.

      Dusseldorf, having imagined Maud to be the way to get to Clements, has encouraged Drake/Drach, accordingly, to hand over the secret message in exchange for her letters, knowing that the revelation of her youthful romance with Dusseldorf will subject her to scandal ending her relationship with Clements.

      She appears to hand them over, and now appears ready to share her past with her lover; but Clements declares he trusts her, and she tosses the letters overboard, being freed of her past. Moreover, it is discovered, Clements still holds the secret message, having never given it to Maud.

       Thinking they have won the day, however, the German contingent on a nearby submarine prepare to fire at the British ship, but the gunner, becoming aware of the sub’s existence, fires first, almost destroying the German boat. At the last moment, however, the submarine levels out, Dusseldorf and the other spies aboard having been saved.

       In the trenches Erb and Bert deepen their friendship, almost hinting at the kind of “buddy” film we will later encounter in William A. Wellman’s Wings (1927) and Louis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). However, instead of exploring that avenue fully, Lorraine’s film recognizes and even pokes fun at its true genre, the wartime spy movie, punctuating it’s heroes’ actions with intertitular parenthetical commentary—of the kind we later see in postmodern comic hero films such as Batman, Superman, and Spiderman—with explications such as “(the rotters!),” “(the scoundrels!),” etc.

       Once the first-line soldiers are put on the charge, Clements dares to use the smoke the make a rush with his secret message to the front, but when Erb observes he’s been wounded, he himself rushes out, brings back his officer friend and himself hurries off again with the message, reaching the front and helping the British win the day.

       Now in the local city, the Brits, on leave, explore the delights and beauties of the bazaar. Dusseldorf and Drach, however, believing the message has never reached its destination, plan to kidnap both Clements and Maud, taking them to the Caliph for punishment.

     Once more, buddies Erb and Bert meet up, so joyful at rejoining one another that they hug one another and literally join hands with the girls and engage in a “ring-around-the rosy”-like dance. Soon after, they come across Drach, and recognizing him even in his beggars’ garb, force him to reveal their location. They determine to enter the Turkish palace by having Erb dressing up as the Magician who is expected for the evening’s entertainment, accompanied by Bert and the rest of the boys in the unit dressed as the Magician’s personal harem.

       A bit like the imprisoned soldiers in Jean Renoir’s The Grand Illusion (1937), the British grunts can hardly wait to don their female costumes, arriving with Erb at the Caliph’s court where his own harem members lie strewn out upon the floor and bathing in a nearby fountain.

        After a few magic tricks, Erb calls his “women” into action, as they free Clements and Maud and finally arrest and take off Dusseldorf, once more winning the day for the British cause against the mad Huns. 

        Once the story has been told, Clements marries Maud, and Erb, in the last frames, marries his local girlfriend, with Bert, shaking down the apple blossoms from a nearby tree, making it clear that he will remain at his friends’ side forever.

        The Lads of the Village doesn’t even pretend to be anything but it is, a charming fable of World War I heroism denouncing the German enemy. But it briefly approaches some of the concerns and even the depth of the far greater later films exploring World War I. Because of the copyright issue, however, hardly anyone saw this film at the time of its release, and there has been very little critical commentary about it. Indeed, this piece may be the longest analysis of it written to date. For years it was not even acknowledged in BFI records.

 

*Although the term harum scarum generally denotes the irresponsible or totally reckless behavior of a person or persons, it was used in the 1928 Disney film, Harem Scarem, to mean something relating to a Middle East series of events involving the cartoon figure Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which seems somewhat appropriate regarding the British film I write about below. The synopsis of the lost Disney works is as follows:  “While crossing the desert on a stunt camel, Oswald is attacked by a large bird. After vanquishing it with the help of the camel, Oswald attaches the bird's detached wings to the camel's sides, resulting in a speedy arrival at Oasis Bar, a Moroccan cafe. While there, a hula-hula charmer fascinates Oswald. Their time together is interrupted, however, by a sheik who arrives to kidnap the girl. Oswald, on his camel, pursues the sheik, and after a wild ride, saves the girl from the sheik's clutches.”

 

Los Angeles, June 13, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (June 2022).