Wallace McCutcheon Sr.

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Wallace McCutcheon Sr. (New York City, 1858 or 1862 – Brooklyn, New York, October 3, 1918

American Mutoscope & Biograph, Edison and American Star Film companies. McCutcheon's wealth of credits are often mixed up with the small handful of films directed by his son, Wallace McCutcheon Jr. (1884–1928).[citation needed
]

Biography

Referred to affectionately as "Old Man" McCutcheon by members of the Biograph stock company, by 1907 he was indeed one of the senior figures in American film production. Little is known of his background, but he had apparently moved into the early film industry from stage direction. Under the encouragement of his friend

D.W. Griffith, whose success was so immediate that Biograph saw no need to bring either McCutcheon back into the fold.[4]

The elder McCutcheon accepted a position as director with the Star Films unit in Fort Lee, N.J.; this was a division of the French Méliès company headed by Gaston Méliès, Georges Méliès' older brother. When the company went westward to San Antonio, Texas in 1910, McCutcheon went with them, but his trail goes cold shortly afterward. McCutcheon simply disappears from credits and other historical markers; it is said that he simply never truly recovered from the illness in 1908, and likely died in Texas not long after the Star Film Company arrived there, but there is no record of it.[5]

Although awarded numerous cinematography credits in various sources—including the Biograph ledgers—McCutcheon's acknowledged strength was in setting up scenes and handling actors, which is what Porter was looking for when McCutcheon was hired by the Edison Company. In his first Biograph period, McCutcheon worked most closely with cameraman A.E. Weed and collaborated with Frank Marion on scenario writing.[6]

Legacy

Although McCutcheon remains little known, especially in comparison to such titans as Porter and Griffith, his work is very well represented in the Paper Print Collection at the Library of Congress. McCutcheon was responsible for a number of films notable for innovative camerawork, early story-telling vehicles, the first comedy "chase" films and a small measure of work in animation. The Pioneers and Kit Carson (both 1903) were early, multi-shot story films and perhaps the first actual Westerns in American film, released only a month or two before Porter's

Nihilist movement in the Russian Empire. Experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs paid homage to McCutcheon in his 1969 film Tom, Tom the Piper's Son which used McCutcheon's film as the basis for a fanciful, original creation.[9]

Problems of attribution

Wallace "Wally" McCutcheon Jr. seems to have joined the Biograph company early in 1908, and this has led to a number of difficulties in properly attributing the very late titles credited to McCutcheon Sr. in his brief, second Biograph stint. Both men were logged in the Biograph books as "Wallace McCutcheon" without any further distinction, though the younger McCutcheon worked both as an actor and director, coming to the movies from the stage, like his father had done. Some distinguishing characteristics are evident in Biograph films that may still be viewed, as "Wally" McCutcheon's films are notable for their bad scenarios, inept handling of actors and overall poor quality; certainly titles as King of the Cannibal Islands (1908) and Over the Hills to the Poorhouse (1908) cannot be attributed to the elder McCutcheon. While it is believed that Wally McCutcheon helmed about 8-12 Biographs before he was finally fired, it is not known exactly which titles those were, and this figure may or may not include films such as The Fight For Freedom (1908), apparently begun by Wally McCutcheon, but finished by D.W. Griffith.[10]

Wallace McCutcheon Sr. is also credited with buying the first scenario that Griffith successfully submitted to Biograph, titled "When Knighthood was in Flower." As Biograph never produced a film by this title, it seems that McCutcheon did not direct it, and that the scenario was directed by Griffith himself later in 1908 as When Knights Were Bold.[11]

Partial filmography[6]

'How they rob men in Chicago (1902)[12]
The Suburbanite (1904)
The Black Hand (1906)
The Sculptor's Nightmare (1908)
The Black Viper

References

  1. ^ imdb entry
  2. ^ "Who's Who of Victorian Cinema".
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-520-06986-2
  4. ^ Gauntier, Gene. "Blazing the Trail, part 3". Cinemaweb. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  5. ISBN 1-55622-481-8
  6. ^ a b "Wallace McCutcheon". IMDb.
  7. ^ "Silent Era : Progressive Silent Film List".
  8. ^ Kemp R. Niver -- The First Twenty Years: A Segment of Film History. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1968. ASIN: B002JN81NE
  9. ^ Dargis, Manohla (8 October 2009). "Deconstructing Cinema in Order to Reveal It". The New York Times.
  10. ISBN 978-0-85170-747-1
  11. ^ "Wallace McCutcheon". IMDb.
  12. ^ "How They Rob Men in Chicago (Short 1900) - IMDb". IMDb.
  13. ^ Hardy, Phil, ed. The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction. New York: The Overlook Press, 1995, p. 21
  14. ^ "Boat race".
  15. ^ "Panorama from Times Building, New York".
  16. ^ Review, synopsis and link to watch the film"A cinema history". Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m available on the Kino DVD set Edison: The Invention of the Movies http://www.kino.com/edison/d2.html
  18. ^ DVD "A Christmas Past"
  19. ^ Hardy, Phil, ed. The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction. New York: The Overlook Press, 1995, p. 28
  20. ^ Hardy, Phil, ed. The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction. New York: The Overlook Press, 1995, p. 29
  21. ISBN 9780786477111
    .
  22. ^ "The sculptor's nightmare".
  23. ^ Hardy, Phil, ed. The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction. New York: The Overlook Press, 1995, p. 31
  24. ^ Hardy, Phil, ed. The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction. New York: The Overlook Press, 1995, p. 32

Sources

  • Charles Musser, Before the nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company, University of California Press, 1991,
    ISBN 978-0-520-06986-2

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wallace McCutcheon.
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