Expert: DM - 11/2/2007

Question
Hi,
I know that intertitles were essential for conveying dialogue in silent films, but how often were they employed as "titles", that is, to name and introduce individual scenes and acts, like chapters in a book?

Answer
Thank you for asking such an interesting question.

Titles and intertitles were an essential element of motion picture from the very beginning, and they are still an important ingredient in motion pictures that are made today.

The very first motion pictures did not feature opening titles that stated the name of the film because the films had no name. The strips of film made by, for example, Thomas Edison, that were intended to be viewed in a kinetoscope machine, simply began with the filmed action.

It did not take very long for following motion pictures to feature opening titles that stated the name of the film. Initially, these were so that when the celluloid was copyrighted, an agent from the Library of Congress could identify the footage by simply looking at the first frame of film that was on a reel. These titles also introduced the film with its name. When these strips of film were projected, audiences were given a brief moment to identify the story by the name of the film as shown on the titles.

It was several years before actors and especially directors were even given credits that appeared as titles in films. In fact, if you will read Mary Pickford's autobiography, My Rendezvous with Life, you will read an interesting anecdote about how this came about. Her films that were produced by the Biograph company were so popular that people wrote the company and demanded to know who the charming woman was that appeared in so many of their pictures. She was still not given any "credit" per se, but was named as "Little Mary."

It did not take producers of films very long to realize that the charming actors in films lured audiences into the box office to buy tickets. Around 1910, Florence Lawrence, who was also a popular star of many Biograph films, was enticed by the Independent Motion Pictures company (IMP) to leave Biograph and make films for them. She was named and given credit on the films.

In 1912, Sarah Bernhardt opened the floodgates. Her film, Queen Elizabeth, featured full opening credits that named her and the other actors, and the success of this forty-five minute film was a watershed event in the history of motion pictures. Following in her footsteps, nearly every actor, singer, or celebrity of renown raced to appear in motion pictures, and of course, producers profusely used their names in titles and in advertising. This practice has never ceased, even to this day.

Intertitles are another matter. One can find isolated examples where they were inserted to show dramatic devices such as the passing of time in a story. "Came the Dawn," one of the most famous and over-used intertitles, is one such example. Once again, it did not take producers long to use book-like intertitles to advance stories. Some even went so far as to make films that featured way too many titles in a cost-saving measure, writing text to describe action rather than show it with costly to produce film scenes.

Today, intertitles are mainly used at the opening and ending of a film to show credits, but with foreign-made films, the use of subtitles carries on today.

Sincerely,
David Menefee
Author:
Sarah Bernhardt in the Theater of Films and Sound Recordings (Foreword by Kevin Brownlow)
The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era
The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era
George O'Brien: A Man's Man in Hollywood
Richard Barthelmess: My Life in Pictures
Lou-Tellegen: Between Bernhardt and Duse
Wally (The True Wallace Reid Story)


P.S. The First Edition of The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era, is now in print. The publisher has prepared
a Limited Collector's Edition in hard back, which is available from their web site at this link:

http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com/id131.html

A soft back version is also now available from their web site at the same link shown above, and it is also available from Amazon.com at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/First-Male-Stars-David-Menefee/dp/1593930739/ref=sr_1_2/00...

The captivating lives and groundbreaking accomplishments of fourteen men who dared to gamble their reputations by appearing in the first motion pictures are explored in a richly researched new book, The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era. At a time when other actors in the "legitimate theater" scorned the industry, these amazing men not only defied the odds of success but also received a place at the heights of a fascinating business that was a new form of art. Each made an enduring and important contribution to early cinema, although some are forgotten today. Exhaustive research in every major archive of the world has created this compilation of information and images. In this engaging and educational volume, author David W. Menefee reaches into the vaults of history to withdraw countless, unusual details that tell how these men, their roles, and their influence were received in their time, and how their powerful impact still lingers today. The book includes 114 rare scene photos, portraits, reproductions of full-page film advertisements, and lobby cards.

Actors include: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Richard Barthelmess, John Bunny, Francis X. Bushman, Lon Chaney, Jackie Coogan, William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Antonio Moreno, Jack Pickford, Wallace Reid, Rudolph Valentino, and Crane Wilbur.