This Day In Ann Dvorak History: Started “Massacre”
On October 9, 2013 by Christina Rice With 2 Comments
- This Day in History
Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 282
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On October 9, 1933, Ann Dvorak reported to Warner Bros. to begin filming Massacre co-starring Richard Barthelmess. The film, which saw Ann portraying a modern Native American on a reservation was only the second film she made at the studio in 1933, despite having had returned from her extended European honeymoon in March. By this time, Warner Bros. seemed to have gotten over any ire they had towards Ann for walking out on her contract and Massacre would kick-off a very prolific time in Ann’s career, in quantity if not always quality.
Having never seen “Massacre”, I checked the IMDb to see what it was about. It looks interesting and most of the on-line reviews were very positive.
You’ve got to give a tip of your hat to Warner Brothers for at least attempting to confront a number of delicate, or difficult, issues during the 1930’s; prison reform (“I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang”), homeless veterans (“Heroes For Sale”), hate groups (“Black Legion”) and others. Along with the plight of Native Americans in this one.
Eleven years after this, Robert Barrat, whose name appears on the poster, above, was involved in one of my favorite movie scenes ever and never spoke a word in it. Dressed up in a trenchcoat, sunglasses and corn cob pipe, Barrat shows up as General Douglas MacArthur in John Ford’s “They Were Expandable”, boarding Robert Montgomery’s PT boat en route out of Corregidor while “The Battle Hymn Of The Republic” played in the background.
I agree that tackling social issues was one of Warner Bros. strong suits which I touch on in the book. I think Massacre is quite enjoyable even though Ann’s role is typically thankless.
Robert Barrat is in quite a few Ann-D films. When I was captioning this photos in my collection I thought gee, some Robert Barrat fan is going to find my website and be very happy to see all these photos of him. Sure enough, someone writing a book on Barrat contacted me for scans!