Barriers of Society is a 1916 American silent romantic drama film directed by Lloyd B. Carleton. Universal based the film on the story written by Clarke Irvine and adapted for the screen by Fred Myton. Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson, lead an all-star cast of Universal contract players in this feature film.
The film begins with the rescue of a wealthy girl stranded on a small island by the son of a modest fish seller. Saving her ignites his feelings of affection. Her status prevents her from even considering such thoughts.
Years later, fate reunites them. They find themselves aboard a yacht; she is the owner's guest, while he is a crew member. Unknown to them, the yacht's owner has hatched a scheme to win the woman's affection. He intends to create a fake emergency, forcing them to abandon the ship to a nearby uncharted island. The owner hopes that while stranded on the isle, they will fall in love with each other. After he is confident of her love, the owner will signal for a nearby rescue ship.
The plot turns unexpectedly when the owner, girl, and fisherman's son get shipwrecked on the island. Not surprisingly, we discover that the two men have the same love interest. Many twists and turns finally lead to the society girl and fisherman's son discovering their love for each other. Despite many obstacles, fate brought them together, and in the end, they overcame the Barriers of Society.
Universal Film Manufacturing Company released the film on October 16, 1916.
Plot
Westie Phillips is the son of a poor commercial trawler and his wife. One day while paddling his canoe around the ocean, he finds a pretty girl marooned on a rock. Since the tide is rising, he rescues her and takes her to safety. The young girl turns out to be Martha Gorman, the daughter of the wealthy Silas Gorman. In that instant, Westie falls in love. Martha thanks him and forgets him.
Harry Arnold is a prosperous man, much older than Martha. Harry is also a man in love. He constantly flirts with Martha, hoping to win her hand in marriage. Despite Arnold's persistent entreaties, Martha rebuffs them all. Martha's father, Silas Gorman, is not against such a wedding but will not render an opinion. Silas wants his daughter to make her own marriage choices.
The time occurs for every young man to seek their fortune when they must go out in the world. That day arrives for Westie, and he leaves home to set out in the world. Westie gets shanghaied while seeking employment. He wakes up aboard a ship headed to the Orient. They victimized Westie like most sailors, forceable impressed into service aboard a ship. Somehow, Westie jumps ship and escapes to Honolulu.
Harry Arnold has worked out an insidious plot to win Martha's hand in marriage. First, Arnold invites Martha and her father to go on a cruise aboard his yacht. The thought of partying aboard a ship appeals to both of them, and they accept Arnold's invitation. Once at sea, one of the yacht's crewmen becomes troublesome. Arnold forces the captain to head to port and put him ashore. Once in port, they seek a replacement. They hire a hungry Westie Phillips to replace the sailor. Westie comes on board and recognizes Martha. She does not know who Westie is since the rescue was long ago and long forgotten. After he assumes his duties, he sees Martha repulse lecherous Arnold's advances.
Now is the time for Harry Arnold to start the next phase of his plan. Arnold will have the captain of his yacht stage a fake shipwreck near an uncharted island. The crew and partygoers will jump into lifeboats. Arnold will have one lifeboat set in the water with only Martha and himself on board. They will head to the remote island. Arnold feels that by force or otherwise, he can persuade Martha to love and marry him. After a month, the yacht's captain will return and rescue them.
Events unfold, and Westie senses Martha is in peril. Westie catches wind of Arnold's plan. He scrambles to Arnold's lifeboat and asks to go with them. At that exact moment, the captain hits him in the back of the head, knocking him out. Arnold and Martha row their dinghy towards the island. Westie gains his senses and realizes the boat is long gone. He swims to an empty lifeboat and starts paddling toward shore. He hears a woman scream.
After Westie reaches the beach, he discovers Arnold is trying to force himself on Martha. He saves her, and Arnold agrees to behave. Two alpha males and beautiful women agree to make a go of it while awaiting rescue. Arnold is driving himself into a rage after his plan goes awry. He pulls Westie aside and offers him a fortune if he moves to the other side of the island. Westie will not abandon the woman of his dreams. Arnold is beside himself. Later in the evening, Arnold decides if he can't have Martha, then no one will. He tries to murder her. Once again, Westie comes to her relief. An epic battle occurs, and Westie kills Arnold.
Time passes, a rescue ship appears, and the couple flag the ship down. Before their rescue ship arrives, they glance at each other and realize they are in love.
Cast Actor RoleDorothy DavenportMartha GorhamEmory JohnsonWestie PhillipsFrederick MontagueSilas GorhamAlfred AllenJohn PhillipsRichard MorrisHarry ArnoldMiss WhitingMary Phillips
Production Pre-production
In the book, "American Cinema's Transitional Era," the authors point out, One aspect of this transition was the longer duration of films. Feature films were slowly becoming the standard fare for Hollywood producers. Before 1913, you could count the yearly features on two hands. Between 1915 and 1916, the number of feature movies rose two-and-a-half times, from 342 films to 835. There was a recurring claim that Carl Laemmle was the longest-running studio chief resisting the production of feature films. Universal was not ready to downsize its short film business because short films were cheaper, faster, and more profitable to produce than feature films.
Laemmle would continue to buck this trend while slowly increasing his output of features. In 1914, Laemmle published an essay titled - In 1916, Laemmle ran an advertisement extolling Bluebird films while adding the following vocabulary on the top of the ad. Universal made 91 feature films in 1916, including 44 and 47 productions.
This film was labeled with Universal's brand, indicating it was a low-budget feature film.
Casting Dorothy Davenport (1895–1977) was an established star for Universal when the year-old actress played Martha Gorham. She had acted in hundreds of movies by the time she starred in this film. The majority of these films were 2-reel shorts, as was the norm in Hollywood's teen years. She had been making movies since 1910. She started dating Wally Reid when she was barely 16, and he was 20. They married in 1913. After her husband died in 1923, she used the name "Mrs. Wallace Reid" in the credits for any project she took part in. Besides being an actress, she would eventually become a film director, producer, and writer. Emory Johnson (1894–1960) was years old when he acted in this movie as Westie Phillips. In January 1916, Emory signed a contract with Universal Film Manufacturing Company. Carl Laemmle of Universal Film Manufacturing Company thought he saw great potential in Johnson, so he chooses him to be Universal's new leading man. Laemmle's hope was Johnson would become another Wallace Reed. A major part of his plan was to create a movie couple that would sizzle on the silver screen. Laemmle thought Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson could create the chemistry he sought. Johnson and Davenport would complete 13 films together. They started with the successful feature production of Doctor Neighbor in May 1916 and ended with The Devil's Bondwoman in November 1916. After completing the last movie, Laemmle thought Johnson did not have the screen presence he wanted. He decided not to renew his contract. Johnson would make 17 movies in 1916, including 6 shorts and 11 feature-length Dramas. 1916 would become the second-highest movie output of his entire acting career. Emory acted in 25 films for Universal, mostly dramas with a sprinkling of comedies and westerns. Richard Morris (1862–1924) was a year-old actor when he played villainous yacht owner Harry Arnold. He was a character actor and former opera singer known for Granny (1913). He would eventually participate in many Johnson projects, including |In the Name of the Law (1922), The Third Alarm (1922), The West~Bound Limited (1923), The Mailman (1923), The Spirit of the USA (1924) until his untimely death in 1924. Frederick (Fred) Montague (-1919) was a year-old actor when he played Silas Gorham, the wealthy father of Martha Gorham. He was an English film actor and appeared in 59 films between 1912 and 1919. Alfred Allen (1866–1947) was years old when he was selected to play John Phillips. Allen was highly educated, had a commanding presence and stood six feet tall, and weighed two hundred pounds. He got his start in the film industry at Universal city in 1913. He landed his first role in 1915. His roles were character parts, and he played mostly fathers, villains, or ranch owners. Alfred Allen appeared in 69 features from 1916 through 1929. After Heartaches he would appear in four more Davenport-Johnson projects: A Yoke of Gold, The Unattainable, The Human Gamble and Barriers of Society.
Director
Lloyd B. Carleton (–1933) started working for Carl Laemmle in the Fall of 1915. Carleton arrived with impeccable credentials, having directed some 60 films for the likes of Thanhouser, Lubin, Fox, and Selig.Wikipedia Lloyd Carleton page
Between March and December 1916, 44-year-old Lloyd Carleton directed 16 movies for Universal, starting with The Yaqui and ending with The Morals of Hilda released on December 11, 1916. Emory Johnson acted in all 16 of these films. Of Carleton's total 1916 output, 11 were feature films, and the rest were two-reel shorts.
After completing this film, Carleton would direct two more films for Universal, then sever his connections.
Themes
The central theme of is the role of fate in the lives of the characters. A movie advertisement in the October 12, 1916 issue of The Seattle Star sums it up this way:
A movie tagline unrelated to fate was "A man's millions against a woman's will".
Screenplay This film was based on a Clarke Irvine play. The movie was adapted for the screen by Frederick Myton (1885–1955). Myton was years old when the movie was released. He would also create the screenplay for the next and last film in the Davenport-Johnson series of films - The Devil's Bondwoman.
Filming Exteriors The story highlights Harry Arnold's yacht and his manipulative tactics to win Martha's affection. In order to film boat scenes, Lloyd Carleton and his team decided to rent a large steam vessel. The intended trip was to sail 400 nautical miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco. On the ship, they would shoot all the scenes designated in their script to happen on "Arnold's yacht." During the trip, the company could pause in Santa Barbara and its surrounding area to capture island scenes as specified in the movie. The party left Los Angeles in high spirits, with Dorothy Davenport, Emory Johnson, Richard Morris, and other cast members. Their initial jubilation quickly turned into a more somber mood.
After leaving port, the movie company faced strong winds and rough seas on what would become a three-day voyage. With waves crashing all around the boat's constant rocking made it impractical to shoot scenes. Besides everything else, a number of the actors suffered from seasickness. Filming began in earnest after the crew bounced back and the weather calmed down.
Interiors On March 15, 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios. Any interior shots, not capture on location, would be performed in the studio complex at Universal City.
Schedule