Wikisource:WikiProject Film/Intertitles from GeoCities/Hearts of the World
Hearts of the World _____________________________________ British prologue intertitles:
1 We beg your indulgence for this short prologue. It has no possible interest, save to vouch for the rather unusual event of an American producer being allowed to take pictures on an
actual battlefield.
2 D. W. Griffith sets up his camera in the British front line trench at Cambrin, fifty yards from the enemy's lines.
3 The interested look upward is directed toward passing shells.
4 At No. 10 Downing Street, David Lloyd George, England's Prime Minister, wishing D. W. Griffith success for his picture.
5
Apologies-- and thanks.
The picture follows.
_____________________________________
THE STORY
OF A
VILLAGE
An old fashioned play
with a
new fashioned theme
1 God help the nation that begins another war of conquest or meddling! Brass bands and clanging sabers make very fine music, but let us remember there is another side of war.
2 After all, does war ever settle any question? The South was ruined - thousands of lives were sacrificed - by the Civil War; yet, did it really settle the Black and White problem in this country?
3
Peaceful days in the
year of 1912. The
village at the time of spring, where people love and hate, cry and laugh, sin and are forgiven - even as you and I.
4 The market place.
5
The double house in which live the
two American families on the Rue de la Paix (the Street of Peace).
6
We find the home
brightened by pleas-
ant news: Daughter is re- turning from a long visit to an Aunt in Rheims.
7
The Boy, son
of the other
American
painter, burnt with the genius denied the father, has just returned from Paris.
8
The fussy little
mother sometimes thinks
herself neglected.
9 Three harmless little goslings.
10 The Wanderer.
11
One of the
many prayers.
"Please make me so nice and good that Boy will love me forever and ever."
12
Time brings to
the Girl interest
in fashions and other little nets to catch love, after the manner of the world.
13
The littlest one of
the Boy's three brothers is inclined to hero-worship.
14 This little love affair between them has been going on about five years.
15
With great
enthusiasm
he reads from his latest manuscript.
16 Afternoon. She reads his verse of love --deathless, unending.
17
A visiting street
singer's imitation of a late success from Paris.
18
Monsieur Cuckoo
argues with his
friend, the village carpenter, on the correct method of
laying sod.
19
The Little
Disturber makes an impression.
20 Monsieur Cuckoo makes advances.
21
Having so far
strangely escaped
flatterers, she now seems
down for the count.
22 Von Strohm - "tourist" - sometimes serving as a finger to The Mailed
Fist.
23
The Shadow.
Kaiser Wilhelm
of Germany, rep-
resenting War's ideal of all races and ages, the ruling of weaker nations and people by the Power of Might.
24
A deaf and blind musician, playing
melodies remembered
from his youth.
25 Twilight minstrelsy.
26 "When all the world is young, lad, And all the woods are green --"
27 The wall between.
28 Jealousy!
29
Von Strohm,
much interested in village architecture -- and foundations.
30 Perseverance and perfume.
31
"Just one little
walk - so - so
you can tell me why you don't like me."
32 The end of the world.
33 "Only you -- forever
and ever."
34 "Forever and ever."
35 The betrothal party.
36 Too persistent.
37 Even her blows are caresses.
38
Afterwards --
If he can't get what we want, let's want what we can get.
39 The German Militarists plan the dastardly blow
against France and
civilization.
40
With white thread and whiter dreams,
she works on her wed-
ding clothes.
41
The village Crier,
butt of all jests, at last becomes important.
42 "I will see what it's about."
43 War!
44
The three
musketeers read the news together.
45 "It means War!"
46
The world outside.
In the English House
of Parliament. August 3rd, 1914, at three o'clock.
47
Sir Edward Grey
asks the Commons
if it be their will to support France and protect the neutrality of Belgium.
48 "YES! YES!"
49
The French
Chamber of
Deputies, August 4th, 1914, at three o'clock.
50
René Viviani,
Premier of France.
51
"We fight only to
defend Liberty!
We have been without reproach - we will be without fear!"
52 "Vive la France!"
53
August 4th, 10:55
P.M. At No, 10,
Downing Street,
awaiting Germany's answer to Great Britain's ultimatum. Asquith, Lloyd George, Grey and Winston Churchill.
54
Germany has five more minutes to
promise to withdraw her troops - or war!
55 At the Foreign Office.
56 "It is War!"
57 Again in the village.
58
Though an Ameri-
can citizen, believing
the land that is good
enough to live in is good enough to fight for, he makes his farewells and offers his life to France.
59
Tears are
shed - even for Monsieur Cuckoo.
60
"I'll be back in
three weeks,
with a lock of hair, all for you -- the Kaiser's mustache!"
61
The Girl's sad
heart masked
with smiles, as were millions of others in troubled France.
62 "Forever and ever."
63
The sons of France
go to defend their homes.
64 The wedding clothes.
65
In the little room
where she had
dreamed so many dreams, she puts her sweetest one
away.
66
The Boy's regiment placed in a bulwark
of trenches directly outside his own village.
67
The French swear to
hold the trench defending the village until the death.
68 The enemy hordes massing for the
attack.
69 France!
70 French Artillery.
71 At home the Boy's letters assure them the village is safe.
72 The Gendarme warns the villagers to evacuate.
73
"Danger? Impos-
sible! The French line can never be broken."
74
The bombardment
trying the souls of men.
75 War's old song
of hate.
76 The French ordered to retreat.
77 The great retreat.
78 Into ranks again!
79
The very last
trench outside the village.
80
The Boy, broken-
hearted, knowing
that retreat has doomed his loved ones in the village.
81
The German
artillery moves to bombard the village.
82
The very day set
as their wedding day brings the last warning.
83
War's gift to
the common people.
84 The Boy's father.
85 The sheltered Inn.
86
An humble member
of the great band,
that includes some of the world's best citizens, making profit out of war.
87
In this massacre
of innocents, the Girl's mother is sorely stricken.
88
The French make
another heroic effort.
89
"Let the dead
past bury its dead!"
90 The night.
91
The mind of the simple
soul broken by shell and terror --sweet bells jangled, out of tune.
92 Beneath the risen moon.
93
The desperate
onslaught turns the battle from the village.
94
A wounded
neighbor tells where the little company battles.
95 The Boy struggles back toward home.
96
This was to have
been their wedding
day, so through a befogged and dizzy path, she goes to find her bridegroom.
97 The Bridegroom.
98 And so they spend their bridal night.
99 The haloed Crimson Cross.
100
The French success
short-lived before the never-ending flood.
101
The refugees
seek shelter at the Inn.
102 The conquerors.
103
THE STRUGGLE
OF CIVILIZATION
104
The local head-
quarters of the German army of occupation.
105
Though some por-
tions escaped damage, most of the town was destroyed.
106
The Boy's family
takes refuge in a dis- tant part of the village.
107
Distracted atoms
of humanity--seek-
ing shelter in hole and corner, cellar and crypt.
108
The Boy's oldest
brother put at
shoveling coal and his mother at domestic work.
109 The washing room at the Inn.
110
The Girl, cared
for by a strange
companion, gropes slowly back to sanity and strength.
111
Our musketeers, in a
new French uniform
but an old service, placed where they are sure to do their best-- directly opposite their own village.
112
The hospital
returns a familiar face.
113
"Unscrew the
little cap -- and it's goodbye forever!"
114
Von Strohm,
no longer in
active service, now a member of the Intel- ligence Department.
115
The Girl put to
work in the field by War, the Taskmaster.
116
Refusal or inability
to perform their
appointed tasks subjected them to whipping or other
punishments.
117
An old fashioned
German quotes:
"Justice is the only Right!"
118
Von Strohm,
the Militarist,
corrects him--
"Might alone makes right!"
119
The Allies with fire and flame and souls
of men win back inch by inch the sacred soil of France, righting her wrongs.
120 The French.
121
Great Britain's
steel bulldogs bark their defiant protest.
122 The eyes of the Allies.
123
Lloyd George's
answer:
"I will put them wheel to wheel until we pound Democracy's truth home!"
124 The French bring back prisoners.
125
The Boy,
interpreting for the prisoners, hears news of his loved ones.
126
In the dugout.
The Boy tells the news of the village.
127 Also battling!
128 Imitating his hero.
129
The rumor spreads
that the French are massing for a great attack.
130 "My love, my dead love, they are coming to save us. Don't you hear--don't you hear?"
131
Von Strohm and
friends, with the aid of entertainers, demon- strate the hardships of
trench life for the higher officers.
132 Life's Contrasts!
133
The mother's
last words:
"Be brave, my boys, be brave."
134
The sergeant, now
promoted, glimpses real "Kultur."
135
The boys, unwilling to suffer profana-
tion of their mother's memory at the hands of the Masters of War--
136
--themselves per-
form a sacred service.
137
No requiem--save
the ever-sounding guns.
138
No prayers--
save childish tears.
139
Von Strohm
visits the main line on a tour of inspection.
140
After daring
to bring them a little food--and much love.
141
Under cover of
dark and rain, the Boy reaches the enemies' lines.
142
"An Euren pos-
ten, verdammte Schweine!" "Back to your posts, swine!"
143 The officers not so gullible.
144 The lieutenant goes
to investigate.
145 The Boy trapped.
146
They accept the
report that the visitor has been killed in the back areas.
147 After two days and nights in a shell-hole inside the hostile lines, he gives the awaited
signals.
148 Food for the children.
149
Von Strohm,
his mess closed, comes to the Inn.
150 "Try the back door, sir."
151
A good memory
for faces and ankles.
152
He takes advantage of the opportunities
War offers scoundrels of all races and ages.
153 The same wall as--
154 "If they see you it means death!"
155 "You are my prisoner!"
156 The unused upper rooms.
157
The Allies, crouched
waiting to attempt the rescue of the village.
158 The oath to retake the village.
159 Poison gas.
160
In the meantime,
the French--a little nearer!
161 Hun trenches.
162 Pillboxes bar the way.
163
Again they
see their own village!
164
They pledge to
meet death as man and wife.
165
Only one more
trench between the French and the village.
166
The Hun counter
attack overwhelms the trench.
167
The French
reserves told of the loss.
168
The sound of their
own guns gives frantic hope.
169 "The spy!--Where is he?"
170 The Germans.
171
The French at
the village edge.
172
The anguished
prayer of France.
173
"You must surely
die--take me with you."
174 Last German defenses.
175 The French storm.
176 The Americans.
177 Happy times.
178
America!--Returning
home after freeing
the world from Autocracy and the horrors of war-- we hope forever and ever.
Home
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