KENTUCKY PRIDE, a 1925 John Ford directed silent movie is being presented at the 2022 Hamptons International Film Festival. The story of how an old silent movie is being presented at a film festival of new films is simple.
It seems the executive director of the HIFF, Anne Chaisson, was on a plane to Telluride, Colorado when she met the film curator of Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, Donald Sosin. Mr. Sosin also has the skill to play the piano for silent movies. He explained to her that a silent movie wasn’t silent. Usually there was accompanying music played on a piano live in the theater.
Then Anne Chaisson started a process that brought Kentucky Pride to the HIFF. When the lights when down in the UA Theater 2, the movie Kentucky Pride lit up the screen. Judging by the applause of the sophisticated film festival crowd, they much enjoyed seeing this silent film. Afterward, there were no directors, producers, or actors to talk about the film, just the live piano player, Donald Sosin, and the festival’s Executive Director, Ms. Chaisson.
One thing about silent movies is the movement at times speeds up for comic effect. In Kentucky Pride, this is done most effectively. Especially when director John Ford (yes, the Ford who directed so many John Wayne westerns) has his actors do a sort of dance to symbolize observing intensely. The audience loved it.
In 1925 horses were still used throughout the nation for transportation. In those times horses also still pulled wagons of milk, ice, coal and junk. So, to have a horse family movie with subtitles back in 1925 had to be popular. After all, to this day horse owners talk to their horses and in many cases believe they hear the horses respond.
Mr. Ford effectively filmed horse racing scenes. I suppose to this day seeing beautiful horses running in a big stakes race is still eye catching.
Kentucky Pride uses both actors and horses as characters in the movie. The beauty of the silent film is the captions after the scene. This makes it possible to create dialogue between horses and humans. To watch the horses and then read what they were thinking is very effective in telling the story of this film.
The movie features stars such as Gertrude Astor as Mrs. Beaumont, the selfish second wife of Mr. Beaumont, with Peaches Jackson as Beaumont’s daughter Virginia. Then there is J. Farrell MacDonald as Mike Donovan, the horse trainer. Also in the film are Winston Miller as Mike Donovan’s son Danny, along with Belle Stoddard as Mrs. Donovan. Malcolm Waite plays the neighbor Greve Carter. Perhaps the biggest “human” star is Henry B. Walthall as Mr. Beaumont, the protagonist horse breeder.
However, the real stars are the horses themselves. Included is a legendary Man o’ War, considered one of the greatest horses of all time. Then there is Fair Play, sired of Man o’ War along with other offspring of Man o’ War such as Display, Mad Play, Mad Hatter, Chance Play, Chance Shot and Fairmount. The horses really know each other and nuzzle affectionately.
For true horse aficionados, the film also has Negofol, French-bred winner of the 1909 Prix de Guiche, sire of several famed horses including Coventry, Hourless, and Vito. Not to mention The Finn, winner of the 1915 Belmont Stakes and sire of Zev and Flying Ebony.
Lastly, there is the famed horse Morvich, the winner of the 1922 Kentucky Derby 100 years ago and the first California-bred racehorse to win the Derby.
A salute to Anne Chaisson for bringing this gem from the past of movie-making into the arena of new exciting films.
