American Cinematographer - November 1998 - 73

and praise in about equal

versy

Bitzer invested $7,000 in it

measure.

and

Mary Pickford had visited him
on July 23, 1948

there. Griffith died

ultimately earned $240,000.
Intoxicated by success, Griffith
made the even bigger Intolerance
(1919) - his masterpiece, but never¬

in

theless

his mind

and

a

box-office

failure.

Its

Hollywood.
"Griffith

of

terms
once

thought only in
picture-making," Bitzer

said. "What Mr. Griffith
we

ences

more

confusion than audi¬

could handle. Other features

followed, including Hearts of the
World, The Great Love, A Romance of

Happy Valley, The Greatest Thing in
Life, The Girl Who Stayed at Home,
True Heart Susie and Scarlet Days.
Bitzer

photographed them all, solo,
using the same old Pathe camera he
had bought while at Biograph. He
was hurt because Griffith brought in
a

second

cameraman

Henrik

-

Sartov-on Broken Blossoms (1919),

poetic horror tale that was their
biggest success since Birth. Bitzer
worked on several subsequent Grif¬
fith productions, including the clas¬
sics Way Down East (1920) and
Orphans ofthe Storm (1922), but was
usually teamed with other cine¬
matographers or passed over
completely. Sometimes he didn't
report when the studio called. "After
we made Way Down East, my part in
the making of Griffith films was [that
of] just another cameraman," Bitzer
recalled bitterly.
In 1926, Bitzer was the princi¬
pal founder of the International
Photographers of the Motion Picture
Industries (IPMPI), forerunner of
IATSE. Heavy opposition from the
studio heads did not augur well for
a

his future.

Griffith made several

silents, but only two talkies

more

the

-

successful Abraham Lincoln (1930)
and the dismal The Struggle (1931).
Neither was shot by Bitzer.
innovators

were

fashioned

to

Both great

considered

too

function in the
died

at

-

the screen."
George E. Turner

Joseph Walker, ASC
and Frank Capra
A kind fate brought together
the great director Frank Capra
(1897-1991), and equally great cine¬
matographer Joseph Walker, ASC
(1892-1985). Together they made 20
pictures - all of them good, some of
them classics.

energy. He started the work¬
day early and finished late, leaving
everybody exhausted but himself.
After the picture wrapped, Walker
told production chief Sam Briskin
that he never wanted to be assigned
to Capra again. Later, when he saw
the picture at a theater, he was so
impressed with Capra's "touch" that

he

back

went

to

Briskin and asked

to

be considered for any

future Capra
productions. Soon he was teamed
with Capra for Columbia's first "A"
production, Submarine (1928), with
Jack Holt and Ralph Graves. The
success

of the adventure film led

to

artist, adventurer and technician. He

popular Caprapictures, Flight
(1929) and the superb Dirigible

filmed

(1931).

Walker

two
was

more

the

perfect mix of

than

160

feature

more

very

Walker-Holt-Graves

In addition to action

productions, beginning with Back to
God's Country in 1919 and ending
with Affair in Trinidad in 1952.
Between pictures he invented things,

pictures,
director-cinematographer team
became noted for making glamorous

such

sive than

as

a

zoom

famed Williams

lens in 1922, the

Composite Process

used in hundreds of films, and the
variable diffusion lens. He had
covered the Mexican Revolution

as a

wireless reporter. His first picture was
made under incredible hardships in
the Arctic, where the leading man
died when his lungs froze.

who hailed from
Palermo, Sicily, had studied engi¬
neering at California Institute of
Technology, but left school to join the
Army during World War I. He later
worked in film labs and for indepen¬
dent producers. In 1921 he directed
Screen Snapshot shorts for Columbia,
Capra,

and soon became a first-rate gag man
and assistant director for Mack

the

actresses more

beauties, Loretta Young and Jean
Harlow, received a boost up the
ladder

Platinum

in

(1931). That

same

year,

Stanwyck also benefitted
from highly dramatic roles in Miracle
Woman and Forbidden. The starkly
realistic American Madness

(1932),

a

of a bank run during the
Depression (which was then at its
worst point) gave Walter Huston his
story

finest characterization

date.

Spec¬
running
amok in a bank are still spellbinding.
The most deliberately artistic
of all the Capra-Walker collabora¬
tions is The Bitter Tea of General Yen
tacular

scenes

of

a

to

mob

(1933), a controversial drama involv¬

directed his first feature, The

can

love affair between an Ameri¬
girl (Barbara Stanwyck) and a

a

Chinese warlord (Nils Asther). Here

Man, for First National.

later he made

stardom

Barbara

ing

Two years

to

Blonde

Sennett and Hal Roach. In 1926 he

Strong

beautiful and expres¬
Two very different

ever.

a

Walker introduced his

new

inven¬

old-

feature for Columbia, where he

tion, the variable diffusion lens,

new

remained until 1939. The

which

That Certain

Camera Co. and is still in

order.
Bitzer

in

put on

complex intercutting of four stories
from different periods of history
created

saw

The little Sicilian bristled with
nervous

the Motion

Picture Home in Woodland Hills

on

April 29, 1944. Griffith, Lillian Gish

project,
Thing was a romantic
comedy with Viola Dana and Ralph
Graves, and the director of photogra¬
phy was Joseph Walker.

was

later

bought by Mitchell
use.

The

was banned in England, but
selected to open the new Radio

picture
was

City Music Hall. In the next CapraAmerican

Cinematographer 71
American Cinematographer - November 1998

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