A Corner in Wheat

A Corner in Wheat
The dead wheat king at the grain elevator
Directed by	D. W. Griffith
Written by	Frank Norris (book)
Starring	Frank Powell Grace Henderson James Kirkwood Linda Arvidson W. C. Miller Gladys Egan H. B. Walthall Blanche Sweet
Cinematography	G. W. Bitzer
Distributed by	American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
Release date	December 13, 1909 (1909-12-13)
Running time	approx. 15 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

A Corner in Wheat^[1] is a 1909 American short silent film which tells of a greedy tycoon who tries to corner the world market in wheat, destroying the lives of the people who can no longer afford to buy bread. It was directed by D. W. Griffith and adapted by Griffith and Frank E. Woods from a novel and a short story by Frank Norris, titled The Pit and A Deal in Wheat".^[2]

Intercutting (cross-cutting) between still tableaux of the poor in the bread line and the lavish, active parties of the wealthy speculator somewhat anticipates the collision montage that became a hallmark of Soviet cinema a decade later.

In 1994, A Corner in Wheat was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[3][4]

The film was also released on 8mm in the 1960s.

Cast

A Corner in Wheat (1909)

• Frank Powell as The wheat king
• James Kirkwood as The poor farmer
• Linda Arvidson as The poor farmer's wife
• Gladys Egan as The poor farmer's daughter
• Henry B. Walthall as The wheat king's assistant
• Grace Henderson as The wheat king's wife
• W. Chrystie Miller as The poor farmer's father

Release

The film was released on December 13, 1909. Because of an upsurge in political populism, audiences reacted to the film positively. Before A Corner in Wheat, Griffith avoided making political statements in his work. After the film's success, he began to make bolder statements about society and politics, such as famously championing white supremacy in The Birth of a Nation (1915).^[5]

See also

• D. W. Griffith filmography
• Blanche Sweet filmography

References

1. A Corner in Wheat. Biograph. 1909.
2. Henderson, Robert M. (1970). D. W. Griffith: The Years at Biograph. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 89.
3. "25 Films Added to National Registry". The New York Times. November 15, 1994. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
4. "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
5. Eagan, Daniel (2010). America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry. Continuum. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-4411-1647-5.

External links

• Media related to A Corner in Wheat at Wikimedia Commons
• The full text of A Corner in Wheat at Wikisource
• A Corner in Wheat essay by Daniel Eagan at the National Film Registry
• A Corner in Wheat at the Library of Congress
• A Corner in Wheat at IMDb
• A Corner in Wheat on YouTube