Barriers of Society

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.

In the book, "American Cinema's Transitional Era," the authors point out, The years between 1908 and 1917 witnessed what may have been the most significant transformation in American film history. During this "transitional era", widespread changes affected film form and film genres, filmmaking practices and industry structure, exhibition sites, and audience demographics.^[3] One aspect of this transition was the longer duration of films. Feature films^[a] were slowly becoming the standard fare for Hollywood producers. Before 1913, you could count the yearly features on two hands.^[6] Between 1915 and 1916, the number of feature movies rose two-and-a-half times, from 342 films to 835.^[6] There was a recurring claim that Carl Laemmle was the longest-running studio chief resisting the production of feature films.^[7] Universal was not ready to downsize its short film business because short films were cheaper, faster, and more profitable to produce than feature films.^[b]

Laemmle would continue to buck this trend while slowly increasing his output of features. In 1914, Laemmle published an essay titled - Doom of long Features Predicted.^[9] In 1916, Laemmle ran an advertisement extolling Bluebird films while adding the following vocabulary on the top of the ad.^[c] Universal made 91 feature films in 1916, including 44 Bluebirds and 47 Red Feather productions.^[11]

This film was labeled with Universal's Red Feather brand, indicating it was a low-budget feature film.

• Dorothy Davenport (1895-1977) was an established star for Universal when the 21 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.^[12] Besides being an actress, she would eventually become a film director, producer, and writer.^[13]
  
• Emory Johnson (1894-1960) was 22 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.^[14][13] 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 54 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 (c. 1864-1919) was a 52 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 50 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.^[15]

Lloyd B. Carleton (c. 1872–1933) started working for Carl Laemmle in the Fall of 1915.^[16] Carleton arrived with impeccable credentials, having directed some 60 films for the likes of Thanhouser, Lubin, Fox, and Selig.^[17]

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. 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.

Carleton was given the task by Carl Laemmle to determine if the Davenport-Johnson duo had the desired on-screen chemistry. In 1916, Carleton directed 13 films pairing Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson. This film would be the twelfth film in the thirteen-film series.

After completing this film, Carleton would direct two more films for Universal, then sever his connections.^[18]

The central theme of Barriers of Society 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:

The story is a thrilling one of a romance of two souls brought together by fate on a desert island, two people from entirely different strata of society, who fall in love, their mutual attraction overcoming all the barriers that society puts in their way. The match that destiny has ordained is at last fulfilled.^[31]

A movie tagline unrelated to fate was "A man's millions against a woman's will".

This film was based on a Clarke Irvine play. The movie was adapted for the screen by Frederick Myton (1885-1955). Myton was 30 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.

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.^[32]

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.^[33]

On March 15, 1915,^[34] Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios.^[35] Any interior shots, not capture on location, would be performed in the studio complex at Universal City.^[36]

Published new items indicate this movie was filmed between August and September 1916. This movie was officially released on October 16, 1916.

During this film's development, the working title was listed as The Road of Destiny.^[38] On September 29, 1916, this film was officially copyrighted as Barriers of Society.^[40]

The March 3, 1917 issue of The Moving Picture Weekly features an article about a rising actress named Roberta Wilson. The article highlights, "She has done a great many important things, such as starring in Red Feathers, like "Barriers of Society" and "The Heritage of Hate.^[41] The claim made in the article about her starring role in Barriers of Society was incorrect.

As stated in this article, Barriers of Society was a five-reel Universal Red Feather production featuring Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson. Filming for the production took place from August to September 1916, with an official release on October 16, 1916.

Heritage of Hate was initially planned as a three-reel movie, but was later released as a five-reel Universal Red Feather production starring Roberta Wilson and William Quinn. The film's official release date was November 13, 1916. Filming for "Heritage of Hate" began in July 1916 and was "nearing completion" in August 1916.^[42]

Since the films were recorded around the same time in difference locations, it was impossible for her to have had a lead role in both.

The copyright was filed with U.S. Copyright Office on September 29, 1916.^[40] and entered in the record as shown:^[d]

The release date of Monday, October 16, 1916, was cited in several movie magazines.^[43] Yet, the film is advertised in various newspapers on Friday, October 6 (Chicago Tribune) ^[44] and Saturday, October 7 (Brooklyn, New York) ^[45]

Red Feather Photo Plays were always released on Mondays in 1916.^[46] These earlier showings were simply pre-release screenings to large venues.

Advertising plays a vital role in ensuring a movie's success by bringing paying customers to the theater. By providing details about plotlines, actors, release dates, and other key information, a successful marketing campaign boosts excitement among potential stakeholders. This knowledge empowered theater owners to make smarter booking decisions in a competitive market. In addition to an advertising campaign for a movie, Carl Laemmle added another wrinkle to assist potential stakeholders in deciding to view or book a new film.

In 1916, Universal became the first Hollywood studio to classify feature films based on production cost. One of the reasons behind this move was that the Big Five film studios owned their own movie houses, enabling them to have guaranteed outlets for their entertainment products. Unlike the majors, Universal did not own any theaters or theater chains. Branding all Universal-produced feature films would give theater owners another tool to judge the films they were about to lease and help fans decide which movies they wanted to see.^[e]

In 1916, Universal produced 91 branded feature films, consisting of 44 Bluebirds and 47 Red Feather productions.^[11] The branding system had a brief existence and, by 1920, had faded away.

The critics generally liked this film.

In the October 14, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World, movie critic Robert C. McElravy points out:^[50]

This five-reel offering owes much of its interest to two factors of universal interest in the plot conception, rather than to any special strength of presentation. There is a pleasing allegorical touch to all of the opening scenes, and the observer's interest is well maintained. The film has some weaknesses in construction but tells an entertaining story. It has no high dramatic moments but carries the interest quite well without them.

In the October 21, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World, the staff review:^[51]

The story is simple in plot and quite appealing. Some construction is a little choppy, but it has a good adventurous flavor and retains the interest despite some weaknesses.

Lincoln, Nebraska population 18,498^[52]

I want to thank you for the feature you sent me, "The Barriers of Society," and must say it is one of the best pictures I have had in a long time. The first day I ran it was Monday, and during the exciting scenes of the picture, I thought my patrons would tear the house down. The consequences were they all passed out of the theatre with a big smile of satisfaction on their faces, and last night (Tuesday), I had the biggest Tuesday night's business in the history of the house.
Nathan Dix
The Lily theatre

Many silent-era films did not survive for reasons as explained on this Wikipedia page.^[f]

In 1978, an extraordinary discovery was made in Dawson City located in Canada's Yukon Territory. The city of Dawson used a large stockpile of silent films to bolster a sagging hockey rink in 1929. The permafrost preserved the films. The film cache was discovered in 1978. The discovery would yield 533 reels of nitrate film containing numerous lost movies. The story was chronicled in the movie - Dawson City: Frozen Time. Among the preserved films in the Dawson Film Find was the 5-reel bluebird production of The Unattainable, released in September 1916. The permafrost also preserved this film. In both cases, only one reel was recoverable from each of the 5 reel feature films. The salvaged reels were donated to the Library of Congress.^[56]

• Braff, R.E. (1999). The Universal Silents: A Filmography of the Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company, 1912-1929. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0287-8. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
• Fleming, E.J. (2010). Wallace Reid: The Life and Death of a Hollywood Idol. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-8266-5.
• Hirschhorn, Clive (1983). The Universal Story - The Complete History of the Studio and its 2,641 films. New York: Crown Publishing Group. pp. 22–23. ISBN 0-517-55001-6.
• Katchmer, G.A. (2015). A Biographical Dictionary of Silent Film Western Actors and Actresses. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4766-0905-8. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
• Kawin, Bruce F. (1987). How Movies Work. University of California Press. p. 46. ISBN 9780520076969.
• Keil, C.; Stamp, S. (2004). American Cinema's Transitional Era: Audiences, Institutions, Practices. ACLS Humanities E-Book. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24027-8. Retrieved February 24, 2023.

• Barriers of Society at IMDb
• Barriers of Society at the TCM Movie Database  
• Barriers of Society at AFI
• "Barriers of Society". silentera.com.