Uncle Tom's Cabin (film)

A number of film adaptations of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" has been made over the years. Most of these movies were created during the silent film era (with "Uncle Tom's Cabin" being the most-filmed story of that time period). [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/fihp.html Uncle Tom's Cabin on Film] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.] Since the 1930s, Hollywood studios have considered the story too controversial for another adaptation (although one foreign film and a made-for-TV movie have been created). Characters, themes and plots from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" have also influenced a large number of other movies, including Birth of a Nation, while also inspiring numerous animated cartoons.

ilent films

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was the most-filmed story of the silent film era. [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/fihp.html Uncle Tom's Cabin on Film] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.] This popularity was due to the continuing popularity of both the book and "Tom shows," meaning audiences were already familiar with the characters and the plot, making it easier for the film to be understood without spoken words. [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/fihp.html Uncle Tom's Cabin on Film] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]

*A 1903 version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was one of the earliest "full-length" movies (although "full-length" at that time meant between 10 and 14 minutes). [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/mv03hp.html The First Uncle Tom's Cabin Film: Edison-Porter's Slavery Days (1903)] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.] This film, directed by Edwin S. Porter, used white actors in blackface in the major roles and black performers only as extras. This version was evidently similar to many of the "Tom Shows" of earlier decades and featured a large number of black stereotypes (such as having the slaves dance in almost any context, including at a slave auction). [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/mv03hp.html The First Uncle Tom's Cabin Film: Edison-Porter's Slavery Days (1903)] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]
*Another film version from 1903 was directed by Siegmund Lubin and starred Lubin as Simon Legree. While no copies of Lubin's film still exist, according to accounts the movie was similar to Porter's version and reused the sets and costumes from a "Tom Show." [ [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/lubinhp.html "Duping" Porter: Sigmund Lubin's Production (1903)] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]
*In 1910, a 3-Reel Vitagraph Company of America production was directed by J. Stuart Blackton and adapted by Eugene Mullin. According to "The Dramatic Mirror," this film was "a decided innovation" in motion pictures and "the first time an American company" released a dramatic film in 3 reels. Until then, "full-length" movies of the time were 15 minutes long and contained only one reel of film. The movie starred Frank Hall Crane, Anna Rosemond, Marie Eline, Florence Turner, Mary Fuller, Edwin R. Phillips, Flora Finch, Genevieve Tobin and Carlyle Blackwell Sr. [ [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/mv10hp1.html The 3-Reel Vitagraph Production (1910)] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]
*Another 1910 version, directed by Barry O'Neil, starred Frank Hall Crane as Uncle Tom, Anna Rosemond as Eliza, Marie Eline as Little Eva, and Grace Eline as Topsy.
*A 1913 release was directed by Otis Turner and adapted by Allan Dwan. It starred Edward Alexander, Margarita Fischer, Harry A. Pollard, Iva Shepard and Gertrude Short.
*Another 1913 release was directed by Sidney Olcott and starred Anna Q. Nilsson.
*A 1914 version was directed by William Robert Daly. It was adapted Edward McWade from the play adaptation by George L. Aiken. It starred Sam Lucas, Teresa Michelena, Marie Eline (again), Roy Applegate and Boots Wall. This was the first full length motion picture to have an African American person as its star. Unfortunately, Mr. Lucas died during filming.
*A 1918 version was directed and adapted by J. Searle Dawley. It starred Marguerite Clark (as both Little Eva "and" Topsy), Sam Hardy, Florence Carpenter, Frank Losee and Walter P. Lewis.
*A 1927 version was directed by Harry A. Pollard (who'd played Uncle Tom in the 1913 release of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"). This two-hour movie spent more than a year in production and was the third most expensive picture of the silent era (at a cost of $1.8 million). Black actor Charles Gilpin was originally cast in the title role, but was fired after the studio decided his "portrayal was too aggressive." James B. Lowe then took over the character of Tom. One difference in this film from the novel is that after Tom dies, he returns as a vengeful spirit and confronts Simon Legree before leading the slave owner to his death. Black media outlets of the time praised the film, but the studio—fearful of a backlash from Southern and white film audiences—ended up cutting out controversial scenes, including the flim's opening at a slave auction (where a mother is torn away from her baby). The story was adapted by Pollard, Harvey F. Thew and A.P. Younger, with titles by Walter Anthony. It starred James B. Lowe, Virginia Grey, George Siegmann, Margarita Fischer, Mona Ray and Madame Sul-Te-Wan. [ [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/mv27hp.html Universal Super Jewel Production (1927)] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]

Later films and other cinematic mentions

For several decades after the end of the silent film era, the subject matter of Stowe's novel was judged too sensitive for further film interpretation. In 1946, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer considered filming the story, but ceased production after protests led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/cameos/hollywood.html Uncle Tom's Cabin in Hollywood: 1929-1956] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]

* A German language version under the title "Onkel Toms Hütte", directed by Géza von Radványi (1907-1986), appeared in 1965 and was presented in the United States by exploitation film presenter Kroger Babb.
* The next film version was a television broadcast in 1987 directed by Stan Lathan and adapted by John Gay. It starred Avery Brooks, Phylicia Rashad, Edward Woodward, Jenny Lewis, Samuel L. Jackson and Endyia Kinney.
* Versions of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" have featured in a number of animated cartoons, including Walt Disney's "Mickey's Mellerdrammer" (1933), which features the classic Disney character performing the play in blackface with exaggerated, orange lips; the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Southern Fried Rabbit" (1953), where Bugs disguises himself as Uncle Tom and sings "My Old Kentucky Home" in order to cross the Mason-Dixon line; "Uncle Tom's Bungalow" (1937), a Warner Brother's cartoon supervised by Tex Avery; "Eliza on Ice" (1944), one of the earliest Mighty Mouse cartoons produced by Paul Terry; and "Uncle Tom's Cabana" (1947), a six-minute cartoon directed by Tex Avery. [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/cameos/hollywood.html Uncle Tom's Cabin in Hollywood: 1929-1956] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]
* Birth of a Nation (1915) deliberately used a cabin similar to Uncle Tom's home in the film's dramatic climax, where several white Southerners unite with their former enemy (Yankee soldiers) to defend what the film's caption says is their "Aryan birthright." According to scholars, this reuse of such a familiar cabin would have resonated with, and been understood by, audiences of the time. ["Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson" by Linda Williams, Princeton Univ. Press, 2001, page 115. Also [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/cameos/griffithhp.html H. B. Stowe's Cabin in D. W. Griffith's Movie] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]
* "Dimples", a 1936 Shirley Temple film, is a humorous look at the opening night of the 1853 play version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in New York. The film's last scene features a minstrel show starring Temple and Stepin Fetchit. [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/cameos/hollywood.html Uncle Tom's Cabin in Hollywood: 1929-1956] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]
* "Uncle Tom's Uncle," a 1926 Our Gang (The Little Rascals) episode, has the kids creating their own "Tom Show." [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/cameos/hollywood.html Uncle Tom's Cabin in Hollywood: 1929-1956] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]
* In the final scene of the Abbott and Costello film "The Naughty Nineties", Costello is seen comically in drag as Little Eva in a showboat performance of the novel. He "ascends" to Heaven on a wire that gets caught.
* A highlight of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The King and I" (1951) is a ballet, "Small House of Uncle Thomas", in traditional Siamese style which has been organized by Tuptim, on the subversive theme of Eliza's escape.
* In "Gangs of New York" (2002), Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis's characters attend an imagined wartime adaptation of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" with a deus ex machina ending. An actor portraying Abraham Lincoln is suspended in mid-air as he speaks consolingly to the blackface actors portraying Stowe's characters. The nativist audience members respond by shouting racist epithets, throwing objects at "Lincoln," and rioting to calls of "Down with the Union!"
* A number of other movies have utilized characters, plots, and themes from "Uncle Tom's Cabin", including "An Uncle Tom's Cabin Troupe" (1913); the Duncan Sisters' "Topsy and Eva" (1927); and 1938's "Everybody Sing" (which features Judy Garland in blackface). [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/onstage/films/cameos/hollywood.html Uncle Tom's Cabin in Hollywood: 1929-1956] , Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive, accessed April 19, 2007.]

Notes

Online resources

* [http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/utc/ University of Virginia Web site "Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture: A Multi-Media Archive"] Ed by Stephen Railton, covers 1830 to 1930, offering links to primary and bibliographic sources on the cultural background, various editions, and public reception of Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential novel. The site also provides the full text of the book, audio and video clips, and examples of related merchandising.