Corner in Wheat (1909)
1909 · Silent film · 14 min · dir. D. W. Griffith
- Drama
- silent film
Synopsis
On a whim, a greedy tycoon decides to corner the world market in wheat. This doubles the price of bread, forcing grain producers into charity lines and others further into poverty. The film contrasts the differences between the lives of those who work to grow the wheat and the life of the man who dabbles in its sale for profit.
Synopsis from TMDb
Details
- Director
- D. W. Griffith
- Writer
- Frank Norris
- Cinematography
- Billy Bitzer
- Studio
- Biograph Company
- Released
- 1909-12-13
- Awards
- 1 win
- Running time
- 14 minutes
Cast & crew
D. W. Griffith Director
Robert Harron
Grace Henderson
George Nichols- Frank Evans
- Edith Haldeman
Charles Craig
Billy Quirk
Linda Arvidson
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★ · Grinding the Poor · gallowglass · 2021-01-31
Why the poster for this film should show a young couple enjoying a romantic tryst in a wheatfield is hard to fathom. There are no young couples in the story, and there is no romantic sub-plot to this solemn screenplay about the evils of capitalism. Rather improbably, a granary owner has managed to corner the entire world market for wheat, so he is able to screw-down the earnings of cereal farmers, while doubling the price of bread, reducing the poor to desperate straits. Griffith uses cross-cutting techniques to dramatise the contrast between the hardscrabble life of the poor and the lavish…
