Casey at the Bat (1922)
1922 · Silent film · 6 min · dir. Lee De Forest
- Short
Synopsis
In his career, De Wolf Hopper recited Ernest Lawrence Thayer's "Casey at the Bat" thousands of times. Here, wearing a tuxedo, he emerges from behind a curtain as if at a theater, gives a short introduction, and launches into the poem. The camera is stationary, and although Hopper stands in one place, his hands and arms, his face, and his voice are animated throughout. In delivery, it's a minstrel performance.
Synopsis from TMDb
Details
- Director
- Lee De Forest
- Writer
- Ernest Lawrence Thayer
- Studio
- Lee De Forest Films
- Released
- 1922-11-05
- Running time
- 6 minutes
Cast & crew
Lee De Forest Director
DeWolf Hopper Sr.
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★ · This one puzzles me! · Habakkuk21 · 2022-02-23
The primary puzzle: the listing says this is by Lee De Forest, and that MAY be a joke: De Forest was one of the pioneers in putting sound together with video, and this is a silent film. So, maybe humor for nerds? Second puzzle: why is the silent film presented without the dialogue cards? Unless I’m mislead, this narration is actually by DeWolf Hopper. “Casey” was one of his main performance items. Of value, to see how the old performers had to emote. The date on this film is 1922; “The Jazz Singer” came out in 1927 as the first commercially produced “talkie,” but there were other attempts to…
