True Heart Susie is a 1919 American drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. A print of the film survives in the film archive of the British Film Institute.[1] The film has seen several VHS releases as well as a DVD issue.
Plot
As described in a film magazine,[2] "True Heart Susie" (Gish) lives with her aunt (O'Connor) and loves stupid William Jenkins (Harron). Her love is so great that she sacrifices the family cow, a pet of hers, and other farm produce so that he can go to college, but the benefaction is a secret one, and he finishes his theological studies without suspecting that she aided him. He has impressed her that she must dress as plainly as possible, and she is so attired when she goes with him for a "sody" on his triumphant return from college, but his eyes wander to girls giving a more attractive expression of themselves. After he becomes a minister, he cruelly consults Susie about the policy of taking a wife, and almost breaks her heart when he weds gay Bettina "Betty" Hopkins (Seymour), expecting his bride to adopt herself to his colorless life. The young wife fails to satisfy her husband with her cooking, with William finding the dishes Susie makes more to his taste. He begins to regret his marriage, and so does his wife, who escapes the monotony of her marriage by attending a dance at a neighboring house. After she loses her key and gets caught in the rain on the way home, Betty appeals to Susie, who shields her from the consequences as far as the minister is concerned. However, Betty's fright and her soaking bring on a fatal sickness, and it is after her death that her husband learns of her escapade. Although he swears never to marry again, he finds that True Heart Susie has given the one opportunity of his life, and he returns to her with the offering of his hand in marriage.[3][4][5]
“An outstanding performance from Lillian Gish elevates the character of Susie from the near-ridiculous to moments of the sublime…When she discovers William in the arms of Bettina, the restrained grief on her face and the tears that well up in her eyes during one long and continuous close-up contain the very essence of rejected devotion [producing] a scene which Miss Gish herself has rarely equaled. That smile, that shot, would alone justify the whole of Griffith’s work, for it embodies all that is Griffith and all that is Gish, and the two talents combine to produce a perfect cinematic (italics) whole. It is one of those extraordinary moments in the cinema.”—Film historian Paul O’Dell in Griffith and the Rise of Hollywood (1970)[6]
Film historian Paul O’Dell reports that “many commentators have noted the great charm of his picture, as well as moments of deep emotional intensity.”[7] Critic James Travers of French Films.org applies a number of superlatives to True Heart Suzie, noting its “authenticity” and “realism,” and praising Lillian Gish for her naturalistic portrayal of Suzie.[8]
Though filmed concurrently with Griffith’s Broken Blossoms (1919), True Heart Susie was released after the more highly acclaimed work which also starred Lillian Gish. As such, True Heart Suzie “is not, or has not been, more highly regarded than perhaps it should have been.”[9][10]TV Guide affirms the point:
True Heart Suzie, overshadowed by Broken Blossoms, is a modest little film that shows Griffith at his most Victorian, but he treats the antediluvian plot with absolute sincerity and simplicity, transcending the primitive melodramatic cliches and creating a kind of elemental emotional truth.[11]
Paul O’Dell adds:
In all of Griffith’s pictures there is a certain amount of unashamed sentimentality; in True Heart Susie there is more than in most...technically, the film has few pretensions, and it is for this reason it is successful as a work of art...It is in fact the end of the film that is the weakest. Susie matures into a woman during the course of the action—a recurring Griffith theme—but when William eventually proposes she lapses uncomfortably back to her girlish coyness which dominated the beginning of the film. [12][13]
