Vintage original trimmed 11 x 14 in. US lobby card from the 1920s historical war drama/romance, AMERICA, released in 1924 by United Artists and directed by D.W. Griffith.
The image depicts an exterior long shot of General George Washington with his troops as he talks to British officers. The border art at the right is supposed to depict cast member Lionel Barrymore but mistakenly shows another actor. Trimmed to 10.25 x 13.25 in., it is unrestored in fine- condition.
"America, also called Love and Sacrifice, is a 1924 American silent historical war romance film. It describes the heroic story of the events during the American Revolutionary War, in which filmmaker D. W. Griffithcreated a film adaptation of Robert W. Chambers' 1905 novel The Reckoning. The plot mainly centers itself on the Northern theatre of the war in New York, with romance spliced into the individual movie scenes.
In 1923, the Daughters of the American Revolution petitioned Motion Picture Production Association President Will H. Hays to make a historical epic about the American Revolution, and Hays convinced D.W. Griffith to direct the film. Griffith prepared for the film by visiting historic battlefields and meeting with historical societies such as the DAR, the Sons of the Revolution, the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Public Library, the Lexington Historical Society, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, and the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Filming took place at Richmond, Virginia and Somers, New York. During filming, a soldier's arm was blown off. As Charles Emmett Mack recalled, "Neil Hamilton and I went to neighboring towns and raised a fund for him—I doing a song and dance and Neil collecting a coin.
The film was screened to President Calvin Coolidge before its release, and the United States Army used it for recruitment purposes. However, Americadid not receive as large an audience as Griffith's previous films did. It is possible that the director had trouble differentiating between the colonists and British, since they both held origins to Great Britain. The audience is not clearly shown who are the antagonists and the protagonists. In addition, the movie's time frame was not rational. The film's time period made for a very long romance for Nancy and Holden before they could actually be together, since the first scenes were in 1775, but concluded in 1789. Its failure was perplexing, despite heavy promotion, considering Griffith spent over a million dollars on the production."
*(source: Wikipedia)
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