Wolves of Kultur

Wolves of Kultur
Directed byJoseph A. Golden
Written byJoseph A. Golden
Starring
Production
company
Western Photoplays
Distributed byPathé Exchange
Release date
  • October 13, 1918 (1918-10-13)
Running time
15 episodes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Wolves of Kultur is a 1918 American silent adventure film serial written and directed by Joseph A. Golden. Produced by Western Photoplays and distributed by Pathé Exchange, the fifteen-episode serial starred Leah Baird, Sheldon Lewis and Charles Hutchison. Its story concerns German agents attempting to obtain the plans for a radio-controlled torpedo. The first episode, The Torture Trap, was released on October 13, 1918.[1]

Long considered lost, most of the serial was recovered from surviving nitrate reels purchased in 1992. An international group of film archives subsequently reconstructed the serial, although part of episode 10 remains missing.[2]

Plot

Alice Grayson's uncle, an inventor, is murdered after designing a radio-guided torpedo. The murderers intend to sell its plans to the highest bidder. Alice, assisted by her boyfriend Bob Moore and Bob's sister Helen, attempts to recover the plans and prevent an attack on the United States.[3]

Cast

Title

The title uses Kultur in its First World War propaganda sense rather than simply as the German word for culture. According to the Canadian War Museum, wartime propaganda turned German Kultur into a derogatory term suggesting a national predisposition toward warfare, cruelty and destruction, placing Germany outside the community of civilized nations.[4]

The distinction was already being discussed in the American press shortly after the war began. In a 1914 essay titled “Culture vs. Kultur,” Princeton professor Frank Jewett Mather Jr. defined Kultur as the organized civil, military and economic efficiency of a nation, within which the individual was subordinated to the state. He contrasted it with what he called the more humane and individualistic values of “culture,” and characterized the war as a conflict between Germany's regimented Kultur and more flexible civilizations.[5]

Pathé's advertising employed the word in this established anti-German sense, describing the serial as depicting plots in the United States associated with the “Kultur of the Hun.”[6] Reviewing its first two episodes, Peter Milne observed that the title itself led audiences to expect a story about German agents.[7]

Production

In June 1918, Variety reported that Golden, president of Western Photoplays, had signed Baird to star in the company's first serial. The proposed production was initially described as having sixteen episodes.[8] By September, it was being advertised as the fifteen-episode Wolves of Kultur, written and directed by Golden.[9]

The first three episodes comprised seven reels. They were presented at an exhibitors' showing on the roof of a New York theater with accompaniment by a full orchestra. A prologue showing President Woodrow Wilson and quoting one of his speeches reportedly recurred throughout the serial.[10]

Release and promotion

Pathé promoted the production as a patriotic serial exposing German agents engaged in plotting and propaganda in the United States.[11] Its advertising included a national campaign using twenty-four-sheet posters.[6] Pathé also contacted state branches of the Council of National Defense, seeking their help in recommending and publicizing the serial. Officials in Alabama, Idaho, Iowa and Wyoming were reported to have offered assistance.[11] A private screening of early episodes was later arranged in Des Moines for Iowa Governor William L. Harding, former senator Lafayette Young and other state and municipal officials.[12]

The first episode appeared during the week beginning October 13, when the 1918 influenza pandemic had forced widespread theater closures. A trade report based on Pathé publicity claimed that at least 90 percent of American motion-picture theaters had closed during the week of its release. Pathé responded with a four-week sales campaign from November 3 through November 30, during which approximately 250 members of its sales organization were expected to concentrate on booking the serial.[13]

Reception

Reviewing the first two episodes in Motion Picture News, Peter Milne described the serial as stunt-driven melodrama in which physical and psychological sensationalism had been raised to an extreme. He called Golden's direction “exceedingly old-fashioned” and criticized the performers' exaggerated gestures, the patriotic intertitles and Sheldon Lewis's contrived appearances. Milne nevertheless concluded that its rapid action would absorb devotees of serial films.[7]

Episodes

Episodes of Wolves of Kultur[2]
No. Title Surviving restored length
1 The Torture Trap 3 reels; 804 m
2 The Iron Chair 2 reels; 488 m
3 Trapping the Traitors 2 reels; 480 m
4 The Ride to Death 2 reels; 477 m
5 Through the Flames 2 reels; 533 m
6 Trails of Treachery 2 reels; 465 m
7 The Leap of Despair 2 reels; 400 m
8 In the Hands of the Hun 2 reels; 538 m
9 The Precipice of Death 2 reels; 537 m
10 When Woman Wars Incomplete; reel 1 only, 202 m
11 Betwixt Heaven and Earth 2 reels; 526 m
12 Tower of Tears 2 reels; 551 m
13 The Huns’ Hell Trap 2 reels; 537 m
14 Code of Hate 2 reels; 512 m
15 The Reward of Patriotism 2 reels; 506 m

Contemporary Pathé schedules list weekly releases through episode 12, beginning October 13 and continuing through December 29, 1918.[14] Some titles in the schedules differ slightly from those used for the restored version.

Preservation and restoration

The serial was long considered lost. In September 1992, Lobster Films purchased 27 of its 31 original tinted nitrate reels at auction. Fred Junck arranged for the reels to be deposited at the Cinémathèque Municipale de Luxembourg. Some portions were approaching decomposition and others had sustained water damage.[2]

The nitrate material was largely complete except for the first reel of episode 7, the second reel of episode 10 and all of episode 14. Missing passages were supplemented from a 16 mm negative formerly held by the Blackhawk Films library and made available by film preservationist David Shepard. The 16 mm material had been copied from a 35 mm nitrate source that could no longer be located. This allowed the restoration team to reconstruct the missing portions of episodes 7 and 14; part of the second reel of episode 10 remained unavailable. The English intertitles were translated from the French titles in the nitrate print, with the Blackhawk translations used where possible.[2]

A collaborative restoration plan was agreed at the 2001 Giornate del Cinema Muto. Participating institutions divided responsibility for the episodes and shared the cost. The restored serial was presented at the festival in 2004 in a 35 mm tinted version measuring 7,556 m and running approximately 328 minutes at 20 frames per second.[2] The project was dedicated to Junck, founder of the Cinémathèque Municipale de Luxembourg.

The participating organizations included the Cinémathèque Municipale de Luxembourg, Cineteca del Friuli, Nederlands Filmmuseum, Cinémathèque Française, Národní Filmový Archiv, Austrian Film Museum, Danish Film Institute, Academy Film Archive, Cinémathèque de Toulouse, Cineteca di Bologna, Film Preservation Associates and Lobster Films.[2]

The restored serial received its American premiere in Fort Lee, New Jersey, in September 2008. It was presented in three installments with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Barker, with the final installment screened on September 28. The event program credited the Fort Lee Film Commission with partially funding the restoration in association with Lobster Films and Serge Bromberg.[15]

The commission's specific contribution was connected with the restoration of episode 14, Code of Hate, which it had “adopted” as its part of the international preservation project.[16][17]

Home media

Alpha Video included the first episode, The Torture Trap, in the DVD compilation Thrillers of the Silent Screen, together with three other surviving silent films or serial episodes.[18]

On April 17, 2018, Alpha released an abridged feature-length version of the serial on a region-free DVD-R. The black-and-white edition runs 132 minutes. Silent Era described its soundtrack as probably compiled from preexisting music.[19][20]

Grapevine Video released another edition in August 2023. Its black-and-white presentation runs approximately 180 minutes and has a score composed and performed by David Drazin. It was issued on two region-free DVD-Rs, a single BD-R and as a digital download.[21][19]

Silent Era identifies both standalone editions as likely derived from 16 mm reduction prints of an abridged version rather than from the substantially complete international archival restoration.[19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Varied Pathé Program Week October 13". Motion Picture News. October 19, 1918. p. 2570.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Wolves of Kultur". Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2004 (in Italian). Cineteca del Friuli. Archived from the original on April 19, 2025.
  3. ↑ Codori, Jeff (2020). Film History Through Trade Journal Art, 1916–1920. p. 239.
  4. ↑ "Kultur vs. Humanity". Canada and the First World War. Canadian War Museum. Retrieved August 26, 2026.
  5. ↑ Mather, Frank Jewett Jr. (November 8, 1914). "Culture vs. Kultur". The New York Times. p. 30.
  6. 1 2 "Advertisement: Wolves of Kultur". Motion Picture News. October 5, 1918. pp. 2307–2308.
  7. 1 2 Milne, Peter (October 12, 1918). "Wolves of Kultur". Motion Picture News. p. 2443.
  8. ↑ "Leah Baird as Serial Star". Variety. June 1918. p. 37.
  9. ↑ "Wolves of Kultur". The Moving Picture World. September 14, 1918. p. 1592.
  10. ↑ "Wolves of Kultur Drew at Trade Showing". Motion Picture News. October 19, 1918. p. 2547.
  11. 1 2 "Wolves of Kultur Wins Praise". Motion Picture News. October 12, 1918. p. 2367.
  12. ↑ "Former Senator Praises Wolves of Kultur". Motion Picture News. November 16, 1918. p. 2954.
  13. ↑ "Serial Drive by Pathé Forces". Motion Picture News. November 16, 1918. p. 2956.
  14. ↑ "Releases Current and Coming". Motion Picture News. 1918. p. 3748.
  15. ↑ "Fort Lee, NJ: The Wolves of Kultur (1918), Symbol of the UNC". NitrateVille. 2008. Retrieved August 26, 2026.
  16. ↑ "Women and the Silent Screen XI Conference". Cineaste. Fall 2022.
  17. ↑ "Wolves of Kultur – Code of Hate". Il Cinema Ritrovato. Cineteca di Bologna. 2018.
  18. ↑ "Thrillers of the Silent Screen (Silent)". Alpha Video. Retrieved August 26, 2026 – via MovieZyng.
  19. 1 2 3 "Wolves of Kultur: Home Video Reviews". Silent Era. Retrieved August 26, 2026.
  20. ↑ "Wolves of Kultur (Silent)". Alpha Video. Retrieved August 26, 2026 – via MovieZyng.
  21. ↑ "Wolves of Kultur". Grapevine Video. Retrieved August 26, 2026.

Further reading

  • Lahue, Kalton C. (1964). Continued Next Week: A History of the Moving Picture Serial. University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Rainey, Buck (1999). Serials and Series: A World Filmography, 1912–1956. McFarland.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.