The Struggle Everlasting Explained

The Struggle Everlasting
Director:James Kirkwood
Producer:Harry Rapf
High Art Productions
Based On:[1]
Starring:Florence Reed
Cinematography:Lawrence E. Williams
Studio:Harry Rapf Productions, High Art Productions Inc.
Distributor:Arrow Film Corporation
States Rights
Runtime:7 reels
Country:United States
Language:Silent (English intertitles)

The Struggle Everlasting is a 1918 American silent allegorical drama film directed by James Kirkwood, Sr. and starring stage star Florence Reed. It is based on a 1907 play, The Struggle Everlasting, by Edward Milton Royle.[2]

Cast

Reception

The film industry created the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry (NAMPI) in 1916 in an effort to preempt censorship by states and municipalities, and it used a list of subjects called the "Thirteen Points" which film plots were to avoid. The Struggle Everlasting, with its white slavery plot line, is an example of a film that clearly violated the Thirteen Points and yet was still distributed.[3] Since the NAMPI was ineffective, it was replaced in 1922.

Like many American films of the time, The Struggle Everlasting was also subject to restrictions and cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors cut, in Reel 1, the scene of woman apparently nude to include all scenes of bather up to point where she puts a garb over herself, Reel 4, closeup of women in one-piece bathing suits at pool, and, Reel 6, vision showing woman soliciting.[4]

Preservation

With no copies of The Struggle Everlasting listed as being held in any film archives,[5] it is a lost film.

Notes and References

  1. http://ibdb.com/Production/View/6383 The Struggle Everlasting as a play on Broadway at the Hackett Theatre, 1907
  2. http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=17987 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: The Struggle Everlasting
  3. Campbell . Russell . Prostitution and Film Censorship in the USA . Screening the Past . 2 . C/4 . 1997 . registration . 2020-07-05.
  4. Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors . Exhibitors Herald . 7 . 1 . 47 . Exhibitors Herald Company . New York City . June 29, 1918 .
  5. https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.9599/default.html The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: The Struggle Everlasting