Seymour Stern: American Film Critic, Guardian and Prophet

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Seymour Stern Hollywood, 1931

His letters to his parents in Larchmont, N.Y., written while he was in Hollywood, offer a fascinating insight into the internal struggle of a perfectionist and idealist in the midst of the studio system in which he was employed.

These letters, supplemented by others written to two very close friends, Irving and Corrine Sussman, tell of the pains that were endured by Stern in the crass commercialistic atmosphere of Hollywood.   An atmosphere that was the complete opposite of his own feelings as to where the cinema should be heading and to what end its power most appropriately should be directed.

Gilbert, Seymour & Julia "Titi" Crespo Hollywood, 1931

Stern's personal relationships, the several marriages, the beloved Titi and the affair that he never quite got over, his second wife and her inability to deal with Seymour's obsession with Griffith.

The mystery woman, Crystal Gang, these and other aspects remained of the brooding genius of a man so imbued with the quest for perfection (but ultimately saddled with human failings and weaknesses) that his life was to be of continual frustration.

Titi & Crystal Gang Hollywood, 1931

No, there was no Griffith: Master Of Cinema to be found, but from amongst the tons of other materials, some of which were seemingly unrelated, the chapters and other bits and pieces of what the work would have been were extracted and synthesized.

The work changed directions several times, yet he was unable to draw upon the resources of the Biograph films as they were years away from being available in any useful format in the Library of Congress.

For this reason, the emphasis of the work turned towards THE BIRTH OF A NATION as a sub-topic, although the Biograph materials were covered as well as the limited resource materials would allow.

Seymour Stern Hollywood, 1931

Stern is usually recognized, today, as having been the world's foremost authority on the life and films of the pioneering film director, D.W. Griffith. Griffith himself, in 1948, authorized Seymour Stern as his biographer.²

However, the things that Stern had written on the subject are missing from our main library shelves and have been for decades. There were few items actually printed and they have become progressively harder to locate.

One attempted remedy of this situation came in 1944 when R.W. Dickinson of the British Film Institute assigned Stern the task of compiling an index to the creative work of Griffith.³

The outgrowth of Stern's efforts was that during the period from 1944 to 1947, Sight & Sound magazine released portions of "An Index To The Creative Work of David Wark Griffith" as periodic supplements to their magazine.

Part I, entitled "The Birth of an Art," covered the early stage and literary career of Griffith and his subsequent association with the Biograph studio as an actor/director; followed by his involvement with the Mutual Company and their "potboilers." Subsequent sections included "The Art Triumphant; THE BIRTH OF A NATION (July 1945);" "The Art Triumphant: The Triangle Productions (August 1946);" "The Art Triumphant: INTOLERANCE (September 1946)" and "The Art Triumphant: HEARTS OF THE WORLD (May 1947)."

These indexes provided source material on the subject of Griffith that had previously been unavailable and in addition the concept of the 'biographical/creative index' was a truly innovative departure from the accepted avenues of cinema research and literature then current. These indexes on Griffith would serve as source material on David Wark Griffith for the next twenty years.